The PS4 will soon support external drives and 3D movies in VR
It’s been a little while since we last saw an update for the PlayStation 4, but that doesn’t mean Sony hasn’t been hammering away on new tweaks for the console. Today, the company unveiled plans for its version 4.50 (codenamed Sasuke) system update, confirming support for some oft-requested and useful new features like external hard drive support for games, custom wallpaper and and the ability to view 3D Blu-rays via PSVR. PS4 Pro owners will also be pleased to know that they may be getting some love too (more on that later).
Although the PlayStation 4 has supported external hard drives for some time now, Sony limited it to system upgrades and media like videos and music, not games. With Sasuke, Sony will let you download and install games directly to USB 3.0 hard drives up to 8TB in size, so if you’ve converted to an all-digital library — and still own the basic 500GB model — you no longer have to worry about constantly managing or deleting old games. Everything you install will appear in the Content Launcher, ensuring apps and games are a button press away.
Like on Xbox One, the update will also enable you to select any in-game screenshot as your home screen background. Sony will offer tools to adapt it to your liking, allowing you to add drop shadows to text and dim the Function Area to make your icons easier to see. Staying with the visual theme, both the Quick Menu and Notification List have been given a tune-up, making it easier for you to invite friends and join parties, and parse Alerts, Downloads and Uploads in one simple list (removing the old tabs completely).
In its announcement, Sony notes that there are more features included in 4.50, but isn’t sharing all of them right now. Thanks to NeoGAF, we know that one of those tweaks could be the addition of a new “Boost Mode,” which forces the console to support higher framerates for games that have yet to be optimized for the Pro.
If you signed up for the beta update program, there’s every chance you will have been selected to receive version 4.50, which begins rolling out today. For everyone else, additional features and launch timing will be disclosed “in the weeks to come.”
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