It Looks like PlayStation 4’s Sales Technique Is Bothering Some People
Easy Allies’ Daniel Bloodworth reports that the PlayStation 4 downloads full games that you haven’t purchased. But only if you have the ‘Featured Content” option selected in under Settings > System > Automatic Downloads.
“So, Shadow of the Colossus is downloading on my PS4,” he tweeted. “I didn’t buy it. I didn’t enter a code. I don’t think they gave PS3 owners a free update right?”
“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.”
In Bloodworth’s case, the download was Shadow of the Colossues, a 14 GB game.
The feature is not completely new. In fact, its began on the PlayStation 3 with the launch of PS Plus. The difference is during this era, it was turned off by default and only downloaded games that you owned. it looks like it slipped under the radar of PlayStation 4 gamers as it is automatically enabled upon purchasing the system.
Which games does it download? It seems to find games that it believes you would like and only then pre-download them. The PlayStation 4 user’s guide says the following:
“To enable automatic downloads while your PS4™ system is turned on or in rest mode, select (Settings) > [System] > [Automatic Downloads].”
“Your PS4 system automatically adds recommended content from PlayStationStore to the content area. Select the added content to start the download.”
Anyone not comfortable with the feature (or those trying to minimize their bandwidth) can choose to turn it off. Regardless, focus on the feature seems to have some people upset that their system is deciding which games to put on their system.