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Which PS4 games block Share Play?

Call of Duty, Minecraft, Tomb Raider and more.

Wesley Yin-Poole avatar
News by Wesley Yin-Poole Former Editor-in-Chief
Updated on

Share Play is one of the PlayStation 4's most eye-catching features.

It's designed to let the player who owns the game, aka the host, virtually pass their controller to an online friend who doesn't own the game. As long as both players are PlayStation Plus subscribers, it should work.

Share Play works through streaming, so resolution and frame-rate aren't at their best. But when it works, it works. And in some cases it lets you do play in a way the game proper does not. The wonderful Towerfall Ascension, for example, does not feature online multiplayer. But with Share Play two people can play against each other from the comfort of their homes.

Sony has said it wants Share Play to work with all PS4 games. But, nearly two weeks into its life, it does not.

Yesterday it emerged that Sledgehammer's first-person shooter Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare blocks PS4 Share Play. We wanted to find out whether that was a one off or whether blocking was widespread, so we tested as many games as we could get our hands on.

There are two different messages that explain why a game is being blocked. They are as follows:

"Viewing the game screen that the host is currently playing is not allowed due to content restrictions in your country or region.

"If the host starts a game that you can view, the game screen will be displayed."

And:

"The host's game screen is not displayed because the current scene is a blocked scene for Share Play.

"Wait until the blocked scene has finished."

We've grouped the games we tested by publisher. If a game works fine, we say it does. If it doesn't, we say which message you get.

The results are mixed. The majority of games work, but some, like Call of Duty: Ghosts and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, do not. This seems strange when Destiny, also published by Activision, does work. But then developer Bungie owns the Destiny IP, so perhaps it put its foot down. In any case, Activision's own Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark works fine, too. Overnight Activision released a statement on the matter, claiming their engineers didn't have time to test Share Play and so disabled it.

Elsewhere, Ubisoft download games Rayman Legends and Child of Light are blocked despite full price games Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag and Watch Dogs working without issue. We've asked Ubisoft for comment.

A couple of Square Enix games are blocked: Thief and Tomb Raider. But Sleeping Dogs, Murdered Soul Suspect and Lords of the Fallen all work fine. The publisher is looking into it for us.

Conversely, all EA games we tested worked fine. As you'd expect, all the Sony-developed games we tested worked.

Here's a strange one: Minecraft: PlayStation 3 Edition is blocked. Developer 4J Studios seemed nonplussed when we asked about it. We were told the developers were waiting for Sony to explain what's up, and that, hopefully, it will be fixable via a patch. (We've seen reports that Minecraft Share Play works after its initial scene, but during our tests it failed to work at any point.)

Share Play only arrived a couple of weeks ago, as part of the firmware update 2.0, so perhaps there are growing pains on the tech side (Shadow of Mordor, for example, blocked Share Play pre-firmware update 2.01 but now works). Or perhaps some publishers have asked for Share Play to be blocked until their games have been out for a while. Or perhaps they feel the resolution and frame-rate hit does their games a disservice. Whatever the case, it's obvious publishers can disable Share Play despite it being a system feature that works with games by default.

Here's Sony's statement on the matter:

"Share Play is a system level feature enabled by System Software Update 2.0 making it available for all PS4 titles, however the option is available to developers to disable the feature according to what they feel will best benefit the consumer experience."

One thing to note, our testing was done using fully updated PS4s in the UK, and the results are accurate at the time of publication.

Oh, and help us out! If you've noticed a PS4 game that blocks Share Play, let us know in the comments below. The idea is this article will act as an evolving resource.

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ACTIVISION PUBLISHING

  • Destiny: Works fine. Was able to go into competitive multiplayer, too.
  • Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare: The host's game screen is not displayed because the current scene is a blocked scene for Share Play. Wait until the blocked scene has finished.
  • Call of Duty: Ghosts: Viewing the game screen that the host is currently playing is not allowed due to content restrictions in your country or region. If the host starts a game that you can view, the game screen will be displayed.
  • Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark Works fine.

