PS4 and Xbox 720 News: Share Button Details Emerge; Next Xbox May Not Require Internet Connection, Says Leaked Memo

One of PlayStation 4's most talked about features is the Share button, which will allow gamers to capture photos and video of a game and send it to their friends and social media sites as they play their game. But, now it looks like PlayStation 4 owners will have some potential restrictions on their sharing. According to a interview in Japanese website 4Gamer, which has been translated by Edge, Sony Worldwide president Shuhei Yoshida revealed that developers will have the ultimate discretion on what players are able to share about their games.

"There will be parts of a game that the maker does not want people to be able to see...For example, on Vita, developers can in certain scenes disable the feature that lets users take a screenshot, and (the Share function) will have a similar mechanism. The creator may not want to make video of the final boss sharable, for instance."

This move is a smart one for Sony, as it allows some measure of control over the games developers have worked so hard for, especially when it comes to fighting a tough boss or finding hidden secrets in a game. Of course, in this age of Youtube Tutorials and Wiki sites, interested parties will still be able to find secretive information about a game, but now it will have some restrictions. Sony also teased on their blog that several news announcements will happen this week.

In other next-gen news, a new report, allegedly based on a leaked Microsoft internal memo obtained by Ars Technica claims that the next-gen Xbox will not require an internet connection, contrary to most reports about the new console.

"There are a number of scenarios that our users expect to work without an Internet connection, and those should 'just work' regardless of their current connection status...Those include, but are not limited to: playing a Blu-ray disc, watching live TV, and yes playing a single-player game." 

This is big news for the system, which contradicts most every leak and report about the system. The validity of this report will be verified once the system is formally revealed on May 21.

The PlayStation 4 and next-gen Xbox is expected sometime around the holidays at the end of the year.