Gamers everywhere can't stop talking about the forthcoming Sony PS4 that promises to be something super-special. Particularly in light of the fact that ultra-competitor Xbox 720 from Microsoft should be in stores in the near future, the PS4 better be amazing. This is why Sony has opted for such features as PlayGo.
The PlayGo feature of the PS4 will allow users to start playing games that have been downloaded ... before they're even finished downloading. If this sounds both unrealistic and impractical — almost something out of a sci-fi story involving time travel — you're not alone in your confusion or outright incredulity.
Because the PlayGo feature of the forthcoming PS4 seems so weird and nearly impossible, we're delighted that Gamasutra has run a report on what happened when Sony's own Mark Cerny decided to delve into the very guts of the PS4 and let us all know exactly how PlayGo works.
Cerny knows what he's talking about when it comes to PlayGo and the PS4 alike, as he's Sony's lead system architect and "hardware wizard," in the words of VG 24/7.
In the interview with Gamasutra, Cerny reveals that only part of the game's data needs be downloaded via your PS4 in order to start playing it. While you're playing, the rest of the data from the Blu-ray disc will continue downloading the information you need to your PS4. No more waiting for the game to download entirely to play, which is a great thing for gamers who are busy enough with the challenges of the games themselves.
"So, what we do as the game accesses the Blu-ray disc, is we take any data that was accessed and we put it on the hard drive," Cerny says in the interview. "And then if there is idle time, we go ahead and copy the remaining data to the hard drive. And what that means is after an hour or two, the game is on the hard drive, and you have access, you have dramatically quicker loading... And you have the ability to do some truly high-speed streaming."
There's more specializing going on with the PS4 and such downloading efficacy, thanks to the system's supporting of zlib decompression, which first permits the compression of game data by developers and subsequently the PS4 to decode the data automatically. A second custom chip handles background downloads and puts the PS4 into "low-power mode," which VG 24/7 says makes the PS4 a more "green" device.
"We have the ability to turn off the main power in the system and just have power to that secondary custom chip, system memory, and I/O - hard drive, Ethernet," Cerny said. "So that allows background downloads to happen in a very low power scenario. We also have the ability to shut off everything except power to the RAMs, which is how we leave your game session suspended."
Are you looking forward to the PS4? What do you think about the PlayGo feature? Let us know in the comments below!
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