It’s been a few month since PlayStation 4’s troubled 2.0 update, and while Sony hasn’t made any announcements about what’s coming, players have started getting invitations to beta test the next update. It looks like the PS4 is getting some cool new features, including system-level button remapping and a proper suspend mode.
UPDATE: Someone who was invited to the beta passed along their letter, which reveals a little more about what’s actually happening.
And here’s how Sony describes what’s in the beta:
Images are floating around on NeoGAF and other places depicting the unfinished firmware. The reason there hasn’t been more information released is because users are apparently under NDA.
First up, button remapping!
I can’t imagine where I’d want to modify a button, but this seems useful for shooter diehards!
More important is the machine’s long-awaited suspend/rest mode. Sony has promised this for a while! I’m not exaggerating, either — Sony announced this concept during the PS4’s initial reveal.
I contacted Sony about the firmware update, and while they were noncommittal, the company didn’t explicitly deny anything, either.
“The next PS4 system software update will be released soon, and its features are currently being processed for quality assurance,” said a company spokesperson. “We will have more information on the update to share shortly.”
“Soon” could mean many things, but hopefully we’re not waiting long.
Comments
7 responses to “Looks Like The PS4 Is Getting Some Cool Software Changes”
It’s an accessibility setting – presumably so if someone has some kind of disability that makes it hard to press a commonly used button then they can map it to somewhere else on the controller that they find easier to use.
Extremely true. I have a friend with no thumb on his right hand, used his index finger to both use buttons and use the stick, this will be incredible for him to be able to relocate say, X (the most commonly used button) to say, L1 (one of the most rarely used buttons).
Can I remap the share button to anything but share?
Oh wow, meanwhile, we still can’t see the speed at which something is downloading or play video files from an external hard drive. Is it still 2007?
Can I play stuff from an external source yet? How about stream a movie over my network to my PS4? Howabout flash for our browser? Howabout *something* to fix Error loading media. File could not be played on every other video 🙁
Since my PC died I wish I’d bought an XBone, using the PS4 for web browsing/media is dreadful.
I know I know, gaming systems are for games.
Eh, the above lack of media support is why my PS3 is plugged in more than the PS4. Since only my main tower has a CD drive, I tend to back up my movies and TV shows to watch on other devices in the house which do not have CD drives. PS3 happily lets me stream and I play my ps4 less.
just wait till plex launches on australian playstation and use that to stream media
Yep…. i went a step further. I cancelled my pre order of a ps4 when i found out about is lack of media options. Im a pc gamer at heart so my ps3 was used as a PVR just as much as it was used for games, so when i found out how much they gimmped the console in that way i was out.