Sony takes a page from Jackbox with PlayLink mobile input tech

This evening Sony debuted a new tech platform, PlayLink, that appears built to let people play games running on a PlayStation console using their iOS or Android devices.

Details on how PlayLink works or how it will be made accessible to devs are still scant, with Sony simply running hype videos for some of the PlayStation 4 games that will utilize PlayLink during its E3 livestream this evening. 

Those ads showcased Sony staffers (including Sony Worldwide Studios chief Shuhei Yoshida) playing social games (a party game called That's You, for example) on a PS4 and using their smartphones to input answers, snap photos that were then imported into the game, and generally just have a conspicuously good time.

The whole initiative is much akin to the Jackbox Party Pack multi-platform social games, which are developed by Jackbox Games to allow up to 100 players to play simultaneously by pointing their mobile devices' browsers to a unique website tied to their current match.