Track Hours Played

[OolaFii]

Implement this! Ofc it is not perfect but it is the best we could get. And PS5 will have this feature on console, it was confirmed.

 

Edit: And it would be 99% in my case, i dont use any other profiles on my ps4 and i dont just pause my game for hours.

Edited November 6, 2020 by OolaFii

[HusKy]

Apparently this info comes directly from Sony API. Seems like these exact numbers will appear on our PS5s.

[Wuthg21]

I'm wondering if running your ps4 on rest mode also affect these stats, most of my numbers seem pretty accurate

[Shadiochao]

2 minutes ago, Wuthg21 said:

I'm wondering if running your ps4 on rest mode also affect these stats, most of my numbers seem pretty accurate

 

It doesn't

[TheNastyChocobos]

so i guess this wouldn't track the play times while you were offline?

[Gage]

17 minutes ago, TheNastyChocobos said:

so i guess this wouldn't track the play times while you were offline?

It does in some manner. I've played stuff with the internet on my PS4 turned off while playing review copies of games, and the times are still relatively correct. So the PS4 firmware still tracks it in the background and sends it to the network when you go online. 

[machaesthetic]

It's an interesting stat and all but there's a few issues with it.

 

• Doesn't track PS3/PSV games, only PS4 games. For games with multiple platform versions, it only tracks the PS4 time played.
• Some PS4 games don't track time at all for anyone (such as Transformers Devastation).
• Even the PS4 game tracking seems very inconsistent with many accounts that have no time listed for numerous PS4-only games that they clearly played, while other accounts do have times listed for those games, but not for different ones. It seems like every account just has a few to many PS4 games that have no time played stats recorded. 
• Also, the numbers just seem flat-out inaccurate in some cases. For N++, my in-game time shows as 88 hours, my menu time shows as 48 hours, and my combined time shows as 136 hours. However, on Exophase, N++ is shown as over 200 hours, so I have no idea where the discrepancy comes from. Another case is Resogun, where my total in-game time (probably doesn't include menu time?), shows as 48 hours. However, on Exophase, Resogun is shown at 214 hours, which again is another huge discrepancy. However, on Nex Machina though, my in-game time (which I believe includes both gameplay and menus) is actually a few hours higher than what it shows on Exophase. 

 

The feature is not really that useful or accurate for me at least, because I frequently leave my game up for many hours or I will play intermittently while doing something else, but it would be a nice feature to have if it was actually consistent. I also would prefer a breakdown between game time and menu time if possible, since the numbers are massively inflated for me and anyone else who leaves their console on for extended periods or plays intermittently.

Edited November 10, 2020 by machaesthetic

[MMDE]

AFAIK, this is already in the works...

[Shadiochao]

14 minutes ago, machaesthetic said:

• Even the PS4 game tracking seems very inconsistent with many accounts that have no time listed for numerous PS4-only games that they clearly played, while other accounts do have times listed for those games, but not for different ones. It seems like every account just has a few to many PS4 games that have no time played stats recorded. 

 

I think Exophase are still working some things out. Several of my games that originally didn't display a time have been fixed. Nearly 2000 hours of games have been added since I made this thread.

 

I doubt there are games that just don't track time. Because we never had access to it before, so there would be no reason for a develop to disable it even if they could, and even my games from the PS4 launch window were being tracked.

 

22 minutes ago, machaesthetic said:

The feature is not really that useful or accurate for me at least, because I frequently leave my game up for many hours or I will play intermittently while doing something else, but it would be a nice feature to have if it was actually consistent. I also would prefer a breakdown between game time and menu time if possible, since the numbers are massively inflated for me and anyone else who leaves their console on for extended periods or plays intermittently.

 

To me, it doesn't really seem any different than showing how long someone spent between their first and last trophy. Unless it's short enough to be in a single session, that doesn't really give you a clear picture of anything either.

 

And the feature could still be built upon to give more useful information. For example if it showed us the average amount of time played among everyone who has completed the game, we'd probably get a fairly accurate idea of how long it takes to do it.

[MMDE]

All the PS4 games have tracked time AFAIK.

 

It should not be used for completion time, for the simple reason people keep playing the game after getting all the trophies.

 

As I said, already in the works AFAIK. I know Sly said he was like 4 days ago.

Edited November 10, 2020 by MMDE

[PhantomFear94]

It's not 100% accurate. For example, it's saying it took me 11 hours to Platinum and 100% Spiderman...closer to 30-40 hours. Detroit Become Human is also saying it took me 7 hours, but I have that Platinum too. Other games like Death Stranding, God of War and TLOU 2 seem about right at 80, 40 and 55 hours a piece.  So it seems to be only semi-reliable. 

[fbdbh]

Some inconsistencies can be explained:

 

- if you play offline, that time won’t count

- if an application has three games (like Uncharted trilogy), the first game’s time will include all three, while the second and third will show 0 hours

- playing a DLC can be messy (Lost Legacy is a standalone game but might not track or track its time into Uncharted 4)

[Shadiochao]

49 minutes ago, fbdbh said:

- if you play offline, that time won’t count

 

Are you sure? That doesn't seem right

[JohnCenaSong-]

Generally not a fan of adding the hours tracking unless it's opt-in scenario for registered members at least for the time being.

