During its PlayStation 4 announcement, Sony revealed that users will be able play online games before they are finished downloading to the system. Gaikai showed off a feature like this last year, but Sony tells us it doesn't use Gaikai's service, but rather secondary background processors. Additionally, the system has the ability to download games in the background, even while it is powered off, using the same chip. Sony says that users can even upload videos to the internet while playing games using the system's secondary background processors. This should make it easier for players to share their gameplay on social networks in near realtime. Sony also announced that users can watch videos uploaded by users from mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.

Sony also talked about the system's ability to resume from sleep quickly. Users can start it up from sleep with just the controller, and will then be able to pick up their games exactly where they had left off when the system went to sleep. The PS4 features a low power state that automatically saves games for users, so they don't have to worry about saving their progress when they hit the pause button.