Sony has officially detailed the features of upcoming PS4 Firmware Update 3.00 (codenamed “Kenshin”), and the new host of features it brings to the PS4. The firmware update adds oft-requested updates from users, and also increases the cloud storage capacity of PlayStation Plus from 1GB to 10GB – something that we’ve talked about previously.
While the below list isn’t a complete rundown of what will be coming to Firmware v3.00, it give you a good idea of just how massive the update is. New features include:
- Events: A new hub for events has been added, giving an overview of activities taking place in the games you play most, as well as official broadcasts. For instance, you may see an update for a double XP weekend, a special enemy appearing at a scheduled time, or seasonal events like in-game towns being decorated for the winter.
- YouTube live: PS4 owners will be able to live stream gameplay to YouTube. Live streams will be viewable across YouTube, including on the new YouTube Gaming mobile app and website.
- Online storage capacity increase: PlayStation Plus members’ PS4 cloud storage capacity will increase from 1GB to 10GB
- Favourite Groups: Favourite Groups has been added to the Friends app, letting you add new or existing groups as a Favorite Group and quickly access groups of people you like to play games with frequently. This will make the process of getting a game session up and running even easier.
- Communities: PS4 users will have the ability to create communities based around shared interests, like games, genres and more. Communities include a message board with general discussion, screenshots shared by players and the ability to join parties or games. If you want to tackle a big multiplayer raid, but don’t have enough friends, this could be a great way to connect with other likeminded players.
- Sharing video clips to Twitter: Users will have the ability to share video clips directly to Twitter. The maximum video length is 10 seconds, but you’ll have the ability to trim longer clips.
- Live from PlayStation: We’ve added the ability for users to view popular broadcasts, video clips and screenshots on the Live From PlayStation area
- Screenshots: We’ve listened to your feedback and we’re happy to confirm that PNG format is now an option for Screenshot saves
- Now Playing: The Now Playing screen will display more information about what your friends are doing, and you’ll be able to quickly jump into a party, request a screen share, or jump to PlayStation Store to buy a game your friend is playing.
- Request to watch: Want to view a friend’s gameplay session? Now you can send a ‘Request to Watch’ notification to a player, which will start a live broadcast or Share Play invitation to the person playing.
- Stickers: Tired of typing out messages? With this update, you’ll be able to send stickers to friends through the messages.
Most of these features were previously leaked by users testing the beta version of the firmware last month.