Sony’s Playstation 4 is stepping up its online video capabilities to challenge its competitors. At E3, Sony execs announced several new features for the Playstation 4 console, including a new YouTube app and a palm-sized over-the-top device that will allow users to stream content through their TVs.
The YouTube app will arrive in the fall and will have a particularly focus on easy sharing. The app will include the ability to directly upload content from their PS4 consoles. That feature that is also a major selling point of Xbox One’s YouTube app, which was made available soon after the console’s November 2013 launch.
YouTube is also challenging Xbox One’s library of original series. In March, Sony announced Powers, a comic book adaptation that would serve as the PS4’s first ever original series. At E3, Sony followed up that announcement by revealing that Powers will arrive in December. Like Microsoft, Sony will follow up that release with series and films based off its video game franchises. In particular, an animated companion film to the Ratchet & Clank series will arrive next year.
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Sony, however, is not simply interested in challenging Microsoft. It also revealed its plans for the Playstation TV, an over-the-top device that will allow users to stream games and other media to a secondary TV. The $99 device will represent Sony’s foray into the crowded digital TV industry, where video games are now a key selling point. Amazon touted a lineup of videos as one of the major selling points of its Fire TV device, and Playstation TV will provide a similarly attractive mix of games and video apps.
Sony’s busy presentation announces the PS4 as a major player in digital video. The new console doesn’t quite have the multimedia capabilities of the Xbox One, but it’s getting there.
