Sony was faced with a tremendous backlash when they announced that the PlayStation 4 would launch without MP3 and DLNA support. While both are highly useful features, they’re likely not features that are used by the masses. Especially DLNA which requires the networking of your computer with DLNA software for media sharing. Of course, the gamer crowd being the needy bunch that we are went on a giant temper tantrum with some crying:

  ‘I cancelled the pre-order’ 

Some conspiracy theorist went one step further, believing that this was Sony’s way of pushing their music streaming service, Music Unlimited. The subscription based service allows you to listen to millions of tracks on plethora of platforms like iOS, Android, and PlayStation. The services then takes one step further on the PS4, allowing you stream music during gameplay, something that the PS3 did not offer. According to Sony’s President of Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida there is a simpler explanation to all of this and that they were:

 caught off guard 

The good news is that Sony has heard you loud and clear and that these features are headed to the PS4.

Yoshida went on:

 The biggest surprise for us all internally at Sony was; there were so many people who passionately reacted to our announcement that there’s no MP3 support and DLNA support on day one. Like we’ve been saying, the focus has been always on the game features, and some of the features we wanted but we could get in on day one – game features – we were very disappointed. 

If Sony has gotten one thing right from the beginning with the PS4, it’s been that the console has been focused on playing games. On the other hand, Microsoft geared the Xbox One as an ultimate multimedia device that can connect to your television and beyond which didn’t sit too well with its core demo graph. With a focus on gaming, the devs at PlayStation simply never had MP3 and DLNA as part of the feature list for the PS4 launch.

Now, Sony has heard you and that the hardware and software teams in Japan and US are working on bringing back the missed features.

 So as we speak, the teams in Japan and US – the systems guys – are discussing how and when we can put these features on PS4. 

While neither feature will be available at launch, if the PS3 has taught us one thing, it’s that the console you get at launch is not the console you end up with, thanks to the numerous software updates they’ve pushed out. Till then, rest assured that the PS4 will be launching with 11 entertainment services like Netflix, Hulu, and Vudu.

Discuss:

Is MP3 or DLNA support truly a utilized and under talked about feature or is this a case of gamers crying foul for principles sake?

[Via CVG]