PS4 is Apparently Now Downloading Full Games Without Permission as Adverts if You Have ‘Featured Content’ On

‘Featured content’, and similar functionality, has been available on PS4, as well as other systems, for a while- basically, assuming you have configured the setting to ‘On’, your system downloads a tile or an icon for a game that it wants to recommend to you as an advert (ostensibly based on your gaming habits, but that is never the case), selecting which gives you the option to buy the actual game and download it fully.

It’s a bit annoying, but given that at worst you get an extra icon on your home screen, which can be easily deleted, and since the service is optional anyway, it’s not something to raise too much hell about. This new development, on the other hand, is- apparently, if you have the option on, your PS4 will now download full games to your system without permission, and prompt you to buy them to play them if you select the tile.

This is not only intrusive, but a wanton violation of the user’s bandwidth- given that many around the world have data caps, PS4 users could find dozens of gigabytes wasted on a literal advertisement. Hopefully, this is something Sony goes back on as soon as they can- preferably right now.

So I may have to wait until the download is complete to confirm, but this looks like a new twist on automatic downloads. Looks like it will put the whole thing on my drive then ask if I want to buy it.

— Daniel Bloodworth (@dbloodworth2) February 14, 2018

Sure enough, downloaded a whole game and then asks me to buy. 14 GB ad. Weird stuff. #PS4share pic.twitter.com/eP9y4uTpPe

— Daniel Bloodworth (@dbloodworth2) February 14, 2018