Interview With Pornhub VP On PS4 Support And Next Gen Plans

Recently, pornography portal Pornhub declared that it had integrated the Playstation 4 into its network of devices able to access its adult content. There’s a quote somewhere that sex is always one of the first things to pursue in new technology. Similar things are true for the next generations of consoles, I suppose. They mentioned it quite astutely in their press release: “VHS vs. Betamax; HD DVD vs. Blu-Ray – the one thing both of these competitions have in common is that the winner was officially backed by the ever evolving porn industry.”

We thought that this was probably one of the rare times our worlds would intersect, so we hopped to the chance to get some questions answered about their vision on the gaming landscape. Through some mails, we got a few questions answered by Vice President of Pornhub, Corey Price.

Daav: How will Pornhub be able to support the PS4's browsing capabilities?

Our development team worked long and hard to fully support video playback on the PS4 browser. There were many hurdles to overcome, specifically with the PS4’s lack of flash support. Our team needed to find ways around this to deliver fast, streaming video and thus being able to give our users the option of using PS4 for all their Pornhub needs! This wasn’t an easy endeavor, but we put a lot of time into it as we felt it was very important and are proud to support our browser use on the system.

Daav: How specifically did Pornhub manage to bypass flash support?

We auto-detect the user agent of the PS4 browser and switch to a HTML5 videoplayer to stream MP4 video so it works on PS4. We already had a system to detect when flash was not supported and to switch to the HTML5 player and we tested that this system worked on PS4 when it launched. We also continually test all consoles (Xbox 360, Wii  U, PS3 and now PS4) to ensure we provide an optimal experience across all platforms.

Daav: What's the difference between being able to come out officially for PS4 and not previous consoles?

We strive to deliver porn across all consoles and devices. We always set out to support the consoles early in their adoption so that if porn is a thought when buying a new console, we have you covered. In the past we’ve quickly supported the Wii U and we fully intend to support the Xbox One’s browsing as well. Gamers love porn as much as the rest of the world so it’s important for us to always keep them top of mind.

(Editor’s note: I had completely forgotten about its prior integrations. Bless you, Nintendo.)

Daav: Who does this cater to that couldn't run a regular browser or alternative on their TV?

People love porn on a big screen and your PS4 will already be hooked up and ready to go. Consoles like the PS4 bring a capable web browser hooked up to a giant screen, coupled with our great, free 720p porn, it leads to a great porn experience. It gives people the ability to sit back and enjoy porn on a screen maybe 10 times the size of what they are used to. It is not a question of providing something different rather it is about making sure Pornhub is accessible and working optimally on all platforms used to access the web. A lot of people still do not have access to a browser on their TV and consoles are still the #1 access point to the internet on their TVs.

Daav Valentaten, NoobFeed (@Daavpuke)