'FIFA 15' PS4 & Xbox One Release Date, Cover & Trailer: Share Play on Sony Console Not Blocked, Says EA
Game publisher EA Sports confirmed that "FIFA 15" has not been blocked from Share Play for the PlayStation 4 after a number of players reported being unable to use the feature.
"FIFA didn't block Share Play. Issue affected many games on the PS side and it has been fixed," EA Sports' senior communications manager Paul Marr told the Huffington Post.
GameSpot reported Friday that Sony's online pass-the-controller multiplayer service was having issues particularly with "FIFA 15." It said the visiting player is unable to see the footage shown on the host's (the console owner) gaming screen.
The issue comes with an error message showing on either the host's or the visitor's screen saying, "Viewing the game screen that the host is currently playing is not allowed due to content restrictions in your country or region."
The bug was "bizarre" since Sony even used a copy of "FIFA 15" to demonstrate the Share Play features in October, video gaming website VG 24/7 said. Independent gaming website Eurogamer even listed the game Share Play-ready.
A number of users also reported that the feature worked fine on their "FIFA 15." Brazil-based user "Johnnymaxx" posted on the comments thread of VG 24/7 that he was able to play "FIFA 15" via Share Play with his friend for two days in a row.
He said, however, that he experienced the error while playing Konami's "Pro Evolution Soccer 2015."
Sony PlayStation said it is already investigating the issue. "The error message displayed on PS4 is inaccurate," it posted on its Twitter account.
GameSpot listed 14 other games which block Share Play including "Another World," "Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare," "Call of Duty: Ghosts," "Child of Light," "Hotline Miami," "Metro Redux," "Minecraft," "PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate," "Rayman Legends," "SteamWorld Dig," "Thief," "Tomb Raider" and "Wolfenstein: The New Order."
Despite Sony's promise that Share Play would be supported in all PS4 games in October, a Sony representative told Ars Technica that "[The] option is available to developers to disable the feature according to what they feel will best benefit the consumer experience."
Share Play is one of the features included in the version 2.0 (codenamed Masamune) which allows two PS4 owners to play the same single copy of a game over the Internet -- essentially allowing the visitor to play for free, PlayStation said in its blog.
The users may share the gaming screen or even the controller, allowing a more dynamic co-op (cooperative) gameplay.
Share Play, however, needs a minimum connection of 2 Mbps. Each session is limited to only 60 minutes but can be restarted as many times as the users like, the PlayStation website said. In addition, only two online players who are PlayStation Network friends can simultaneously use Share Play.
It cannot be used when the game the host wants to share is not available in the visitor's country, the host's and the visitor's Parent Control Level of the game do not match and when the visitor's age is lower than the game's rating on the PlayStation Store.
"FIFA 15" was released on Sept. 23 in North America, Sept. 25 in Europe and Sept. 26 in the United Kingdom and Ireland, with Argentina's captain Lionel Messi as the game's cover star.