Compare and contrast XBox One and PlayStation 4 from the user perspective

[goonergaz]

That's really rubbish. A huge step back from PS3's openness. Do you have to be online to play these download games on another machine? I suppose they could have an optional online permission aspect to enable games on consoles (let's say same IP address to prevent game sharing).

How does XB1 currently handle multiple consoles+multiple users? AFAIK there's been no progress on the original, abandoned game-sharing policy.

The PS3 setup was perfect - apparently the PS4 setup is much like X360. The 'advantage' of the system is that you can access all your games on any PS4 so I could visit a freind, d/l one of my games and saves - play and then when I get home continue.

Not sure why I couldn't do this on PS3 :S

And to answer 'how many PS4s do you need?' I would say that I don't need many 'today' but I ended up with 3 PS3s in the house and that was a pain at times (one in front room, one in bedroom and one in kids room). I presonally think the PS3 system had a better 'balance', 5 was too many and 2 allows people with more to at least have a little flexability when switching which console they use whereas with PS4 it's every time AFAIK.

 

[iroboto]

That's really rubbish. A huge step back from PS3's openness. Do you have to be online to play these download games on another machine? I suppose they could have an optional online permission aspect to enable games on consoles (let's say same IP address to prevent game sharing).

How does XB1 currently handle multiple consoles+multiple users? AFAIK there's been no progress on the original, abandoned game-sharing policy.

You can designate 1 console as your home console, and any console you log into shares your privileges as well as your home console.

So it's a bit of work, but essentially if you are always using the basement console and another family member is using the one upstairs - then you should make the home console the upstairs and always log into the basement and your family member would do the reverse and you would have a permanent share of both your accounts.

You could also do this online (so if I have a brother or family member in another country, we could perform this exchange), but changing where your home console is limited to so many times a year IIRC.

As for just showing up at another person's house who also has a X1. As long as I am logged in, all my download and games and my gold account will transfer there. I can download them and play them on that machine as long as I'm logged in, and so can anyone else as long as they are logged in with me.

They wont' be able to play it once I log off however.

You don't need to be online IIRC, but I haven't tried this is a while.

I'll search around because I think I might be wrong.

I think this is it: http://www.wpcentral.com/microsoft-announces-home-gold-xbox-one-enables-sharing-games-and-benefits

But we'll need to look carefully through the language to make sure we're not getting it wrong.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

The problem is for someone like me (with kids) my understanding is that if I had 2 PS4s I'd be forever 'juggling' which is the main PS4. And if some kids want to play on PS4a and others on PS4b we are stuffed. BTW deathindustrial, PS3 had auto-updates, you just needed PS+

One of is not understanding the other. If you have two PS4s you can play everything on both. You set one as your primary console and login on the second using the account which digital purchases were made. You're now logged in on both. It's not like you need to keep re-downloading anything, everything will stay downloaded on the second PS4.

What am I missing?

Naturally if you add a third PS4 you can't play on all three simultaneously but you can still play on two, the primary PS4 and one of the other two into which you're logged in.

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[FarticusMaximus]

How does XB1 currently handle multiple consoles+multiple users? AFAIK there's been no progress on the original, abandoned game-sharing policy.

X1 handles 2 console sharing almost perfectly.

Two people set the other's console as their home console, and you have full access to everything on your and your share partners accounts whether you are logged in or not.

I have this set up with a friend. We have a deal where we take it in turns to buy games from our approved shared game wishlist. It's saving us a small fortune and allowing us to go fully digital as a bonus.

The 'almost' part in almost perfect is that there is one small flaw: Smartglass/website initiated downloads go to your home console, i.e. the other person's. It means you have to download games from the console. A minor inconvenience massively outweighed by the benefits.

 

[DrJay24]

I have this set up with a friend. We have a deal where we take it in turns to buy games from our approved shared game wishlist. It's saving us a small fortune and allowing us to go fully digital as a bonus.

