Sony announces PlayLink, a series of games controlled by smartphones

Sony has announced PlayLink at E3 2017, a series of PS4 games which can be played in conjunction with smartphones for a more social experience. The games are intended to be played as local multiplayer (i.e. together in the same room), with the players using their smartphones to control certain aspects of the game.

So far, Sony has announced five titles as part of PlayLink: That’s You, SingStar Celebration, Knowledge is Power, Frantics and a detective game called Hidden Agenda.

We don’t yet know much about the first four, but the latter is developed by the team behind Until Dawn, a teen slasher movie-style title which places a strong focus on the narrative and decision making.

It looks like similar horror thrills will be found in Hidden Agenda, only this time, a group of players will be part of the decision-making process, and each of them will be privy to unique information delivered to their handsets. Check it out in the video below.

Sony marketer Asad Qizilbash said that PlayLink is about “trying to get as many people to play games as possible,” while the Hidden Agenda folks believe that the use of a smartphone rather than a more traditional controller could make the title “more accessible” (at least as far as the multiplayer component is concerned).

Sony hasn’t yet announced when the first of these PlayLink games will land, or anything about device compatibility, but we’ll let you know when we have more.

What are your thoughts on Hidden Agenda so far? Let us know in the comments.