HiGame

As the PS4’s second anniversary draws closer, Sony is working hard on the third major iteration on its BSD-based operating system. With improved cloud storage, better social features, and the addition of YouTube live streaming, this update won’t be revolutionary, but hopefully it’ll make the day-to-day operation of the PS4 significantly less of a hassle.

Last October, Sony released firmware 2.0 to the world. It brought Share Play, music playback, and themes to the popular game console. Back in March of this year, firmware 2.5 gave us higher quality Remote Play streams and the ability to suspend/resume gameplay at will. Firmware 3.0, dubbed “Kenshin,” is set to deliver a similar level of improvement this time around.



By far, the biggest impact here is how Sony will be handling cloud saves for PlayStation Plus subscribers. Instead of the measly 1GB of cloud storage space we’ve been stuck with, 10GB is the new standard. Considering that my save data for Dragon Age: Inquisition alone is 300MB, this is a godsend. As it stands, I hit the 1GB cap on the regular, and I’m forced to manually delete items if I want to upload a new save file. Even better, firmware 3.0 will offer better tools for monitoring how much cloud storage you’re using, and altering which titles will attempt to automatically upload new saves.

Now that Google is taking the gaming market seriously, Sony is adding in the ability to live stream to YouTube from your PS4. Of course, you’ll still be able to stream to Ustream and Twitch, so diehards of those services won’t be negatively impacted. While this is certainly a smart move, I’d also like to see Sony add support for smaller platforms like Hitbox.

Historically, Sony hasn’t had a particularly strong grip on the social aspects of online gaming. With Kenshin, the PlayStation team is attempting to address some of the more frustrating elements of communicating and playing online. “Favorite groups” will offer easy access to your favorite PSN friends, so you won’t have to scroll through your entire friends list to find them. If you’re in need of new online friends to play with, the new “communities” feature will help you connect with new people. And if you can’t be bothered to communicate with your voice, or even the written word, you’ll now be able to send stickers back and forth.

Firmware 3.0 has a few other nice touches, but they’re relatively minor. You’ll be able to send up to 10 seconds of gameplay footage directly to Twitter, and you can now badger your friends to start live streaming with the new “request to watch” feature. The “what’s new” and “live from Playstation” features are getting a fresh coat of paint, but there’s nothing here to get excited about — just some quality of life improvements here and there.

The closed beta began earlier this week, but Sony has remained silent regarding the public release date. However, it’s safe to assume that we’ll see this update hit later this year unless the beta testers find a catastrophic showstopper.

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