Sony has revealed that at launch of the Playstation 4, there will be an initial 300MB update required to enable some promised features, as well as improve performance and stability.
The day one patch opens up some of the features that Sony promised gamers over Twitter and other media platforms, including meetings at E3 2013, Gamescom 2013, and Tokyo Game Show 2013.
However, several features touted won’t be available at launch as Sony continues work on making sure their software is flawless. These include the Suspend and Resume sleep modes, which allow the PS4 to wake up from sleep and almost immediately jump back into your game.
Sony promised to notify PS4 owners of upcoming features closer to the console’s launch, as well as keep gamers updated on new features that are being worked on. Two of these are already on the table – disabling HDCP protection during gameplay to make video capture easier, as well as remotely waking up the PS4 to download a game you’ve bought through the Playstation network on your phone or computer.
What would happen if you buy the PS4, but have no internet connection and no way to update it? You’d be losing out on all the features listed below, particularly Remote Play for the Playstation Vita.
Games shipping for the PS4 could have this update included on the disc, however, so if you don’t have a stable internet connection there’s no need to fret.
The day one Playstation 4 launch day update unlocks the following features:
- Remote Play (using the PS Vita/Vita TV and PS4 link);
- Second Screen (on PS Vita, Android and iOS devices);
- Gameplay sharing using the share button;
- Broadcasting gameplay over the PSN;
- Play as you download feature (how much data is needed will differ by game);
- Multi-User logins (up to four supported);
- Party voice chat and cross-game and cross-system voice chat;
- Face recognition and voice commands (the latter does not require the PS Eye to function);
- Background music player (requires the use of Music Unlimited);
- Online multiplayer functionality; and
- Blu-ray and DVD playback/decode functionality.
Source: Playstation Blog
More Playstation 4 news:
Dualshock 4 controllers work on PS3
Call of Duty: Ghosts runs at 1080p on PS4: Sony confirms
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There was quite a reasonable explanation behind why this patch exists/is coming on day one. It’s to do with the fact that for devs to use firmware it has to go ‘gold’ – be certified for distribution into ‘the wild’ – before it can be used on their machines, etc… So what ended up happening was this: devs got the consoles way in advance, didn’t need these features (these are pretty auxilliary features when it comes to the work they have/need to do), and, as such, there was no pressing issue to have them included until a day one release.
So, yeah, it’s a 300 meg dl. Not much reason to complain.