Sony has announced yesterday on their PlayStation blog that the company will be rolling out a preloading feature for all PlayStation 4 consoles in the U.S. With this, gamers who pre-order a game in the PlayStation Store will have their game already download to their system, even for games with a far-off release date. Once the game hits it’s street date, gamers will have instant access to the game.
Activision’s Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark will be the first game to venture into this newly implemented transaction system for Sony’s PlayStation 4 console, albeit as an example to help show off how the service works.
Gamers interested in taking ownership of the game before it’s June 24 release date can use this preloading tool and beginning downloading already. PlayStation 4 owners need to have their console in standby mode to ensure that their game received. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Destiny, Far Cry 4, and LittleBigPlanet 3 are just few of the many upcoming games that will be able to implement this feature. However, The Last of Us Remastered and other games that have been listed for pre-order before May 20 will not be available for preloading service.
“Also, if you’re the type that likes to know exactly how long until you can play, we’ve even included a countdown timer to let you know the moment you can start playing,” wrote Sony’s Digital Distribution Manager Chieh Chen.
With a week away before the feature launches, there are some unanswered questions and valid criticisms, such as the exact date on when the feature will be active and the fact that there may be no refund for pre-ordering a game that may end up getting canceled down the line. Sony entering the digital gaming pre-orders market is an admirable step in expanding its net for potential profit, but they certainly need to reestablish some processes if they want to compete with other companies that implement digital pre-orders. Steam is the biggest one of them all and probably the only one who has allowed for it’s customers to cancel their digital pre-orders for games on the fly.
We’ll be trying it out soon and see how things pan out.
