Well, that was a short evening. This editor was just about to put his feet up, but Sony has released details regarding the PlayStation 4’s hotly anticipated firmware update v2.00 – and let us tell you, this is a real humdinger. It may be months in the making, but the software refresh – which was originally announced at Gamescom 2014 all the way back in August – comes packing a plethora of fan demanded features, including USB music playback, themes, and much more. Let’s take a look at what’s new...
Back Up
Whether you want to switch hard drives or just store a mirror of your console in its current state, the new PS4 back up tool will allow you to create a snapshot of your system’s HDD, and store it on an external USB device. [Update: Sony's since issued a correction stating that this feature will not be available with PS4 firmware update v2.00. You can assume that it's coming later, though.]
Cleaner Content Area
The content area on the PS4 is prone to getting messy when you have a lot of games and applications installed, but PS4 firmware update 2.00 will limit this to your 15 most recently used items in order to keep things clean. Any other titles will be added to the Library application, which will be improved by a variety of filtering functions, including content type, date, and more. You’ll also be able to add PlayStation Plus games directly to your library without needing to download them, saving precious hard drive space.
More Voice Commands
Despite not being a well publicised part of the system, the PS4’s voice commands work brilliantly well. The only problem is that it can be difficult to remember certain commands. Fortunately, with PS4 firmware update v2.00, you’ll be able to bring up a list of options by saying “PlayStation, All Commands”. Moreover, there’ll be new commands for when you’re live broadcasting.
Share Play
Share Play was one of the things that Sony revealed when it announced its next-gen console, and will be implemented as part of PS4 firmware update v2.00. It will essentially allow people to take control of your console via the PlayStation Network, creating a kind of virtual couch. This will come in handy if you’re, for example, stuck on a level in a specific game – or you want to turn a local multiplayer game into an online one. There will be a limitation to this, however: you’ll need to manually re-establish the connection every 60 minutes.
Superior Live Streaming
One of the PS4’s hidden treasures, the ‘Live from PlayStation’ application is set to get a jolt as part of PS4 firmware update v2.00. Indeed, there’ll now be a Featured tab added to the live streaming tool, allowing you to access streams directly from PlayStation, as well as your friends and game channels that you may have liked previously. You’ll also be able to filter based on title, while there’ll now be support for archived broadcasts as well.
Themes and Colours
Bored of that basic blue background? Things are about to get significantly snazzier with PS4 firmware update v2.00, as you’ll be able to toggle between a handful of different backdrop hues. The update will also see the return of premium themes similar to those on the PlayStation 3, so expect to see the PlayStation Store bursting with different designs once this update has actually deployed.
USB Music Player
Arguably one of the most demanded features since launch, PS4 firmware update v2.00 will allow you to insert a USB stick into your console, and listen to your own tunes while you play. While you won’t be able to copy music to your HDD, a separate app will appear while your storage drive is connected, which will allow you to access your personal audio. The supported file extensions at launch will include MP3, MP4, M4A, and 3GP.
You May Know
An update to the ‘What’s New?’ application on the PS4 home screen will recommend you PlayStation Network users that you may already know. This information will be determined by data from your friends, and should help to get you connected to more gamers across the globe.
YouTube Compatibility
In addition to a native YouTube application – allowing you to browse cute kitten videos instead of playing games – PS4 firmware update v2.00 will also enable you to upload gameplay clips directly to the video sharing website, meaning that you’ll no longer have to jump through hoops to broadcast yourself to one of the largest audiences in the world.
Which of the abovementioned PS4 features are you most looking forward to? Are there any other improvements that you’re desperate to be added? Try to get excited over operating systems in the comments section below.
Which PS4 firmware update v2.00 feature are you most looking forward to? (108 votes)
- Back Up
- Cleaner Content Area
- More Voice Commands0.9%
- Share Play
- Superior Live Streaming0.9%
- Themes and Colours
- USB Music Player
- You May Know0%
- YouTube Compatibility
Please login to vote in this poll.
[source blog.us.playstation.com]
Comments 75
Now that's a firmware update.
the themes could come in handy,
at least i'll have a nice background to look at while i'm waiting for psn
to work again.
Nice additions! However, I was hoping for support for an external drive to be used in conjunction with the internal drive, USB video playback, trophies that didn't need to sync every single time, and full customisation of the dashboard.
USB music player? Haha, now they're taking the pee, nevermind.some of their decisions and service of late really stinks. The rest of the guff in this update I do not care for. Last 15 used items? Total crap. Just give us folders. If its capable for the vita then... wtf are you doing?
