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As the PS4's second anniversary draws closer, Sony is working hard on the tertiary major iteration on its BSD-based operating system. With improved cloud storage, amend social features, and the addition of YouTube live streaming, this update won't be revolutionary, but hopefully it'll make the twenty-four hours-to-day operation of the PS4 significantly less of a hassle.

Last Oct, Sony released firmware 2.0 to the globe. Information technology brought Share Play, music playback, and themes to the popular game console. Back in March of this twelvemonth, firmware 2.5 gave us higher quality Remote Play streams and the ability to suspend/resume gameplay at will. Firmware 3.0, dubbed "Kenshin," is set to deliver a similar level of improvement this fourth dimension effectually.

PS4 Online Storage

Past far, the biggest affect hither is how Sony volition be treatment cloud saves for PlayStation Plus subscribers. Instead of the measly 1GB of cloud storage space we've been stuck with, 10GB is the new standard. Because that my salve data for Dragon Age: Inquisition alone is 300MB, this is a godsend. As it stands, I striking the 1GB cap on the regular, and I'1000 forced to manually delete items if I want to upload a new save file. Even better, firmware 3.0 will offer improve tools for monitoring how much deject storage yous're using, and altering which titles will attempt to automatically upload new saves.

Now that Google is taking the gaming market seriously, Sony is adding in the ability to live stream to YouTube from your PS4. Of course, you'll even so exist able to stream to Ustream and Twitch, so diehards of those services won't be negatively impacted. While this is certainly a smart move, I'd also like to see Sony add support for smaller platforms like Hitbox.

Historically, Sony hasn't had a specially strong grip on the social aspects of online gaming. With Kenshin, the PlayStation team is attempting to address some of the more frustrating elements of communicating and playing online. "Favorite groups" will offer easy access to your favorite PSN friends, so you lot won't take to scroll through your entire friends list to discover them. If you're in demand of new online friends to play with, the new "communities" feature will aid you lot connect with new people. And if you tin can't be bothered to communicate with your voice, or even the written discussion, you'll now be able to transport stickers back and along.

Firmware iii.0 has a few other squeamish touches, only they're relatively pocket-size. You'll be able to send up to 10 seconds of gameplay footage straight to Twitter, and y'all can at present badger your friends to start alive streaming with the new "request to watch" feature. The "what's new" and "live from Playstation" features are getting a fresh coat of paint, but there's nothing here to get excited about — but some quality of life improvements here and in that location.

The closed beta began earlier this week, but Sony has remained silent regarding the public release engagement. However, it's safe to assume that nosotros'll see this update hit later this year unless the beta testers observe a catastrophic showstopper.