Modder/Hacker's Work Pushes Sony To Release Its Own PS4 Remote Play For PC App

from the push-it-real-good dept

Fri, Dec 4th 2015 2:13pm — Timothy Geigner

When we talk about the many, nearly universally positive impact that mods and modding communities have on software and gaming, including for the makers of the original products, we typically focus on those benefits that are achieved when the modding community is embraced. These benefits can include everything from extending the life of a game to extending the original game's universe into entirely new experiences and games, making the original more attractive to buyers. But a strong modding community can have positive effects even when the original producers are recalcitrant where they should be gung-ho in meeting customer demands.

Take the case of Sony and its remote play functionality for the Playstation 4. When the console was first released, one of the most interesting features of it was its ability to be played remotely with a pretty slick experience. This would allow gamers to take their gaming on the go everywhere from just another room in their homes to on the road in another state. Unfortunately, for reasons I cannot even come close to explaining, Sony decided to limit this functionality to owners of the PSP, the portable gaming device that Sony itself has done everything to murder in the marketplace, and Sony's smart-phone line, which has the kind of market share that should result in people losing their damned jobs. As this was going on, Microsoft's Xbox One, a console which Microsoft did everything it could at launch to make it as unattractive as possible, had life breathed back into it as Windows 10 included the option for users to stream Xbox games via the operating system. Gamers want game streaming. Microsoft provided a fairly wide-ranging solution. Sony didn't.

But someone else did. Modder Twisted, who long ago modded Sony's Playstation 4 Android app to allow it to work on any Android phone, has now done the same thing for the PC. After working on it for several years, Twisted is starting to release a PC version of his remote play application, finally allowing gamers to stream PS4 via remote play to their PCs. In a break from the norm, Twisted even announced that the PC app would need to be purchased, rather than given away. Even at that, the people rejoiced.

And Sony finally decided to listen to customers.

Some people asked if we plan to provide Remote Play function to PC, and yes, we are indeed working on an official application for PC/Mac. :D — Shuhei Yoshida (@yosp) November 27, 2015

Yoshida is the President of Sony's Worldwide Studios and the clamor over remote play for PCs was loud enough that he decided to say publicly that Sony was working on its own release. Would this be happening without Twisted's work? Please. One modder, even with some outside help, got this done after the better part of a year of development. Sony makes the Playstation 4, which was released two years ago. If it had wanted to embrace customer demand on its own, it would have done so long ago.

So, when you gamers out there are remote playing your PS4, make sure you give a mental note to Twisted and modding in general for pushing this along.

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Filed Under: hacking, innovation, modding, ps4, remote play
Companies: sony

12 Comments

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PRMan (profile), 4 Dec 2015 @ 2:20pm

I'm surprised
I thought for sure Twisted was going to join GeoHot on the PS hacker hall of sued...
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Dec 2015 @ 2:45pm

Wrong console
If it worked on the PSP, everyone would use it. It's the successor, the PS Vita, that sony has neglected
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Dec 2015 @ 3:38pm

Why are we calling him a 'hacker'? That doesn't make much sense in this context.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Dec 2015 @ 4:15pm

Re:
A "hacker" has many definitions, some of which have nothing to do with computers. So MIT probably one of the first who have used it to define elaborate pranks pulled off by the student body. While RFC 1392 defines it as someone with an intimate knowledge of usually computers and or networking. And of course there's the Hollywood persona of would the RFC would call a cracker, or someone who breaks into secure computer systems. Calling him a hacker under RFC would be appropriate, IMHO. He reverse engineered the protocol to stream games from the PS4 and wrote his own application that accepts those protocols. And in all honesty, this may have been him just sniffing traffic between his Vita and a PS4, which isn't really decompiling code, so perhaps not in a strict sense the definition Reverse Engineering. I.E. you aren't taking anything apart. Think of it this way, if someone is talking Esperanto to you, and you make a program to translate that to English are you breaking any laws? I would say no, but I would definitely call you a hacker for thinking up a crazy ass idea and having an intimate knowledge of languages.
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Anonymous Anonymous Coward, 4 Dec 2015 @ 5:25pm

Strategy
Sony only waits because they have an NSL that requires them to insure that PC's will behave like Kinect and record and transmit anything and everything within its area of operation.