@fozzie-mpd Is it down again!? And i guess being a xbox owner since the first one came out has me spoiled but I want my controller to turn off after a few minutes of no activity,I also want to play movies from usb, screw music.
ALSO i want to play all the crap i bought from the psn for ps1,2, and 3! steaming games for cash that i dont get to keep is r*tarded,I will be shocked if anyone is dumb enough to do this.If they can play in stream they should play in console. My crappy old pc can play ps1 why cant my ps4, especially since it can on the stream channel.
YouTube capatibility and themes.
@MortalAmbition84 It's not as simple as just flipping a switch. PS3 runs on a completely different architecture, and it's unlikely it will ever be emulated on the PS4. There's a chance PSone stuff might work at some point in the future, but I wouldn't hold your breath for anything else.
That is great though since all i really want is the games i bought on psn that are PS1: Resident evil 1,2,3 Final Fantasy 7,8,9 stuff like that.
@MortalAmbition84 REALLY r*tarded is censored! I don't want to live on this planet anymore..more liberal conservative agenda at work..
@MortalAmbition84 Your PS4 controller will shut off after a few minutes of inactivity. You can also dim the light bar on your controller to save on battery life if you so wish. Its under the system menu. My X1 can't play the movies my XB360 could.
I have left my console on and walked away for an hour and when in return its still glowing blue and draining quickly..Is there a specific setting for that or just the light bar?
@MortalAmbition84 It's not any kind of agenda - it's about keeping the website approachable for all audiences. There are dozens of different words that you can use instead that make the exact same point you're trying to get across. Thanks!
@MortalAmbition84 There is talk of being able to play PS1 and PS2 on the PS4 in the future. The only other option is use a PlayStation Vite as that plays old school PlayStation games. In regards to the other matter there're two options. The first one is, hold the PlayStation button down for a few seconds and the select, adjust devices. Select that option and you see the option to dim the light bar. You can also manually turn off your controller this way. The only way of getting you controller to shut down by itself after a certain amount of time is under the main settings on your PS4. Just have a quick look its easy enough to find.
PS I just checked it out and if you go to setting. The Power save or Power save setting you can set up your PS4 and controller to turn themselves off after a selected time period. My controller turns off after 10 minute of inactivity and my PS4 turns off 2 hours.
Hope this helped.
first and foremost the mp3 player should have been on it day one, but this is good for me atleast
This is great but personally DLNA support is all I need... Annoyed they added MP3 playback (seems rather useless) before DLNA (which millions of people did/do on ps3).
Ahh well, hopefully soon.
Only thing I have wanted is dlna! I really don't understand why this isn't on the console already seeing as sony was a founder of the organization
@seeafish under the comments, the moderator of the U.S. ps blog said there are still features they haven't announced yet...just an FYI.
Waw that's far more than I could say a lot
Really can't wait for themes
The only question now is when?
@MortalAmbition84 It will support MP4, that's Movies.
Any mention of when this Update will be released?
Good thing themes are on the way. I like being able to customize my dashboard.
@BloodyBill Oh man i must have missed that it said mp4 ,sorry and thnks!
@WARDIE Thank you that helped so much! but honestly the controllers should have been set that way from jump street.
@get2sammyb I know but I am from a time when the internet was the last bastion of freedom in America,and now that's gone so kids can be useless and spend all day on the internet. millenial's can't live with them cant euthanize.
Just an update: Sony has removed the back up feature from its original article. I have amended the story.
Booh music, I want plug in a usb stick and play videos on the damn thing!
@KillTheG1mp Seriously? It supports MP4 Movies.
@BloodyBill I didn't see it at first in the update. What video app will pop up though? I would also like a broader support of formats and files though.
Plugging in the PC on a free HDMI port works but is less than optimal.
Okay yeah great, but do we get folders? I swear, I love my PS4 but the GUI is literally the worse I've ever seen on any console.
Cool. But...when?
"You’ll also be able to add PlayStation Plus games directly to your library without needing to download them, saving precious hard drive space" can't you do that already? what would be different?
new themes & the back up
Happy with this new update but still wish to copy my music an movies onto my HDD
I would like the ability to connect to PSN please and also stay connected!
On a more serious note, themes will be nice but I'd also like the ability to hide games in my Trophy list which have less than 5% completion. These annoy me and are likely from free games I got with PS+ and didn't like, so didn't continue playing etc... instead it makes me look sh*t at the game! Obvisously that's never the case!!
@ztpayne7 thanks. Read the comments on EU blog and the mod implied it's coming in a future update. With Sony, who knows what that means. Think they would've announced it though since it's highly sought after.
