PS4 Rumors: Dualshock 4 Share Button Disabling Explained
The PS4 gaming console was unveiled earlier this year and it features the Dualshock 4 controller, which comes equipped with the new "Share" button.
This "Share" button allows players to broadcast their gameplay to others on the PlayStation network. However, developers can disable this option at times when they don't want the player to share a certain part of their game that might give too much away, according to Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida.
"There will be parts of a game that the maker does not want people to be able to see," said Yoshida in an interview with Japanese game site 4Gamer. "For example, on Vita, developers can in certain scenes disable the feature that lets users take a screenshot, and (the Share function) will have a similer mechanism. The creator may not want to make video of the final boss sharable, for instance."
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The interview also reveals the origins of this share button.
"We were trying to think of a way to make it easier for users to upload video," said Yoshida. "And one day a member of our in-house production team just said, 'How about a Share button? We called out in unison, 'That's it!"
Another aspect leading to Yoshida developing the idea was his addiction to the game "Dark Souls." He would constantly watch videos online of others playing the game since he did not have enough time to play it himself.
"I wanted to play 'Dark Souls' all day long, but I couldn't do that because I was too busy. So instead I would watch people playing it live on Niconico whenever I had some spare time. By doing that, you can find other ways to play the game and read comments by other users. I felt that sharing videos is a really important part of enjoying games," he said.
