14 DAY TRIAL // The team in charge of the PlayStation 4 home console at Sony announces that the pre-load feature for the platform, which has long been rumored as coming soon, is now officially live and that 10 big upcoming video games that are now available for pre-order are set to use it.
The official announcement on the PS Blog explains that, "Automatic pre-load on PS4 allows you to download pre-ordered games before the release date, so you can get into your games after they’re released faster than ever. We all know that some of the biggest games can take a while to download, and with the pre-load functionality, you’ll be able to download and install those huge files up to several days in advance."
Sony also says that on the PlayStation 4 all titles that are pre-ordered will automatically be pre-loaded as long as the console is in the standby mode in order to make sure that gamers get access to the titles they are purchasing.
The first video game to use the new feature for the Sony hardware is Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark, which is set to be offered on the PS4 on June 24th.
The list of titles that are offered also includes: Battlefield Hardline, Battlefield Hardline Deluxe Edition, Bloodborne, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Destiny, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dragon Age: Inquisition Deluxe Edition, Far Cry 4, InFamous First Light, Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare, LittleBigPlanet 3, Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, The Order: 1886 and Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End.
Sony is also including a countdown timer to make sure that gamers know exactly when the titles they have purchased are available for them to actually play.
The company adds, "One more thing: we’re focusing on all our new PS4 pre-orders, but note that the ability to automatically pre-load your game is also available for PS3 pre-orders. Watch for each week’s PlayStation Store Update for all the latest pre-orders!"
Pre-loading is a very solid feature for the PlayStation 4 and the platform needs any advantage it can get in the race against the rival Xbox One from Microsoft, which has recently dropped its official price to 399 dollars or Euro and has eliminated the Kinect motion tracking system from the core retail package.
It will be interesting to see how many gamers take advantage of the new features and what other improvements Sony will deliver in the coming weeks.