Hm, kinda wish they would adopt a monthly release schedule like MS. This is far too random.
@seeafish Not particularly random, chances are it's going to drop next month, which is 1 year since the console released (I agree it's still not regular enough, but I do think the 1 year thing is too well timed to be random).
On a different note, I don't think I have ever been so happy to see a feature that I personally couldn't give a hoot about. I will be so glad to finally see the end of people throwing their toys out of the pram about MP3 support. It's a games console not an iPod!
All in all a cracking update though. @get2sammyb have they clarified re share play yet whether there is a limit to how many times / how frequently you are able to re-establish the connection? I had assumed from the initial reveal that it was just a 60 mins and you're done kind of thing, but this makes it sound like you could potentially go as long as you want as long as you go back and re-connect, which seems pretty surprising to me as it's effectively making it possible to practically give the game away?
Share Play is the biggie there, followed by YouTube uploads and Backup. The rest is irrelevant as far as I'm concerned.
The image above shows exactly why I'm not bothered about themes... you can't see half of it anyway. In fact, the best thing about including themes is that it (hopefully) stops the incessant whining about themes.
@SteveButler2210 My understanding is that you can Share Play for as long as you like, you just have to manually re-establish the connection every 60 minutes. This basically stops people from abusing the feature, as otherwise you could buy a game, and let your mate play it all day while you head out to work or something. This way, it requires two active participants. Last I heard, you could Share Play as much as you want, though.
What I don't like of the ps4 is when I pull out my Ethernet cable I expect still to play my playstation plus games offline since I bought a year of PP which I think is unfair like at the moment I'm out of data an I can't play strider ✌️😠✊
Will the ps4 ever be able to play disc based ps3 games in the future? Or do they want you to rebuy them all again from psn on the ps4 in the future?
Would it be possible with an update?
@NAZA-187 You'll have to set the Ps4 to your primary Ps4 system. Go to settings, psn then Activate as your primary Ps4. Then It should work. You have to be connected when you do it though.
@thahammerman333 shot buddoe ✊
Now I just waiting on a release date for 2.00 and then I can begin asking for MKV support
@NAZA-187 is this a PS4 only thing? Because you're the second person I've seen mention this today, and I'm 100% certain that on my ps3 I can play my PS+ games whether or not I'm online - an expiry date gets set at the point of installing (which is the same as your PS+ expiry date), but as long as you're playing before that date then you could always still play. Does it not work that way on PS4? If not, then I owe @WARDIE an apology!
@SteveButler2210 my ps 3 play plus is expired an I can't play none of my games there but I'm playing my ps4 which has play plus for a yr so ima try his way later when I get of work jus hope it works
@SteveButler2210 Its all good man.
In regards to PlayStation Plus games, if you have say, a year PS+ and have the games but haven't been online for a while, you'll still be able to play them until your subscription ends. Although I do believe you have to turn your system on atleast once a month to allow it to do a check in.
Putting Playstation Plus games in you library and not downloading is great! No more starting the download and hitting the cancel button. Its great to have them in your library, some games you don't want day one. You could change your mind and want to give them a look future. with no way do download after they are taken down from Plus.
@JohnKarnes I agree. With some of the PS+ games I like to click purchase and then cancel so as I can download them via my previous download history later on. How will this work in the future?
@ShogunRok You took the words right out of my mouth.
@WARDIE ah ok yeah that makes a bit more sense now. And as for @JohnKarnes post I agree entirely, it's one of my favourite new features. Apparently, it will literally just be an "add to library" button that appears for the PS+ games each month next to the download button
At the moment the only way to do it without even starting a download is to get them via the web browser store on phone or PC, and that's just hassle.
Can it stream Netflix to PS TV?
For the person complaining about censorship on the internet awhile back.
Like any town, city or country the internet is full of all kinds of places of ill repute, brothels, saloons, casinos that are open to all types of certain morally ambiguous and sometimes frowned upon activities, yet even those towns will have schools and houses of worship where the same men will take off their hats when they go inside. This website is more of the latter and less of the former. Sherrif Sammy, preacher Sammy, teacher Sammy, it doesnt always have to be high noon in Deadwood.
Why do we still not have an option to truly organize our games on the home screen? It's nice they are cleaning it up but I still don't get why we can't lock some games/applications into one spot.
@MortalAmbition84 it should actually white after a few seconds. The blue is for power up and power down...
@MortalAmbition84 it should actually**turn** white after a few seconds. The blue is for power up and power down...
