Twitch clarifies: PS4 Playroom is for gaming

Over the last week, Sony's Playroom Twitch streaming, an augmented reality setting where people can show themselves playing games while on screen things – like robots – bug them, has caused a bit of a stir, because it's been used for all sorts of other things. The Spartan Show let us know that it could easily work as a call-in chat show, garnering thousands of viewers, but another managed to generate a lot more negative attention when a couple passed out after drinking and after an interlude the female ended up naked. That account was quickly banned by Twitch and both it and Sony have now clarified that Playroom streaming is for gaming only.

“FYI: We continue to moderate according to our Terms of Service. Non-gaming content is not allowed,” said Twitch via its official Twitter account. “Non-gaming content (c): If using PS4 Playroom, the content must be about games or gaming and within our ToS. Thanks for understanding.”

When some people complained though that just limiting the feature to them actually playing games, might make Playroom a somewhat of a wasteland feature, since the majority of gamers aren't' people you want to watch play games, Twitch clarified that you can still talk about games, or do game related stuff on camera – just don't get your wife naked while passed out, that's illegal.

‘If she touches one robot penis, she's banned!'

Part of the blame for the bans being tossed around though is being laid at the feet of both Twitch and Sony, for not making their terms of use clear enough. When you sign up for a Twitch account on your PC, you're taken through what's acceptable and chances are you aren't going to sign up for it without some idea of what other people use it for. With the PS4's playroom, there's much less of that clarification and its simple ease of use, makes you much more likely to just put the cam on and start doing whatever you feel like.

The real problem, is that there isn't any parental locks on the system as it currently stands, which means before long some scaremongering publication like the Daily Mail is going to catch wind that there's a chance for kids to see nudity and all hell is going to break loose. The fact that it already hasn't happened could just be down to the fact that the PS4 hasn't launched in the UK yet.

KitGuru Says: Of course this sort of thing was going to happen. It's a webcam in people's homes, no doubt there are tonnes of people having sex in-front of the PS4 camera right now. All there needs to be is a quick age related check, with local-parental controls and you're set. While there may be better methods, that would be a quick and easy fix to a problem that could quickly get out of hand if not given a quick bit of moderation. 

[Cheers Kotaku]

Become a Patron!