NEWS: PS4 software update 'Masamune' (2.0) available Tuesday 28 October. Includes SharePlay, USB Music player + more!
NEWS: PS4 software update 'Masamune' (2.0) available Tuesday 28 October. Includes SharePlay, USB Music player + more! http://t.co/DsfntoyRZz
— PlayStation Europe (@PlayStationEU) October 23, 2014
Since we first unveiled PlayStation 4 and its deep social capabilities, including the SHARE button, we’ve seen an outpouring of excitement from gamers. The PS Nation has rallied around a culture focused on sharing epic gaming moments through Live From PlayStation, interactive streaming, SHAREfactory, What’s New and Photo Mode in exclusive PS4 games like Infamous Second Son and The Last of Us Remastered. Let’s go a step further together. Let’s go from sitting back and watching friends play to actually jumping into games remotely and sharing great experiences together in real time. Today at the PlayStation press conference at Gamescom, we will deliver on yet another promise from the PS4 announcement and introduce Share Play, coming to PlayStation 4 later this fall.
The best way to think about Share Play is like a “virtual couch”. PlayStation 4 will create an online local co-op experience by allowing you to invite a friend to join your game—even when they don’t own a copy of it. With this first-of-its-kind feature, you’ll be able to play games with a friend just as if you were together in the same room. Let’s say that with games… you’ll be able to invite your friend online to play against the Miami Heat for the championship as the San Antonio Spurs in NBA2K, tackle the challenging Towerfall Ascension Quest Mode together, or aide, heal, and protect you as Igniculus in Child of Light’s local co-op mode.
With Share Play, you can even jump into a game to assist a friend. For example, if there is part of a game that you can’t quite finish, you can invite a friend to take over your controls. Like handing over the controller to a friend on your couch, your screen will be shared as your friend gets through the part of the game that has been giving you trouble—can’t get past that part in The Last of Us: Remastered when you’re hanging upside down? Get a little help.
Share Play will be coming to PS4 as part of the upcoming system software update v2.00, scheduled for release this fall. The update will also add highly requested broadcast and video share features, including both uploading you game play footage and dedicated app support for YouTube, which we mentioned on stage at E3. Finally, What’s New will get enhanced real-time activity through friend-of-friend suggestions, allowing instant access to friends’ and recently played games’ broadcasts, and a real name search function will also be added. More features to come when v2.00 is made available this fall, and we will have more to announce in the coming months..
We always want to hear your feedback and look forward to what you are most excited to experience together first Share Play when the feature comes to PS4 this fall. What will you co-op first with Share Play?
I’m happy to confirm that Themes, one of the most popular features from PlayStation 3 is coming to PS4 this fall with system software update 2.0. With this update you’ll be able to reflect your personality across PS4! Themes are among the most requested features from PS4 owners, so we’re eager to offer them and will share more about the feature in the coming weeks. Here’s a sneak peek of what the PS4 home screen will look like with customized Themes.
But the updates don’t end there. I have personally stated in past blog posts that we listen to our fans. PlayStation has heard gamers when they say they want more ways to find friends to play with, and more ways to personalize their PS4. With this update, we’ve added a Players You May Know tile, the ability to listen to your music while gaming, the option to change the look of your PS4 experience, and easier ways to sort and filter your library of content on PS4.
PS4 has been on sale for almost a year and we’re committed to improving the player experience in entirely new ways. As always, we welcome feedback as part of our ongoing effort to make PS4 the best place to play.
- USB Music Player: PS4 owners can play their own music in the background while playing a game using USB Music Player*. After inserting a USB stick loaded with music into the PS4, a new option for USB Music Player will appear. Supported filename extensions include MP3, MP4, M4A, and 3GP.
- Change colors: In addition to the ability to add a theme, PS4 owners can also change the background of the home screen from light blue to one of seven new colors: gold, blue, red, green, purple, pink, and gray.
- Players You May Know: PS4 will now suggest players you may know as potential friends in the ‘What’s New’ section.
- Enhancements to Live Broadcasting: Masamune brings a variety of improvements to live broadcasting on PS4. In the Live From PlayStation app, PS4 owners can now select a Featured channel, which includes official broadcasts from PlayStation, broadcasts from people on a players friend list, and any game channel that the player has followed. Additionally, Live From PlayStation now has filters for searching broadcasts on a specific game, as well as support for archived broadcasts.
- Content Area and Library: PS4’s Content Area, which shows the latest games and apps a PS4 owner has used, has been redesigned to help make it easier to quickly find and access content. It now shows 15 of a player’s most used apps or games, and additional items will be added to a player’s Library. The Library on PS4 has improved filter and sort functions to help organize contented by type (game / app / TV & video), name (a – z or z – a), recently used, or install date.
- Enhanced Voice Commands: The ability to control PS4 using voice has been improved. Players can now say ‘PlayStation’ to begin commands, and ‘All Commands,’ to see a list of all voice command options available. New voice commands were added for live broadcasting, including “Start broadcast,” “End broadcast,” and “Find face.”
- Add To Library: The monthly free PlayStation Plus games will have an ‘Add to Library’ button in the PlayStation Store. This button will add a game to a PS4 owner’s library without downloading it – saving space on their hard drive.
Correction: Back Up Data, a feature listed in an earlier version of this post, is not part of PS4 system software 2.00.