ATLUS

  • Daylight: Works fine.

BANDAI NAMCO

  • Shadow Warrior: Works fine.

BETHESDA

  • Wolfenstein: Viewing the game screen that the host is currently playing is not allowed due to content restrictions in your country or region. If the host starts a game that you can view, the game screen will be displayed.
  • The Evil Within: Works fine.

BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT

  • Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls: Works fine. You can even play online co-op with it.

CAPCOM

  • Strider: Works fine.

DEEP SILVER

  • Metro Redux: Viewing the game screen that the host is currently playing is not allowed due to content restrictions in your country or region. If the host starts a game that you can view, the game screen will be displayed.

EA

  • FIFA 15: Works fine.
  • Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare: Works fine.
  • UFC: Works fine.
  • Need for Speed Rivals: Works fine
  • Battlefield 4: Works fine

KONAMI

  • Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes: Works fine.
  • P.T.: Works fine.

SEGA

  • Alien Isolation: Works fine.

SONY

  • Driveclub: Works fine.
  • The Last of Us Remastered: Works fine.
  • Killzone Shadow Fall: Works fine
  • Knack: Works fine.
  • Infamous: Second Son: Works fine.
  • Resogun: Works fine
  • Flower: Works fine.
  • Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition: Works fine.
  • Minecraft: PlayStation Edition: The host's game screen is not displayed because the current scene is a blocked scene for Share Play. Wait until the blocked scene has finished.

SQUARE ENIX

  • Lords of the Fallen: Works fine.
  • Murdered Soul Suspect: Works fine.
  • Thief: Viewing the game screen that the host is currently playing is not allowed due to content restrictions in your country or region. If the host starts a game that you can view, the game screen will be displayed.
  • Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition: Works fine.
  • Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition: Viewing the game screen that the host is currently playing is not allowed due to content restrictions in your country or region. If the host starts a game that you can view, the game screen will be displayed.

UBISOFT

  • Watch Dogs: Works fine.
  • Rayman Legends: Viewing the game screen that the host is currently playing is not allowed due to content restrictions in your country or region. If the host starts a game that you can view, the game screen will be displayed.
  • Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag: Works fine.
  • Child of Light: Viewing the game screen that the host is currently playing is not allowed due to content restrictions in your country or region. If the host starts a game that you can view, the game screen will be displayed.
  • Trials Fusion: Works fine.
  • Valiant Hearts: Works fine.

WARNER:

  • Shadow of Mordor: Works fine.
  • LEGO The Hobbit: Works fine.

505 GAMES

  • How to Survive: Storm Warning Edition: Works fine.

SELF-PUBLISHED TITLES

  • Another World: Viewing the game screen that the host is currently playing is not allowed due to content restrictions in your country or region. If the host starts a game that you can view, the game screen will be displayed.
  • The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth: Works fine.
  • Blacklight Retribution: Works fine.
  • Contrast: Works fine.
  • Doki-Doki Universe: Works fine.
  • Fez: The host's game screen is not displayed because the current scene is a blocked scene for Share Play. Wait until the blocked scene has finished.
  • Hotline Miami: Viewing the game screen that the host is currently playing is not allowed due to content restrictions in your country or region. If the host starts a game that you can view, the game screen will be displayed.
  • Mercenary Kings: Works fine.
  • Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty: Works fine.
  • Outlast: Works fine.
  • PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate: Viewing the game screen that the host is currently playing is not allowed due to content restrictions in your country or region. If the host starts a game that you can view, the game screen will be displayed.
  • Road Not Taken: Works fine.
  • Spelunky: Works fine.
  • SteamWorld Dig: Viewing the game screen that the host is currently playing is not allowed due to content restrictions in your country or region. If the host starts a game that you can view, the game screen will be displayed.
  • Surgeon Simulator: Works fine.
  • Towerfall Ascension: Works fine. In fact it enables two-player online, which you can't do normally.
  • Trine 2 Complete Story: Works fine.
  • Velocity 2X: Works fine.
  • Warframe: Works fine.

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