Sony has been holding off on introducing ay major features to the PlayStation 4 for a very long time now- in the last one year, as Microsoft and Nintendo have each steadily continued to develop and further flesh out the OSs for their systems, Sony has obstinately refused to update the PS4 with missing features, often those that were promised at launch, and refused to communicate with players as well.
Well, that all changes with the upcoming firmware update 2.00, which adds a whole lot of what Sony promised. The full feature list of the system update can be found below, but do note that USB data backup, which was originally announced and promised to be a part of this update, is no longer going to be hitting with this one, instead being consigned to a later date.
- USB Music Player: PS4 owners can play their own music in the background while playing a game using USB Music Player*. After inserting a USB stick loaded with music into the PS4, a new option for USB Music Player will appear. Supported filename extensions include MP3, MP4, M4A, and 3GP.
- Change colors: In addition to the ability to add a theme, PS4 owners can also change the background of the home screen from light blue to one of seven new colors: gold, blue, red, green, purple, pink, and gray.
- Players You May Know: PS4 will now suggest players you may know in the ‘What’s New’ section, recommending gamers your friends frequently play with.
- Enhancements to Live Broadcasting: Masamune brings a variety of improvements to live broadcasting on PS4. In the Live From PlayStation app, PS4 owners can now select a Featured channel, which includes official broadcasts from PlayStation, broadcasts from people on a players friend list, and any game channel that the player has followed. Additionally, Live From PlayStation now has filters for searching broadcasts on a specific game, as well as support for archived broadcasts.
- Content Area and Library: PS4’s Content Area, which shows the latest games and apps a PS4 owner has used, has been redesigned to help make it easier to quickly find and access content. It now shows 15 of a player’s most used apps or games, and additional items will be added to a player’s Library. The Library on PS4 has improved filter and sort functions to help organize contented by type (game / app / TV & video), name (a – z or z – a), recently used, or install date.
- Enhanced Voice Commands: The ability to control PS4 using voice has been improved. Players can now say ‘PlayStation’ to begin commands, and ‘All Commands,’ to see a list of all voice command options available. New voice commands were added for live broadcasting, including “Start broadcast,” “End broadcast,” and “Find face.”
- Add To Library: The monthly free PlayStation Plus games will have an ‘Add to Library’ button in the PlayStation Store. This button will add a game to a PS4 owner’s library without downloading it – saving space on their hard drive.
If you own a PlayStation Vita (or any of its variants, such as the PlayStation TV), you too will be receiving a firmware update to go with this, bumping you up to version 3.35. We still don’t actually know when the update hits, but hey, stay tuned to GamingBolt for more coverage and information.