Nice now i can upload to you tube
I would much prefer a dedicated Twitch app cos Live from Playstation is only people who are streaming through PS4 & unfortunately a lot of channels I would follow tend to stream through PC.
@ShogunRok Indeed, can'r wait for this! and the cleaner area though I wish I could have folders or stacked tiles. Way cooler in my opinion! BUt still excited none the less.
But when i pay 400$ for a machine that always had mp3 support in the past i think it was a fair complaint, ever think maybe i dont want to dish out money from an over priced ipad,ipod. blah blah
the folders idea is great. Nintendo just updated with a folder type thing for the WiiU and it does neaten things up
The fifteen recent titles will do til folders arrive. God knows why they aren't included. Still waiting for a friend online alert option too, said it before and say it again, it's pathetic that it isn't featured from day one. Intrigued to see what themes we get or if they'll do what they've done with Vita, say here they are and not give us any.
If the PS3 could handle PS One and PSP, I'm more than confident the PS4 can do the same, and even raise the anti to PS2.
That's what I'm hoping for.
what did I tell you my ps4 Brothers only a matter of time with some patience and Sony will delive!!!!! =) I kind of don't mind the fact that this major update is coming because it's jam packed with over eight major things and it will give the ps4 an almost fresh new feel after almost a year of being out!
@artemisthemp too late I believe mTV is also included go check the blog on the PS site! =)
@rjejr until the app is added on to the PS Vita TV whatever your ps4 is playing should be mirrored during remote play!
@get2sammyb I was hoping you could give me some advice on my PS4.
I've had it from the 7th of December and got Killzone Shadow Fall with it. I noticed along with others that my PS4 fan was getting pretty loud. I've also played The Last of Us which is a last gen remaster but I've noticed it still gets loud. Strange sine it was a PS3 updated for PS4. I also now have Metro Redux which also makes my system get very warm and loud. Today I got DriveClub and yet again my PS4 is getting very warm and loud. I have my PS4 lying flat around 2-3 feet from each wall and away from any heat sources. Is this normal or would you recommend me giving Sony a call.
My issue is, if its running loud and getting hot on year one games, what happens when developers really start pushing the hardware.
I have a PS3 slim and that runs without making hardly a sound. We were told that the new AMD architecture uses less power and it also runs alot cooler which from what I've been reading on the PlayStation forums seems to be a common issue but there're a select few that can run Killzone Shadow Fall and there PS4 never gets warm or makes a sound.
I guess you must run a fair few games as its part of your job. Have you had any similar fan or heat issues?
Like I said before, its well ventilated so I atleast know im not doing anything wrong.
Any advice would be much appropriated as I love my PlayStation but my warranty will expire within the next month and half and I want to make sure im not over reacting before calling Sony. I know you're probably busy doing other more important things but since you are a PlayStation only site I figured you may have heard of this issue before. At the risk of sounding desperate, please ,please help as im a little worried about playing anything for much longer than half hour.
@thahammerman333 i have another problem, this is my second ps4 cause the my first one gave me problems after we had a power cut, so now it's telling me I need to deactivate my other ps4 before I can activate this one to the primary one 😠😠
@WARDIE Mine does get quite hot, and pumps up the volume a bit when it's installing a game. If you're worried about it, I'd contact Sony just to be on the safe side. A bit of heat and sound isn't abnormal, though, I don't think.
Why no DNLA let us store our music on th hdd instead of a stupid usb stick cmon sony enough with the cheap quick fixes try improving and adding new servers so psn actually works for a change
@Dodoo I don't understand you guys, you ask for stuff that has been there from moths? Ok maybe you missed it but it's simple, go to privacy settings on your profile it has two icons and the second is for privacy or just go to the settings tab of the console and check for your privacy settings, there's an option to hide the trophies you want, it won't remove the overall marks but will hide the specific game trophies.
@DualWielding What you could till now is getting the other console ones without downloading them, now you're gonna be able to do the same with the PS4 ones I guess.
@get2sammyb if I'm not wrong, you can remove the console by signing into your account on their website and going to the devices tab. https://account.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com/pc/login.action?request_locale=en_GB
@BiancaIrisa I'm not asking "for stuff that has been there from moths"
Thanks for your input but what you suggested only removes Trophy's from other peoples views like your friends. I want to be able to hide those same games on MY list of Trophy's from my view...
@Dodoo Well the only workaround I see is making a different account (Maybe EU) and add that account to your friends so you can see only what others see, you just have to hit the home button and change account to see the trophies and hit again to change to your normal account, it would be cool that they would hide the trophies for us too when we hide but doesn't look like people really care, at least the masses don't even care much to have a clean account...
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