While stocks of PlayStation 5 are still limited worldwide, those who are fortunate enough to have the new generation console in their home can look forward to new functionality on it from today.
Five months since first launching the console, Sony Interactive Entertainment as today released their first update for the PlayStation 5. This brings a number of new features, functionality and bugfixes to the platform. Some of these include support for external USB devices, cross-generation share play, improvements to the Game Base and Game Library and more.
Now if only something like official PlayStation 3 emulation was in the works right about now…
A full list of the update’s major features can be found below.
Store PS5 Games on Compatible External USB Drives
With this feature, you can now transfer your PS5 games to USB extended storage from your console’s internal storage. It’s a great way to extend the storage capabilities of your PS5 console, and you can seamlessly copy your PS5 games back to the console’s internal storage when you’re ready to play. It is faster to reinstall PS5 games from USB extended storage than to re-download or copy them from a disc.
Due to PlayStation 5 games being designed to work from the console’s SSD, games cannot be played directly from the extended storage device.
Cross-generation Share Play
PS4 and PS5 players can now Share Play together while chatting in parties. This means PS5 console users can let their friends on PS4 consoles view their game screen, or even try out the PS5 games through Share Play, and vice versa. Options include the ability to share your screen with a friend, pass your controller virtually to a friend, or pass a second controller virtually to play co-op games together.
Request to Join Game Session
A selection of your friends’ joinable game sessions will now appear on both PS5 and PS4 consoles, allowing for more gameplay opportunities together. The “Request to Join” option also serves as a shortcut to sending a game invite, reducing the time it takes for you to get into games with friends. Through the Privacy Settings menu, you can modify who can interact with you through parties, games and messages.
Improved Game Base
The Game Base menu has been improved for quicker access to important content and features. You can now easily switch between Parties and Friends to start chatting with your existing parties or see what each of your online friends is up to. In addition, you can turn notifications on or off for each of the parties you’re in.
Disable Game Chat or Adjust Players’ Volume
You can now quickly disable in-game chat, which turns off your mic audio and the voice audio of other players. Additionally, you can easily adjust the individual voice chat volume of other players in the same chat so you don’t have to ask your friends to lower or increase their mic volume each time.
Game Update Pre-download
Once it’s enabled by developers, title updates for games will pre-download to your console if the “automatic updates” setting is enabled and your console is on or in rest mode. This will let you start playing the latest version of a game immediately after the update’s release.
Customize Game Library
With the ability to search your library or hide games from view, it’s now easier to find content and personalize your view of your game library.
Screen Zoom
You can now adjust the magnification of the screen to suit your preference from the Settings menu.
New Trophy Settings and Stats Screen
The level of trophies that results in automatic capture of a screenshot or video clip can now be customized — so you can now choose to only capture and save images/videos of moments when you earn higher-grade trophies, like Gold or Platinum. We’re also introducing a new player Trophy Stats screen, where you can check out the summary of your trophy level and status at a glance.
