Sony PS4 owners should update their consoles today. The new 3.50 system software update brings a bounty of desired features, including the ability to appear as if you’re offline (useful to avoid friends who want you to get back into Destiny when you’re currently into The Division) and to schedule online events (useful when your Division group needs to settle on a time to be online).
But the best part of the 3.50 update is the ability to play all your PS4 games remotely on a Windows or Mac device. If you’re in hotels a lot or constantly have a roommate hogging the TV to watching Little People, Big World, than this is super exciting news. You no longer have to drag your PS4 everywhere you go! You just need a PS4 controller, USB cable, and solid internet—Sony suggests 12 Mbps upload and download speeds.
The setup is remarkably straight forward. Just follow this link and install PS4 Remote Play on your computer, then make sure you’ve enabled Remote Play on your PS4.
You’ll want a very beefy router if you plan to play remotely on your computer often. At home I use an ASUS RT-AC68U router (one of the fastest routers currently available) with the PS4 plugged directly in via ethernet—so local network gaming should not be an issue. Unfortunately, the first two times I tried to connect on my home network, the PS4 Remote Play app informed me that my internet connection wasn’t fast enough.
After telling my router and PS4 to go F themselves they sorted it out and since then I’ve had zero connectivity issues, though, I will say the graphics don’t look as good on my computer as they do as if I was playing directly on a television. I died a couple of times in The Division before I had to up the brightness and get really close to my screen to make out the bad guys.
Until now, the only way you could remote play console games on a computer was using an Xbox One and Windows 10 (both made by Microsoft). Sony’s Remote Play app is the first to allow remote play on a Mac. It also doesn’t require Windows 10. Windows 8.1 users can also enjoy the wonders of remote play as well.
So, you know, your move Microsoft.