In the long run each household will either be a Kinect house or a PSx house with the same purpose, surveillance. It won't matter in the end whether you have a console, PC, or some form of hand-held, they be gonna be listening and viewing when able, whether you like it or not. They want (as apposed to need) more haystacks.

And with the way the DOJ and its minions (ATF, FBI, DEA, etc., whatever) are behaving and judges, even higher level groups of judges are agreeing, Joe six-pack or sheeple, or whatever you wish to call us, have no chance. Suddenly all those wacko militias look reasonable.

So the choice becomes, can we do without our electronics, or can we get encrypted enough with ease of use at the 'Joe six-pack or sheeple' level so that haystacks are hampered. Then the question becomes, is that enough? Then the question becomes, OK, these are defensive, what is offense? Will militias be needed? Etc.?

For those of you who think my tin foil hat is too tightly wound, I invite you to take a step back. Take a helicopter ride and look at the forest. Look at the trends. Are things going in the peoples favor, or the other way? Is there anything working in our favor (I give credit to those few congresscritters who push back, but they are significantly outnumbered)? Separation of powers is loosing it's ability to impact out of control entities. The constitution is considered and nice historical document of not much import, and a touch expensive in the toilet tissue scenario, it's historical you know.

It has become clear that the Military-Industrial-Intelligience-Government complex no longer cares what we think, and they will continue to implement their one step at a time subversion of individual rights until they have absolute control over everyone and everything.

The thing I can't quite figure out is why. Power is one thing, but kind of empty unless you get to exercise 'your' power, and that will get more and more difficult for the mid-level bureaucrat as those at the top consolidate. They just cannot see that yet. Money is another possibility, wealth is certainly a seductive motivation, but what happens when the world's economy crashes and money is no longer worth what one thought it was. Think about all those government printing presses creating piles and piles of...nothing. What happens when other governments realize this?

OK, I am a reasonable person and I will get off my soapbox, for the moment, but...............

Also, waiting for the you know who to come looking for me, and I wish them luck, but in the long run, other than being good at taking helicopter rides and looking back at the forest to see the trees I am no threat. Then again, the simple act of raising awareness is a threat to...them.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Dec 2015 @ 6:15pm

Now we need a hacker to restore Backwards Compatability to the PS4 and PS3 Slim. Then the PS4 will have driven the final nail into the Xbone Coffin
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t3rminus (profile), 4 Dec 2015 @ 7:43pm

Re:
The only way that will work is for Sony to do what Microsoft did, and release new game binaries as part of an update, while still loading the models/textures/music/videos (etc) off the disk.

This would mean that (like the XBox One), any backwards compatibility that could be achieved would be limited to a select few (likely only popular) games of Sony's choosing, and given Sony's track record, may not even be free.

The reason being is that Sony gambled on a wildly different and unique CPU architecture for the PS3, one that didn't really pay off, and one that has come back to haunt them many times. The PS4 is closer to the XBox 360 than it is to the PS3.
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Anonymous Coward, 5 Dec 2015 @ 6:29am

Why anyone would invest their hard earned money with this crew is beyond me. To think I once recommended their products, ugh. What goes around comes around, I hope they have learned their lesson, but I doubt it.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Dec 2015 @ 12:12am

because he has managed to make "propietary" software and hardware to work in un-good wayz and
activated non-authorized features?
and shared it to the sheeple?

everything above is clearly "ilegal" and he is risking getting legally punished like Jon Lech Johansen, George Hotz, Aaron Swartz, etc
or even suicided, depending the breed of dobermann/predator/ they choose to send after him?
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Dec 2015 @ 12:14am

Re:
hacking a tamagotchi can easily get you (by accident) in the nailgun/boston brakes list these days...
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Dec 2015 @ 12:16am

Re: Re:
or even on the "trrrist" /no fly /no gun /"harrash this guy" list
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ps vita gamer, 25 Feb 2016 @ 11:14am

i am surprised vita is right console and it deserves it
ps vita is right console because thousand of people use ps vita but but they all don't
have ps4 to play biggest with remote play but pc is very important thing for work for every thing i mean that everyone have pc half world is using pc.
so every can play biggest games.
its because they didn't say we are removing ps4 remoteplay.
so we can remoteplay in every console
PS VITA IS BEST IN ALL PORTABLE GAMING CONSOLE
BECAUSE IAM USING IT
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