Summary
- PS Plus bug causes games to launch simultaneously on PS4 and PS5, impacting players' gameplay experience.
- Glitch with PS Plus streaming service leads to flickering title screen, potentially causing issues for users with epilepsy.
- Some players find Sony's subliminal messaging joke amusing, while others face streaming issues and seek tech support.
An unusual bug affecting Sony's PlayStation Plus subscription service has impacted players attempting to play games through the service. The bug, which affects users on both PS4 and PS5 using PS Plus, seems to launch two games on the same console simultaneously, despite that capability not being native to the consoles.
Game subscription services have come quite a long way since the early days of the PS3 and Xbox 360 generation. Compared to the limited offerings of back then, platform services offer things like free game libraries, online play, and cloud services to convince players to pay regularly. Lately, Sony has been looking to online game streaming to give players greater value in the face of recent price hikes for PS Plus subscriptions in some territories. The Premium tier of the PS Plus subscription offers various classic games to stream online to PS4 and PS5 consoles.
PS Plus Bug Causes Player to Play Two Games Simultaneously
It's in that PS Plus online streaming environment that Reddit user TheLeftBoy encountered a bizarre bug affecting PS Plus. TheLeftBoy was attempting to play the Jedi action game Star Wars The Force Unleashed 2 via the service. But rather than the saga of Starkiller, who might have been one of the strongest Jedi in the Star Wars franchise, TheLeftBoy saw the strange flickering title screen of an entirely different game: Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, originally released in 2013 on PS3.
The unusual PS Plus glitch caused severe flickering of the Sly Cooper title screen all over TheLeftBoy's The Force Unleashed 2 gameplay, making the game almost unplayable. TheLeftBoy said that they eventually resolved the issue by exiting and relaunching the game, but their footage of the odd bug drew attention from users on the PlayStation subreddit. Some players worried that the constant flickering could be a hazard for players who suffer from photosensitive conditions such as epilepsy, which can trigger seizures in some people confronted by rapid flashes and bright lights. Even major franchises like Call of Duty have glitches that can affect users with epilepsy.
Others were amused by the glitch, joking that Sony was delivering subliminal messaging to "brainwash" PS Plus subscribers into playing Sly Cooper. A few chimed in, saying they'd encountered the bug while attempting to stream other games via PS Plus. One player encountered the bug while trying to play the classic version of God of War via PS5, and for them the bug was bad enough that they were unable to stream any PS Plus game and were forced to turn to Sony tech support for a solution. While game streaming has improved greatly in recent years, glitches and bugs like the one experienced by TheLeftBoy and others put some unpleasant wrinkles in companies' vision of a cloud-based future where players won't need to rely on local machines to play the game.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II
- Released
- October 26, 2010
WHERE TO PLAY
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II follows immediately after its action-adventure forebear, putting you in the role of a Starkiller clone. In the midst of the Alliance-Empire war, you must find meaning in your creation.
The Star Wars® Saga continues with Star Wars®: The Force Unleashed™ II, the highly anticipated sequel to the fastest-selling Star Wars game ever created. In Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, the world was introduced to Darth Vader’s now fugitive apprentice, Starkiller—the unlikely hero who would ignite the flames of rebellion in a galaxy so desperately in need of a champion.
In the sequel, Starkiller returns with over-the-top Force powers and embarks on a journey to discover his own identity and to reunite with his one true love, Juno Eclipse. In Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, Starkiller is once again the pawn of Darth Vader—but instead of training his protégé as a ruthless assassin, the dark lord is attempting to clone his former apprentice in an attempt to create the Ultimate Sith warrior. The chase is on – Starkiller is in pursuit of Juno and Darth Vader is hunting for Starkiller.
With all-new devastating Force powers and the ability to dual-wield lightsabers, Starkiller cuts a swath through deadly new enemies across exciting worlds from the Star Wars films - all in his desperate search for answers to his past.
