PlayStation 4 Remote Play Works, But Don’t Expect To Go That Far From Your TV

Remote play, a feature that streamed a console game to a handheld, was a neat idea Sony had when they first announced it for PlayStation 3. However, few PS3 games actually supported it. Sony Computer Entertainment America said that will change with PlayStation 4 since most PS4 games will support Remote Play with Vita.

Connecting a Vita to a PS4 is simple enough. You select PS Vita Connection Settings from the options menu and pick PS4 Link on Vita. The TV screen shows an eight digit code you need to punch in to connect the two devices. After a connection has been established you can control the PS4 including all of the menus straight from Vita.

I tested Remote Play out with a PS4 connected to a router via an Ethernet cable. I was able to play Killzone Shadow Fall about 30 feet away from my router without any interference. As expected, the signal weakened and the connection broke when a wall was in the way. Instead of laggy gameplay, the PS4 and Vita sever the connection if you get out of range.

I get about the same range with Wii U and New Super Mario Bros. U, but there is a difference between the second screen experience. PlayStation Vita replaces the L2 and R2 triggers plus analog stick press (L3/R3) with taps on the rear touchpad. Killzone Shadow Fall remaps buttons, but controlling some games like Call of Duty: Ghosts are more cumbersome. Also, Remote Play makes an exact copy of the PS4 screen. That’s not a problem for a game like Resogun, which is all action. However, I wonder what will happen with text heavy RPGs when those are eventually available. Menu text is tiny when viewed on Vita, so I hope developers will think of a way to optimize this in the future.