5 Ways the PS4 Can Improve in 2018

Give Us Actual Release Dates

There’s no denying that Sony’s PS4 is still leading the video game market in terms of eighth generation console sales. At the moment the machine is responsible for generating over 70 million purchases, making it by far the most popular device used to play games around the world. When all is said and done Sony sure has a lot to congratulate itself for, given how shaky the PS3’s launch was and the portable letdown that was the Vita. This being said, there’s still plenty the company can do to win over even more console benefactors in the future and appease hardcore audiences well enough to convince them that there’s really no point in jumping ship.

One of this year’s biggest disappointments in the realm of PlayStation was the lack of any real release dates for highly anticipated exclusive titles on the platform. Spider-Man, Detroit: Become Human, God of War, Days Gone, The Last of Us Part II, and even Death Stranding all turned up at Sony’s events and various media showcases this year, yet none were offered to us with a clear sign as to when exactly they will release.

It’s true that God of War, Detroit, Days Gone, and Spider-Man all have blanket release windows of “TBD 2018” and a recent leak may have suggested that God of War will release in March, but is that all fans really have considering the fact that 2017 is already at an end? Though we don’t want to be disappointed when a game is delayed and this is a good way to avoid the backlash, giving a firm release date is a sign that shows that publisher Sony and its various developers are confident in what they’re delivering to the fans.

Improve PlayStation Plus Offerings

PlayStation Plus in 2017 was a mixed bag. Hits like Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Life is Strange, Until Dawn, Just Cause 3, and Infamous: Second Son were juxtaposed against unpopular titles like Tearaway Unfolded, Disc Jam, and Worms Battlegrounds. There’s also Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends to consider, which didn’t really end the year on the right note.

Fans now should be experiencing something akin to what the Plus community experienced back in the PS3 era, as titles like BioShock Infinite were likely to show up given how the console was midway through its life cycle. Now that the PS4 is halfway through its stay on the market, it needs to start delivering on the promise of hit after hit like in the early days of the service.

Titles like Killzone Shadow Fall (in North America), The Last Guardian, and even Horizon Zero Dawn all have potential to be on Plus should Sony be generous enough to allow its subscribers the privilege. Some may argue that the real draw of having a console is in its exclusives. It’s time to step up the Plus game to prove a point, lest more market share is lost to the ever-encroaching PC gaming sphere.

Improve User Interface and Sharing Capabilities

The PlayStation Store and PSN have definitely improved since the days of their inception. Whether due to the increased incentive Sony has to keep the services up to snuff given how PS Plus is mandatory to play online now, there are less outages and less extended periods of time needed for maintenance. This being said, there are still some flaws in how each is designed that for some reason Sony has overlooked.

As it stands when accessed through a standard PS4, the PlayStation Store still feels antiquated in terms of accessibility. Certain categories lack the specific search criteria found on the Store’s internet browser component and users are prohibited from purchasing anything outside of PS4 goods. Should you have both a PS3 and a PS Vita, you’ll have to either go on each machine’s respective iteration of the Store or access all of the platforms via internet browser to purchase the goods you want across each respective platform. The general game search function is also a bit outdated, as it has users spell out a title’s name through a series of lettered rows instead of just letting people use a digital keyboard to get the job done. The PlayStation Store just still isn’t intuitive enough yet.

Sharing capabilities can be improved to allow users more freedom as to what they want to do with their in-game screenshots or videos. Posting on Instagram or Twitter, for instance, shouldn’t be as complicated a process as it is (you have to save your image onto a USB, then work from there), not to mention that the inclusion of email sending should be a no-brainer.

There’s also the option to change PSN usernames to consider, which Sony Interactive Entertainment America CEO Shawn Layden hinted at during PSX this year. Hopefully his suggestion that the option does come within the next year turns out to be true.

Give Us More Reason to Care About PSVR

According to Sony, PSVR’s “best is yet to come.”  Though the device surpassed 1 million units in June this year, making it the best-selling virtual reality headset on the market today, and released great titles in the form of Farpoint and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, just what exactly does the peripheral have in store for next year to keep us invested and excited about the future of VR?

The answer to that question is more or less just as clear as the release dates to the PS4’s upcoming line of exclusives. There’s adventure platformer Moss, the John Woo-inspired Blood & Truth, and the mysterious Star Child to look forward to, but none of these titles scream must-buy in the vein that Farpoint and the latest Resident Evil did. Ultimately, next year will prove whether PSVR is a passing fad or here to stay. Here’s hoping that Sony has a plan to continually reinvigorate it as 2018 rolls out.

Give Us Cross-Platform Play

Admittedly it’s perhaps just as likely that 2018 will see the inclusion of cross-platform play between Sony’s PS4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One as it is likely that either competitor will drop out of the console market anytime soon. Time and time again, developers, like those responsible for Rocket League or Ark: Survival Evolved, have explained how Sony has inhibited them from enabling cross-platform play between consoles. The Head of Global Sales and Marketing for PlayStation, Jim Ryan, even went on record to state that by cutting off interaction with competitors, PlayStation is protecting its user base, particularly children.

Yet despite what the official voice of reason says, it seems as though the general consensus thinks that cross-platform play is more beneficial to users across systems as opposed to relegating player bases to respective consoles. There are technical limitations to overcome, sure, not to mention the fact that PC players may have an unfair advantage when it comes to control accuracy and hardware, but the possibility is very real and has even been proven to work already through a mistake developer Epic Games made recently with Fortnite.

It remains to be seen whether or not the looming PC gaming market will force Sony to think against its predisposed doctrine as soon as in the year 2018, though overwhelming fan outcry may make the manufacturer change its line of thinking sooner.