New rumors have run fast and rampant that the PlayStation 4 could finally get official DLNA sometime as soon as 2015. This could be a huge boon for the media capabilities of Sony's fourth generation home console, as DLNA support has been a long-requested feature for Sony's new device.
According to Gearnuke, a verified employee from Sony took to the PlayStation 4 subreddit on Reddit and answered some questions about some upcoming features for the PS4. Quite naturally, several people asked about the obvious choices about the PS4, including the ability to easily and efficiently stream content from verified media devices, enabling users to watch movies, listen to music or view video content on their PS4 with a few simple button presses.
According to the Sony employee, who goes by the handle of iWorkForSony, he stated that...
“I’d say early 2015 for DLNA.“MP3 and Video Players by the Holiday season (MP3 maybe sooner)”
For those of you who don't know, it is possible to stream media content to your PlayStation 4, just not easily or as conveniently as you may have hoped. We have a guide here at Gaming Blend explaining how to stream media from your PC to your PS4. It's not as convenient as you might hope, and it also involves a third-party software application called Plex, but it does enable you to at least watch movies on your PlayStation 4 that you already have on your PC, or other devices that can make use of the Plex app.
What's more is that Sony will allegedly be upgrading the PS Mobile App, giving it a facelift to fit the needs of the community. According to the Sony employee...
“There’s a redesign in the works. It should be more functional and modern (read: less cheesy blue boxes)”
This is good news for anyone who actually uses the mobile app. However, there is bad news for anyone who plans to utilize PlayStation Now but they currently have a PS3. Why? Well, your games will not carry over, not according to the Sony employee anyway...
Slightly Mad Studios and Bandai Namco Games have been working hard to promote Project CARS, spending plenty of time at media events and trade-shows to get the game up and out there for public viewing. The latest trailer features seven minutes of gameplay from the PS4 version, and you get see how well the DualShock 4 handles in a game like this.
“Those rumors are wrong. Entitlements for PS3 games won’t carry over to PS Now.”
That's rather unfortunate.
For now, a lot of gamers aren't very happy with the prices of PlayStation Now given that everything seems terribly expensive at the moment. However, cloud-gaming (or cloud-streaming) is an extremely expensive venture no matter how you cut it, and in order for Sony to profit from the service someone will have to foot the bill, sadly gamers are the ones who will have to foot that bill until another way can be found to bring down the prices due to the costs of streaming full games digitally.
Even if the Reddit user is a verified Sony employee, there's no telling if what he's saying will stick or will hold veracity. For now we at least have an idea and a window as to what we can expect from the roadmap of Sony PlayStation services.