This is probably what Sony and all publishers want to avoid.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

X1 handles 2 console sharing almost perfectly.

Two people set the other's console as their home console, and you have full access to everything on your and your share partners accounts whether you are logged in or not.

You can do the same thing with two PS4s. For example suppose Nesh and I want to game the system.

He sets his 'Primary' console as my PS4 in my house so everything he buys downloads to the console in my house, which PSN considers his. Because PSN thinks it's Nesh's console and I am a guest I can play anything in his library (without him being logged in) plus anything I have bought using my account - because you can play any game you own on any PS4.

We do the same with his PS4 in reverse.

 

[deathindustrial]

@DSoup - that only works if you never plan to have another account on your local PS4 and you are absolutely cool with Nesh having complete control over your PSN account (i.e. he can buy stuff using your account, his cloud saves will overwrite your cloud saves, get you banned, etc.) If you had a wife or kids this plan would not work unless you also want them playing under your account.

If my wife is playing Minecraft in the frontroom (under her account so she has her own saves, own world), she cannot continue that game later on in the bedroom unless she buys a second copy of the game. On the PS3 we could.

Cheers

 

[Deleted member 11852]

@DSoup - that only works if you never plan to have another account on your local PS4 and you are absolutely cool with Nesh having complete control over your PSN account (i.e. he can buy stuff using your account, his cloud saves will overwrite your cloud saves, get you banned, etc.) If you had a wife or kids this plan would not work unless you also want them playing under your account.

Ah, I see yes. If you're already taking advantage of account sharing (by virtual of accounts for wife and kids) then yes the exploit is harder to make work.

But in the exploit situation above you don't have to give complete control over your account to the other person, only once initially so each person logs into their PS4 as the other person and sets the Primary account. After that, change passwords, add credit cards and everything should work seamlessly. Saves will go to the cloud account of the person logged in, not the owner of the console - this is the point of cloud saves and allowing anybody to log into any PS4.

If my wife is playing Minecraft in the frontroom (under her account so she has her own saves, own world), she cannot continue that game later on in the bedroom unless she buys a second copy of the game. On the PS3 we could.

If it's not on her account, no. If nobody is using that PS4 when she's in the bedroom then a PlayStation TV could be a solution - she's technically logged into your living room PS4 but it's streamed to the bedroom. But if you're wanting multiple PS4's to be used simultaneously for different people then no.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

X1 handles 2 console sharing almost perfectly.

Okay, so similar to PS3. PS3 didn't need any priority console to share content - just the existence of the account on the PS3, and each game was licensed to up to two PS3s with the licenses fully transferable. It's odd that this was changed. I guess it was still exploited enough that Sony wanted to limit it.

If my wife is playing Minecraft in the frontroom (under her account so she has her own saves, own world), she cannot continue that game later on in the bedroom unless she buys a second copy of the game. On the PS3 we could.

That's pretty unacceptable and a huge step backwards. In comparison, Android let's you have a zillion devices all accessing the same content. Though I don't know how it handles content sharing.

I suppose there are two issues with licensing. Do you license for a machine, and anyone using that machine can play the game, or do you license per user? The latter wouldn't go down any better than the idea of having to individually pay to watch a movie (that MS patent using Kinect IIRC), so games have to be licensed per machine. Ergo, the solution has to revolve around multiple licensings for users. In your case, you'd want your wife to have a license to play content on your PS4, and that to extend to other PS4s that she logs in to. For you, an online check that the second PS4 is in your home and not somewhere else sounds like an acceptable solution. Without an online check, it'll be hard to secure against cheats.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

That's pretty unacceptable and a huge step backwards. In comparison, Android let's you have a zillion devices all accessing the same content. Though I don't know how it handles content sharing.

So does iOS but it has no concept of user accounts or multiple user logins. I can pass my iPhone/iPad to a friend, they can log into GameCentre (crude equivalent of Live/PSN) and game away.

I suppose there are two issues with licensing. Do you license for a machine, and anyone using that machine can play the game, or do you license per user?

