PS5 screen share is the social gaming feature you never knew you needed

Date:
Sat, 12 Mar 2022 13:00:00 +0000

Description:
PS5 screen share is a somewhat understated feature thats well worth checking out among your friends.

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The PS5 has been an excellent console ever since its debut in late 2020, but to say thats solely down to the number of high-quality exclusives available
on Sonys flagship console would actually be doing it a disservice. The PS5s loaded with great games, sure, but its also got a handful of brilliant features to augment your time with any game.

Whether that be the Activity Cards that draw your attention to certain elements of a game, its Trophies, or the DualSense wireless controller s phenomenal haptic feedback and adaptive triggers, the PS5 by and large has
set itself apart as a premium gaming experience well worth its price (and the time investment needed to actually track down stock of the elusive console).

But theres one feature in particular that has exponentially added to my enjoyment of some games of late, and its one I honestly had no idea was an arrow in the PS5s quiver until very recently. That feature is screen sharing.

Admittedly, the concept of PS5 screen share isnt anything that sounds particularly groundbreaking, nor would it necessarily turn heads if Sony itself brought more attention to it. But what Ive found when using PS5 screen share is that it can turn even single-player games into a more social experience. Progressing together (Image credit: Shutterstock / eight7sixJOE)

Ill give you the first big example that really sold me on PS5 screen share, and it came shortly after the release of Gran Turismo 7 . That game in itself has a few features that work much better than they sound, such as its excellent DualSense motion controls . But as myself and a friend were
grinding our way through the utterly brutal Licence Centre, aiming for Gold
on each and every challenge, he suggested we try loading up the screen share feature so that we could keep an eye on each others progress.

Using the PS5 screen shares picture-in-picture mode, which overlays a small window featuring my friends screen on top of my own, we were both able to progress through GT7s Licence Centre challenges while keeping an eye on how the other was getting on. The result was a genuinely game-changing experience that had us both laughing at each others failed attempts, as well as egging each other on to shave precious milliseconds off of our best times.

And thats when it struck me. What the PS5 screen share feature had
effectively achieved is to turn whats normally a single-player game mode into something akin to a multiplayer experience. Sure, we werent directly interacting with each others games; we werent racing on the same track on the same multiplayer session. But we were actively participating in each others play sessions through this shared viewing. It's like livestreaming, but... (Image credit: Polyphony Digital)

Of course, the concept of watching anothers gameplay online certainly isnt anything new. Live broadcast sites like Twitch and YouTube Gaming have been around for over a decade now, where potentially thousands of viewers can tune into a single streamer and create a unique social environment thats difficult to replicate anywhere else.

PS5 screen sharing isnt quite that, though. Its something I found to be a bit more intimate, and a whole lot more interactive as a result. Thats because
the viewing experience isnt a one-way lane. Or at least, it doesnt have to
be. While you can view a buddys gameplay by bumping up the screen share view to full-screen, it was the superb picture-in-picture mode that allowed the
two of us to play and watch at the same time.

Thats not to say the experience was entirely seamless. Video quality would vary quite frequently over a Wi-Fi connection, and sometimes the screen share feature would randomly close completely, forcing us both to set up screen sharing from scratch. Thankfully the setup process couldnt be easier, but it was frustrating to occasionally have to restart screen sharing whenever it decided it didnt want to work anymore.

PS5 screen share also isnt without its limitations. You can only share your screen if youre in-game and outside of content that prevents the use of the tool (such as a cutscene or terms and conditions pages). Its unfortunate, but you understandably cant use PS5 screen share for apps like Netflix , Disney Plus , YouTube, or other streaming services that host subscription-based content. A whole new way to play? (Image credit: Sony)

Ultimately, Ive walked away from my time with PS5 screen share believing its
a genuinely fantastic feature on Sonys flagship console, but only because its possible we were using it in a way that wasnt necessarily intended.

It may very well be a quirk of the feature that both myself and my friend
were able to stream our screens simultaneously. But in doing so, wed transformed an often mind-breakingly frustrating segment of GT7 into
something that amused us for hours.

Id love to try out PS5 screen share for a range of different games, just to see how it impacts my approach to playing them. Whether that be challenging a friend to racing up the endless tower in the new Returnal update, or
competing to be the first to beat certain combo missions in The King of Fighters 15.

Its definitely a feature Ill be telling more friends about, and may even manage to breathe some new life into games we havent played on our PS5s for quite some time. I played PS5 on a 4K gaming projector and it blew me away



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/ps5-screen-share-is-the-social-gaming-feature-y ou-never-knew-you-needed/


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