PlayStation 4’s upcoming firmware promises to bring huge changes to the current-gen system. The company aims to expand the social capabilities of the current system even further.
According to John Koller, PlayStation VP of Platforms Marketing, stated that those players who were able to enter into the beta with codename "Kenshin" will be able to access the new features right away. He added that those selected players to the beta program are lucky to see the feature first-hand, reminding everyone that not all changes will make it into the final version.
PS4 owners can expect the detailed system update 3.0 in the coming weeks. One of the remarkable changes in PS4 is the increased online storage for PS Plus subscribers, from 1GB to 10GB, International Business Times reported. Sony has added handy usage meter monitor the available storage capacity, and a new Auto-Upload menu to Application Saved Data Management has been added.
In addition, these are some of the biggest changes in the beta version are as follows:
- YouTube live - PS4 owners are allowed to live-stream their gameplay via Youtube. It is also viewable on the new YouTube Gaming mobile app and website.
- Events - Sony added a hub that will allow gamers to track upcoming events for their games and let them see the overview of activities taking place in the games they play most of the time. They may be able to see an update for double XP weekends. Gamers can receive notifications when the event starts or if there are changes in the schedule.
- Favorite Groups - It is added in the Friends app, a feature that allows players to connect with groups of people they like to play with. It makes game session up and running even easier.
- Communities - Gamers can create communities and connect with other players based on the shared interests such as genres and game. Communities feature a message board with general discussion, screenshots shared by players, and players can join parties and games.
- Sharing video clips to Twitter - Players can now export 10-second video clip to Twitter.
- Stickers - Instead of sending word messages, players will be able to stickers to friends as their message.
- Now Playing/What's New - This feature display more information about what other players are doing such as what kind of game they are playing. Players can also join a party quickly, improving the social relationship of the gamers.
- Request to watch gameplay - Grants an access to players to view a friend's gameplay session via sending a 'Request to Watch' notification to a player.
- Live from PlayStation - Sony has improved this feature to make it easier to check popular trending broadcasts in real time.
Koller promises that more update will be made public soon and the official release date as well, according to IGN.