If you’ve ever wanted to play a console
game on your phone, you’re in luck. Today, Sony announced two new Xperia
smartphones with the ability to use the PS4′s Remote Play
feature. Of course, you won’t be expected to swipe and tap to simulate a
controller on a touchscreen. Instead, Sony is shipping a device that
will attach your phone to a full-fledged DualShock 4. With that in mind,
this might just be the best mobile game streaming device we’ve ever
seen.
The 5.2-inch Xperia Z3 and 4.6-inch Xperia Z3 Compact will both support
Remote Play and Sony’s Game Control Mount attachment. Geek.com’s Russell
Holly got a hands-on demo this morning, and he was able to give me some
insight into the device itself. Apparently, the PlayStation app is
featured prominently on the main screen, and still offers the same
functionality we’ve come to expect over the last year of its existence. A
Sony representative explained that the Remote Play performance will be
identical to the experience on the Vita, so you can expect most games to
function well provided that you have a decent WiFi connection.
Game Mount In order to play PS4 games on your smartphone, you’ll need to
pair it to a DualShock 4. Based on Sony’s own product shots, it appears
that the controller will be connected to the phone over Bluetooth �"
not USB. While this solution is certainly less portable than a Vita, it
is superior in one important aspect: the controls. The Vita doesn’t have
enough buttons to replicate the PS4 experience, so you end up mapping
buttons to the touchscreen and rear touchpad of the device. It works,
but it’s clunky. With an Xperia Z3 paired to a DualShock 4, you’ll get
full-fledged native control.
Considering that the Vita itself has Bluetooth support, it wouldn’t be
surprising to see Sony patch in controller support as well. Similarly,
the PlayStation app on iOS and generic Android devices could potentially
offer similar functionality in the future. Sony wants to bring the
PlayStation brand everywhere, and it’s doing a bang-up job. PlayStation
Now and Remote Play are being developed for a wide variety of hardware,
and the PlayStation TV will offer those features at a rock-bottom price.
Over at Microsoft, we still haven’t heard a peep. About a year ago,
there were significant rumblings that Microsoft was developing its own
streaming solution, but nothing has come of that as of yet. On the PC,
the Nvidia Shield hasn’t exactly set the world on fire, so Sony is out
to a commanding lead in mindshare and marketshare for game streaming.
While the Xperia Z3 itself isn’t going to change the landscape of
gaming, this is a significant step towards making game streaming
completely ubiquitous. It’s just a shame that Sony’s competition seems
so far behind.