When you got your shiny new PS4 last Friday, you were prompted to download system software version 1.50. This day one update enabled many of the features that Sony promised would be available at launch, such as game streaming on Twitch and Blu-ray playback. Now a second software patch is already on the way, but it’s decidedly less impressive.
Sony announced this morning that an update will hit the PS4 today that upgrades the console’s system software to version 1.51. As the number indicates, it’s a minor update that brings the usual system software stability and “minor refinements to elements of the system UI.”
What refinements can we hope to see with this update? Sony isn’t saying a lot at moment, but it does reveal that the system will now “clearly indicate when a user downloads a game and a game patch at the same time.” That’s definitely a nice little improvement as my day one download of Contrast told me that I was downloading the game twice instead of alerting me that one of the downloads was merely a patch.
As for other features, like MP3 playback and DLNA support, those are presumably still coming at a later date. Sony has repeatedly said that it focused on the gaming side of things for launch and will update the console with more media capabilities over the next few months. Let’s hope the MP3 playback comes sooner rather than later then as many of us don’t want to pay for Music Unlimited just to listen to our own music while playing games like Need for Speed Rivals or Madden 25.
While we wait for upcoming updates with some heft, Sony says that you wont have to lift a finger to install the system software update 1.51. The PS4 will download it automatically as soon as it becomes available, even if the system is in standby mode. While we may never be free of Sony’s need to constantly release system updates, the PS4 at least makes the process more bearable.
[Image: PlayStation/YouTube]