Playstation is sus, y’all. I mean, I don’t know about you, but an update that records your party chat is pretty sus to me.
The 8.00 update launched for Playstation 4 today and players were quick to voice their displeasure at a new feature that records party chats. When you try to join or create a party, a disclaimer pops up informing you that the chat may be recorded.
Sony must have known this update would rub folks the wrong way because they make no mention of it in their blog post detailing the changes that come with the update. As of this writing, there is also nothing on Playstation’s Twitter addressing the change.
To be perfectly frank, this is pretty fucked up. As a Black man who does his best not to be hateful, you will never hear me get too heated over efforts to crack down on racist, sexist, homophobic, and transphobic language in gaming. We need to continually make gaming a more inclusive space, that’s just facts.
This is not how you do that, though.
It’s a gross invasion of privacy. I will be the first to admit that I am fucking foul when I’m playing Call of Duty with the squad. The amount times I’ve probably told a 12-year-old they were a dumb, fucking C-word who deserves every bullet I put in them, is, you know, probably higher than I would like to admit. I’m with the homies though, so foul talk is to be expected.
It’s not like there is option to turn recording on and off either. The implication is that as soon as you join a voice chat, the system will begin recording.
Multiple Twitter users have said that it appears you can’t make a party private either, meaning anyone can join. So if you and the crew are talking foul only for a stranger to show up and become offended, you could be banned.
Also, the fact I had to essentially parse through Twitter to figure out the details on this isn’t a good look on Sony’s end. If you’re going to change the system so drastically then you damn well better have a clear and concise explanation for it.
Twitter, as always, stays undefeated and quickly began to meme the situation.
It’s not enough that the new update streamlines snitching, it may have also caused PSN to go down for multiple users. I count myself among those users.
Any attempt to open my friends list is met with a infinite load screen followed by a pop-up that says it can’t load.
I can access the Playstation Store but trying to access any of the social features on Playstation brings up a similar screen.
Basically, it’s been a messy ass day for Playstation. We’re only a month out from the PS5 release so we’ll see what, if any, effect that revealing the console may snitch on you could have on its sales.
Should you have understandable privacy concerns from this change, I’d recommend checking out Discord for your voice chat needs. I personally use it for when I’m playing Among Us and it works just fine.