While we still don't know exactly what Share button will share on the PlayStation 4, according to Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida, the PS4 Share button will not be a universal application, and can be blocked by developers.
Hailed as one of the major features of Sony's new DualShock 4 controller, Share button was initially said to be a feature that will enable players to share screenshots, replay videos, and the like to the PlayStation Network and various social media sites.
However, according to Yoshida, there are a set of limitations as to what can be shared. "There will be parts of a game that the maker does not want people to be able to see. For example, on Vita, developers can in certain scenes disable the feature that lets users take a screenshot, and (the Share function) will have a similar mechanism. The creator may not want to make video of the final boss sharable, for instance," he said to 4gamer.net (via Edge).
While the limitation makes sense in the case of newcomers that the sharing option may reveal spoilers before the game is even played, it remains to be seen whether gamers would appreciate some aspects being controlled from sharing. Maybe the share button will be terrible after all.
Yoshida said the idea of Share button stemmed from his addiction to Dark Souls, clips of which he would watch on Japanese video-sharing site Niconico Douga. "I wanted to play Dark Souls all day long, but I couldn't do that because I was too busy. So instead I would watch people playing it live on Niconico whenever I had some spare time. By doing that, you can find other ways to play the game and read comments by other users. I felt that sharing videos is a really important part of enjoying games."
The PlayStation 4 is expected to release globally in 2013.
