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Updates bringing new features to Xbox One, PS4 soon

Both Microsoft and Sony have plans for their consoles that will roll out in the coming months by way of dashboard/interface updates. I’m most excited for Sony’s Share Play that will let my friends play games that they don’t own with me without having to download anything on their end.

Here are the deets:

Sony plans to:

  • Add a YouTube app
  • Provide a more detailed view of what your friends are doing via real-time activity updates in the What’s New section
  • Let you upload captured videos to your YouTube channel in addition to Facebook
  • Let gamers share games and play multiplayer with friends via a downl0ad-less streaming feature called Share Play

Microsoft is adding:

  • A new media player app that will let the Xbox One play music and movies from various sources, including USB storage devices and stores on your home network. Full DLNA support will follow later
  • A new “Friends” section that lets you see at a glance what’s going on with your online mates, including recent activities and a gamerscore leaderboard
  • A “Snap Center” that gathers together achievements, messages, friends and parties into a single area that’s easily accessible while you game
  • Threaded messages that arrange interactions with your friends in a more organised fashion

Microsoft plans more than just these, but they are to do with the Xbox One’s TV-friendly features that may not be particularly relevant to local Xbox One gamers, as it’s not yet clear how much use we’ll get from them.

If you’d like to see host Graeme Boyd and Ashleigh Speicher, principle development manager for Xbox talking about it all, watch the video below:

Sony’s Share Play sounds fantastic, but that too has a question mark over it as it relies on streaming quite a lot of data via the internet. South Africa’s connectivity situation is still lagging quite far behind that of the rest of the world (our average connection is just 5.7mbps according to NetIndex compared to the global average of 19.6mbps) which could mean a less-than-perfect experience for us locals.

Still, these are welcome announcements. Both updates will roll out to consoles in the next few months, but neither Sony nor Microsoft would commit to a specific date.

[Sources – Ars Technica, Xbox Wire]

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