PlayStation Firmware 4.0 Details Revealed for PS4

Written by Brandon Hofer on August 15, 2016

News: Sony has revealed some of the things you can look forward to once firmware 4.0 is released on the PS4.

Sony has revealed some details about their next big firmware update, currently codenamed “Shingen”. I’m not sure why you need a code name when everyone knows it is going to be known as update 4.0 but that isn’t important. What is important is that Sony is finally delivering on some features that gamers have been requesting for a long time. If you participate in their public beta program and get selected then you should receive an email soon with instructions on how to download it. There has been no release date mentioned for everyone else but with them sending it out to be beta tested one can hope and assume it won’t be much longer until everyone gets this update.

When looking at the pictures that have been provided as well as reading about some of the new features the design team over at PlayStation has clearly taken some cues from Microsoft with what they have done with Xbox and I say that in the most positive terms possible. For starters there is the change to the quick menu. Once this update is installed and you press down the PS button to bring up the quick menu it will no longer take up the whole screen. Instead it will only cover a portion of the screen on the left. New items have been added as well in addition to existing items getting refined. With the default settings you will be able to see the online status of friends as well as have access to shortcuts to Party, Favorite Groups, Communities and more. Of course if you don’t like that then you can change it and customize your Quick Menu however you want it.

For me one of the biggest things I have been requesting is more organizational features. The PS4 library is a huge mess and if you have a big library of titles it can get really annoying. That should change with Firmware 4.0 though with the introduction of folders and being able to organize your library. Folders were an amazing feature on the PlayStation 3 and I used them to keep all of my open world games in one area, all of my RPG titles in one area, all of my sports games in one area and so on. It made it really easy to find something. Now we are finally going to be able to do that on PlayStation 4. In addition to the folders the library itself is undergoing a change. There will be a new “Purchased” tab there that will show everything you have “bought” from the PlayStation Store whether it is No Man’s Sky, the Netflix app or the Destiny Alpha. Because of this the “Games and Applications” tab will focus solely on content currently installed on your system. This will really help clean up your library and will make sure I never have to stare at the beta for Destiny that has been sitting there for years or that demo that I downloaded and ended up not liking. You will also be able to sort content by purchase date or install status and search for specific games via text input.

There is also going to be some much needed improvement on the trophy system. With this new update you will now be able to view your trophies offline in case you don’t have access to internet at any given time. There will also be a new button available that will allow you to view the content of a Hidden Trophy. This will remain hidden by default so that people don’t accidentally run into spoilers for games but if you so choose you can look at it at any time.

These are just a few of the features in firmware 4.0 but it is already looking like one of the best ones Sony has put out. There are also features in this new firmware that haven’t been announced. With that being the case, what would you like to see added to firmware 4.0? Tell us in the comments below.

”PS4