 

As far as I'm aware there's no way of privatising specifically this information on PS itself yet (not without privatising other stuff you'd want to keep public at least) but there probably will be an option if/when it goes fully live in the (hopefully very near) future. But as things stand this means currently no one has an opt-out and even if you allow people to opt-out via this website that requires the user to have signed up specifically just to disable that tracking. Considering how wildly inaccurate some of these numbers are, the fact that some games have the numbers while others are missing etc. it's understandable some people don't want that mess all over their profiles. On top of that, for privacy reasons, I bet you plenty of people don't want you to know how long they've spent playing Fortnite or what have you, but they still want trophy tracking etc. Also, whilst someone who's not even aware of this site may not care since they don't even know about it, they could very uncomfortable to hear that you have this non-shared information on them out in the open which they didn't consent for anyone to know. 

 

Personally I'm all over this feature, hours tracking is something I've wanted added during the PS3-era, we are now in the PS5-era and still waiting! But I know that many others do not want this information just publicly out there for anyone to see. If you're going to implement it, either go opt-in as I mentioned or wait to roll it out when PS rolls it out properly themselves

 

Also, just to add to how inaccurate some of these times are, there's trophies in games for playing 'x' hours which have been my last trophy and I haven't played those games since yet my hours on Exophase say almost double that . Some games where I've had 100% completion in a certain number of days but the hours would mathematically work out as if I had played 26 hours a day, that's not even possible.

[Shadiochao]

20 minutes ago, JohnCenaSong- said:

Personally I'm all over this feature, hours tracking is something I've wanted added during the PS3-era, we are now in the PS5-era and still waiting!

 

We're not still waiting though. It was tracked behind the scenes throughout the whole PS4 generation, and now it's visible to everyone on PS5.

 

Quote

 Some games where I've had 100% completion in a certain number of days but the hours would mathematically work out as if I had played 26 hours a day, that's not even possible.

 

It is possible depending on what you mean by 100% completion

 

If you mean the 100% completion times displayed on this site, then your game was running for some amount of time before your first trophy, or after your last trophy.

If you just mean a 100% stat the game itself is tracking then that would be because games have their own way of tracking time that's different from the way the console does it. The console tracks all time as long as the application is open, but the timers within a game can pause or lose time if you're in menus, loading screens, if you die or switch save files. Which also explains this:

Quote

there's trophies in games for playing 'x' hours which have been my last trophy and I haven't played those games since yet my hours on Exophase say almost double that

 

 

[JohnCenaSong-]

9 hours ago, Shadiochao said:

 

We're not still waiting though. It was tracked behind the scenes throughout the whole PS4 generation, and now it's visible to everyone on PS5.

 

I'd slightly disagree and still say we're waiting because it isn't fully rolled out officially yet. The data may be there, but it's also kinda been there since PS4 begun (first game I played on PS4 has hours for it according to Exophase) and I wouldn't have said back then that I'm not still waiting for it.

 

Exciting times for me, first time I saw full platform hours tracking was on the Wii and since that moment I always a wanted it  Just crazy how we've gone through 2 whole generations without any software updates adding such a feature. 

 

As for completions for the other comments, I was referring to the trophies, yes. Whilst it's true that you can have the game running for a while before you get 1 trophy which could explain some, it's the 26 hours a day ones that are still super inaccurate because the trophy timestamps arr based on days (play sessions). While it's possible I could have left the game on and running 24 hours of each of those days it still wouldn't be enough. If I played a game on 5 days and my hours say 130, that just cannot be, and if you'd naturally assume maybe I was mistaken and played it for a 6th day, that's still an ungodly amount to be playing every day (unless kept running idle of course)

 

I remember back when Playstation put out this little thing about how much you played during the year or whatever and one of my friends in a discord group had more hours than there are hours in the year, he had just over 400 days worth IIRC  we thought he photoshopped it to prank us but he sent us the link too.

 

It's probably the reason they didn't fully roll it out for the whole PS4 generation, it was tracking but still a bit of a work in progress, that's perhaps why earlier played PS4 titles have some wonky numbers. I imagine any game from around now onwards would be pretty accurate, at least I hope so.

[fbdbh]

7 hours ago, JohnCenaSong- said:

I remember back when Playstation put out this little thing about how much you played during the year or whatever and one of my friends in a discord group had more hours than there are hours in the year, he had just over 400 days worth IIRC  we thought he photoshopped it to prank us but he sent us the link too.

 

I wonder if this is because of manipulation of the clock (like when in Dragon Age Inquisition or Fallout Shelter you have to wait a day, and then you just adjust the system clock).

Edited November 24, 2020 by fbdbh

[JoniP]

19 hours ago, JohnCenaSong- said:

Generally not a fan of adding the hours tracking unless it's opt-in scenario for registered members at least for the time being.

Indeed, and any European member would be able to make an easy case that tracking hours played is not one of the purposes they agreed to when sharing their information with PSNProfiles.

