Pre-loading content is coming to the PS4 in April – Already possible with PS Vita?
Preloading content is already a known thing. Steam does it, and a few other online stores do it too, but can the PSN offer this? The answer is yes.
Very soon it will be possible to pre-load content via the Playstation 4, so you are able to play the game as soon as possible, instead of downloading the 20GB of game data the day it is officially available and therefore wasting a few hours that you could be playing your new title!
The developers from *** Punch, known for titles like inFamous Second Son and others, now confirmed that preloading will come to the PS4 this April.
If this will be added via a PSN Store maintenance or via a new PS4 firmware update, which was already confirmed to be released soon, is currently not known, but there is proof that said preloading is already possible with the Playstation Vita.
If we take a closer look at this picture (which is unfortunally in german, I am sorry for this) we can see that it says that it says that the estimated date of availability is the 18th march 2014, while the estimated date for an automatic download of said content is the 20th march 2014. But how did someone trigger this pop-up?
Well, a good friend of mine, KanadeEngel, got a promotional version of Final Fantasy X-2 HD remaster as a PSN code and showed me these screenshots.
He said that this banner appeared and was a bit surprised that he had to wait for playing the game. To his surprise, the PS Vita began to download content even though it said that he would have to wait until the content becomes available.
Source via KingX.de
Whoa… that’s actually rlly cool if sony does this with all the games.
Like, 1st you download the game, but no licence.
then on release you download the licence (bound to ur account so no pirating) and play instantly! 😀
no need to download a license separately.
they can attach expiration and starting dates to files, so in the information page(on the vita at least) for a game it will show “starts ( date-time )”
the FFX “collection” was a preloadable pre-order, I downloaded it the 19th but had to wait until the 21st before the games would start.
Nah !!! anti piracy i play game offline im not wasted my money of that shitttt…. if you want to play release of sony you need fast internet so that you can play smoothly…
Sony really working hard 🙂
Yeah it already work on Vita, had a few games I preoredered and downloaded a week ahead but could not start before the release date. Same applies for PS3.
However for PS4 thats not the case, example they did not release the download files for inFamous before well some hour ago.
I can confirm it working on the Vita, (live in Belgium (EU) if it makes any diffrence), I pre-ordered the FFX/FFX-2 HD remasters on Vita and I could download both games fully to the vita the day before release here (20/03/2014), I tried setting the internal clock a day forward and messing a bit with the settings without wifi being on, but I could not start the game.
If you clicked more info on the FFX/X-2 icon it said start date: 21/03/2014 @ 24:00, so this morning on the train I loaded up FFX without being connected to the internet and…viola…it worked!
Second son is instantly playable although it is a 21gb install (collectors edition disc)
Okay….. I should have let the info sink in that I just read. My comment made absolutely no sense whatsoever, however, if anyone was wondering; now they know. Ive been awake 28 hours is my excuse.
I wonder how do they make sure that it doesn’t accidentally unlock before release date. Does it download an additional amount on the actual release date, like a really small amount like a kilobyte just so you can’t officially play it?
That’d be really interesting to know. I can already see the future where someone finds a way to unlock them prematurely.
based on how the PS3 did it, the licence file (which is encrypted) has a field for the licence start time.
If it does use something similar to the ps3 license file, it would have fields for license start time (like with preorders) and license end time (like with PS+ games, the license is valid for as long as your account is)
At the time of downloading the files, input the current (server!) time.
Then calculate how much time has to pass until it gets unlocked.
Changing the date wont do anything, the time has to pass in real time.
That would be my idea.
lol, “***” from “*** punch” is censored