Sony have tried to do both. The primary console, which I guess Sony envisage being the console in the living room connected to the TV, can be used by anybody - just like consoles of old. By the owner/account holder of purchased content or anybody else with physical (or remote Vita) access.

In addition, anybody with access to the account through which purchases were made can play those games on any PS4 anywhere.

For deathindustrial the PS3 approach was better but for me the PS4 approach is better. My girlfriend and I have separate PSN accounts and purchase software independently, for the most part. Our PS4 is designated as the Primary console for each of our PSN accounts so we can each play everything on our PS4. We only need one PS+ sub and can both access our purhased content from any other PS4.

 

[goonergaz]

One of is not understanding the other. If you have two PS4s you can play everything on both. You set one as your primary console and login on the second using the account which digital purchases were made. You're now logged in on both. It's not like you need to keep re-downloading anything, everything will stay downloaded on the second PS4.

What am I missing?

Naturally if you add a third PS4 you can't play on all three simultaneously but you can still play on two, the primary PS4 and one of the other two into which you're logged in.

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My understanding is that only I (or my account) can play my games on the '2nd' PS4.

As I said, if 2 of my kids want to play on the 2 PS4s (with their own accounts) they can't - one would have to be signed in as me.

That is my understanding - I may be wrong (in fact I hope I am).

Note to self - read all posts before replying! deathindustrial put it perfectly

 

[goonergaz]

X1 handles 2 console sharing almost perfectly.

Two people set the other's console as their home console, and you have full access to everything on your and your share partners accounts whether you are logged in or not.

This is how PS3 used to be (and PS4 should be).

 

[orangpelupa]

on PS3 the game can active in 2 to 5 consoles. while in PS4, sony cut them to 1 consoles.
basically it ruined my plan to go digital-only and pool money with friends

so at most, now you can have 1 active console and 1 guest console (your account must logged in).

 

[goonergaz]

For deathindustrial the PS3 approach was better but for me the PS4 approach is better. My girlfriend and I have separate PSN accounts and purchase software independently, for the most part. Our PS4 is designated as the Primary console for each of our PSN accounts so we can each play everything on our PS4. We only need one PS+ sub and can both access our purhased content from any other PS4.

I'm confused - in what way is the PS4 system better? Please give me an example of something you can do with the PS4 system that you can't do on the PS3 system because I can't think of anything.

 

[goonergaz]

so at most, now you can have 1 active console and 1 guest console (your account must logged in).

hhhmmm...just a thought, can you be 'logged in' but not the person playing (as PS4 allows multiple log-ins)?

example:

child1 logs into PS4a
I log into PS4b but switch the user to child2

Can child2 access all my games? If yes then I'm happy lol

 

[orangpelupa]

yes you can, just set one of that PS4 as "active" ps4.

 

[goonergaz]

yes you can, just set one of that PS4 as "active" ps4.

ah ok, so a bit of a fudge work-around so not so bad after all - as long as 2 kids can play my games at the same time it's good enough for me

Thanks!

 

[orangpelupa]

ah ok, so a bit of a fudge work-around so not so bad after all - as long as 2 kids can play my games at the same time it's good enough for me

Thanks!

but not all content support that sharing, you can make sure it by reading the content description in PSN store. Usually its right under the game description/synopsis.

 

[goonergaz]

but not all content support that sharing, you can make sure it by reading the content description in PSN store. Usually its right under the game description/synopsis.

What!? Why would it change from game to game!? How can I tell the difference - got any examples!? (sorry for all the Qs!!)

 

[Deleted member 11852]

I'm confused - in what way is the PS4 system better? Please give me an example of something you can do with the PS4 system that you can't do on the PS3 system because I can't think of anything.

Access our content from any PS4. They're getting more common in hotels, particularly in the UAE. I've had hotel rooms both in Dubai and Abu Dhabi with PS4 consoles. No need to rent games from the hotel, just login, download games over stupidly fast internet and game on.