[Shadiochao]

1 hour ago, JoniP said:

Indeed, and any European member would be able to make an easy case that tracking hours played is not one of the purposes they agreed to when sharing their information with PSNProfiles.

 

That's not true.

 

The information that the site tracks is available to the public and is information that Playstation users have specifically chosen to make public. And as you can make it private at any time you have total control over whether PSNProfiles can access it, and PSNProfiles will comply by hiding it if you choose to make it private.

 

There's no case to be made.

[HusKy]

Seems pretty accurate for me. I have been only following my currently active games and the hours seem to be adding up correctly.

[JohnCenaSong-]

23 minutes ago, Shadiochao said:

And as you can make it private at any time you have total control over whether PSNProfiles can access it

Not the hours exclusively, as I noted in my post with my reservations. If you can tell me what setting I can go in on right now on either my PS4 or PSApp that'll only disable sharing hours to 3rd party sites while not disabling the sharing of other information such as trophies then sure thing, but the option ain't there .

 

There may be options on PS5. I do not know because I do not own one, but not everyone is fortunate enough to have either got their order in before the scalpers or they weren't able to afford one to begin with. We're talking about data on PS4 games after all, so if a PS4 user is unable to make that private, well, they didn't have a choice in the sharing that information to PSNP did they?

[DrEvilGuapo]

For those that have made use of Remote Play on Vita and through PS App on PC or mobile, I’m interested in what that seems to have done to your times played. 
 

For me, every game I can recall playing significant amounts of through Remote Play doesn’t seem to have tracked that time in this metric.

[Shadiochao]

3 minutes ago, JohnCenaSong- said:

Not the hours exclusively, as I noted in my post with my reservations. If you can tell me what setting I can go in on right now on either my PS4 or PSApp that'll only disable sharing hours to 3rd party sites while not disabling the sharing of other information such as trophies then sure thing, but the option ain't there .

 

There's no way of separating them at the moment. But until there is, your playtime is public and some sites like Exophase are already displaying it. So if you don't want anyone to have access to that, you'll have to make your gaming history private for now.

[JohnCenaSong-]

1 hour ago, Shadiochao said:

 

There's no way of separating them at the moment. But until there is, your playtime is public and some sites like Exophase are already displaying it. So if you don't want anyone to have access to that, you'll have to make your gaming history private for now.

Which is why I'm a little hesitant about rolling this out on PSNP fully and I think this site would benefit from either have it be exclusively for registered members who can opt in/out at will (could help encourage registrations), or wait entirely until the full rollout of options on PSN (which is pretty inevitable, just a case of how long), or better yet a mix of both, having options for registered members until they add the setting on PSN itself and then open it up to everyone on the site once people can control their privacy settings for themselves. Almost like a membership early access, could even pitch it that way to potential new members or to make current membership feel 'special' .

 

As I say, I'm keeping it public regardless because I've been hoping for this feature since the PS3-era  but not everyone is me, and I'm always in favour for opt-in rather than opt-out in general for everything, particularly when it's a new feature or a change in old features. People who's profiles are public are public because they are okay with showing that info, but this info might be a no-no for them, why should they lose the ability to share what they used to because something else has been layed on top which they have no control over?

 

Imagine if, say, real names had something similar happen when rolled out, where the likes of PSNP could get that data and put it on people's profiles here (potentially without them knowing) and there were no privacy options available on PSN to stop it, plus would it be fair to say that people would need to remove themselves from the site entirely or privatise their entire account just because they didn't want to share their real name on their account but want to share everything else like their games/trophies/about me etc. (And yes I'm aware someone could just make their 'real name' anything to get around that, but it's just a random comparison off the top of my head).

 

The thing is, on PS4 I can't see this info, my friends can't either, so this hours data is like borderline exclusive to 3rd party sites for many and that is why it seems sites like this also have a responsibility to offer the option for the time being. If it was available all over PSN itself then I'd be saying they would obviously be the ones who need to include the privacy setting ASAP and if you want to opt-out then for now, sadly yeah, guess you'd have to make everything private. But because it's not that way, it's the 3rd party sites that are pretty much revealing this almost hidden information at the moment, they kinda have some responsibility to peoples privacy preferences.

Edited November 25, 2020 by JohnCenaSong-

[JoniP]

9 hours ago, Shadiochao said:

 

That's not true.

 

The information that the site tracks is available to the public and is information that Playstation users have specifically chosen to make public. And as you can make it private at any time you have total control over whether PSNProfiles can access it, and PSNProfiles will comply by hiding it if you choose to make it private.

 

There's no case to be made.

It doesn't matter the data is public, that doesn't give PSNProfiles or Exophase to process that data. I have given PSNProfiles the right to display my Trophies. They don't need hours to do so no data minimisation is applied:

 

"the company/organisation must collect and process only the personal data that is necessary to fulfil that purpose (‘data minimisation’);"

 

Aside from that, they can't claim legitimate interest. The site is about Trophies earned. Tracking hours played doesn't have any effect on Trophies. And even if you could claim that, GDPR does handle usage of data obtained from other sources than the person itself, the rules on that are even stricter.