No Facebook App on PlayStation 4

There won’t be a specific Facebook app for PlayStation 4, despite the fact that you have the option to tie the social network into the OS. Why? Because maintaining an app is difficult and the PlayStation 4 browser is “pretty pleasant.”

Facebook is a pretty huge part of a lot of people’s lives. Keeping close with friends and finding common ground with acquaintances has never been easier, and Facebook is at the centre of that revolution. Why is it a good thing, then, that the PlayStation 4 won’t have an app dedicated to bringing Facebook to our consoles?

Polygon asked Facebook Engineer Colin Creitz why there wasn’t an app for the PlayStation 4:

One of the things that came out of our experience with the previous generation of consoles is that we found that maintaining the native apps was a relatively high maintenance burden, and didn’t really lead to a high fidelity experience.

In this generation of consoles, all of them have very capable browsers. The PS4’s browser … it’s actually pretty pleasant.

The most exciting part of the conversation came in the form of a hint towards what might come in the future:

One of the things I hope [we add] is that there’ll be some ability at the game level to say ‘I want to play with people who will reveal their real identity. They don’t have to be my friends yet, but right now I just turn off voice chat in Madden when I play with internet randoms, because I’ve already had the only conversation you’ll ever have with those guys.