So why the long wait between articles, well Gametrender has taken a massive sabbatical to start eating into the enormous backlog of current (next?) gen gaming in PS4. After lengthy forays into the Witcher 3, the Elder Scrolls Online, a smattering of Battlefield 4 , some Far Cry 4 goodness (amongst others), I’ve finally dragged myself away from the console to contemplate how AAA high budget gaming and App gaming can live together.

A good example is the second screen capabilities such as Xbox Glass and the Playstation Companion App, with the support  of the likes of Sony these apps go a long way to enabling interconnectivity and feeding/nurturing a gaming habit. Looking particularly at the Playstation Companion app,the big takeaway is that if you’re going to support your game with an app ready access to a good API is crucial. Without the ability to link to your Playstation Id , see what friends are doing and track your achievements the app would be nigh useless.

It’s almost de rigeur for this type of companion app to accompany a big release, some notable examples are the Destiny App allowing a lot of the lore to be examined (crucial in the story void that Bungie has encouraged), weapon swapping and raid info also makes things easier. Battlefield Commander also brings a different take to the companion app scene.

From a developer perspective , aside from the small question of the legal perspective and gaining access to an app’s data/api; creating an app to support an already established IP is a no brainer. The publicity and user base is already there, so if the actual dev is not going to support with a good app then why shouldn’t you? If you’ve got your own best game companion app then please share in the comments.