Remember Twitter Events from Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 2? When reviewers got their hands on pre-release copies of the game they were suddenly sending out tremendous amounts of Tweets about the game. Everything from when a chapter was completed, when they connected to multiplayer, when they earned a trophy or reached a level milestone. And while the option had to be enabled none of them probably expected to be Tweeting out things several times an hour.
After receiving withering criticism Naughty Dog disabled the Twitter option before quietly dropping it entirely from the game.
Imagine what will happen when every activity on the PlayStation 4 has access to your Twitter and Facebook feed with the touch of button on the DualShock 4 innocuously labeled ‘Share.’ Completed the tutorial? Share it. Earned a trophy with a saucy name? Share it. Downloaded the demo for a crappy movie tie in, like Star Trek: The Video Game? Share it.
While I don’t know if the last thing will be an option, it’s not that hard to imagine Sony extending the share option to things besides just games. And with both Sony and Microsoft trying to position their respective consoles as entertainment centers that happen to play games, how long before the option to ‘Share’ an ad you just watched in exchange for some in-game trifle? I’m going to go ahead and say it won’t be long.
But maybe it won’t suck, you say. Look at what EA is doing with Autolog in The Need For Speed franchise and Battlelog in Battlefield. Both of them notify you when you either beat or are beaten by a friend in different parts of the game. Both of them add a fun layer of competition to their respective games and extend their value.
Why the ‘Share’ button is different is that with Autolog no action is required on the part of the sender or the receiver. The information just shows up. With ‘Share’ you will have to actively share things, which means that the kind of people willing to share their video game accomplishments will most likely put out things that people have been sharing for centuries: Images that look like penises.
Maybe ‘Share’ will be awesome. Maybe it will be nothing but amazing high level accomplishments and pictures of game secrets and hidden areas. I doubt it though. It's going to be mainly penises.
