The PlayStation 5 in its current form is a terrific piece of hardware with half-baked software. While it has a few neat tricks up its sleeve, compared to the PS4 it’s severly lacking in several quality-of-life departments. At least one of the major issues of the console is changing this month: Its terrible lack of storage.
Previously, PS5-exclusive games had to be installed directly to the tiny SSD, while PS4 games could be kept and played from an external USB drive. The next major update for the PS5 will finally allow you to transfer your PS5 games to USB extended storage from your console’s internal storage. You obviously can’t play the games from that location, but you can at least free up some space on the SSD.
Games that you transfer or copy back to internal storage will automatically update when applicable. In addition, you can select which game modes you want to install (such as campaign or multiplayer) for select titles that support the option. M2 drive support is still in development, so for now this is the next best thing.
And that’s not all! A bunch of other features are also on the way, geared more towards the social side of PlayStation life. Here’s the rundown from Sony:
New Social Features for PS4 and PS5 Consoles
- Cross-generation Share Play. PS4 and PS5 players can now Share Play together while chatting in parties. This means PS5 console users can let their friends on PS4 consoles view their game screen, or even try out the PS5 games through Share Play, and vice versa. Options include the ability to share your screen with a friend, pass your controller virtually to a friend, or pass a second controller virtually to play co-op games together.
- Request to Join Game Session. A selection of your friends’ joinable game sessions will now appear on both PS5 and PS4 consoles, allowing for more gameplay opportunities together. The “Request to Join” option also serves as a shortcut to sending a game invite, reducing the time it takes for you to get into games with friends. Through the Privacy Settings menu, you can modify who can interact with you through parties, games and messages.
Enhanced Control and Personalization Options for PS5 Consoles
- Improved Game Base. The Game Base menu has been improved for quicker access to important content and features. You can now easily switch between Parties and Friends to start chatting with your existing parties or see what each of your online friends is up to. In addition, you can turn notifications on or off for each of the parties you’re in.
- Disable Game Chat or Adjust Players’ Volume. You can now quickly disable in-game chat, which turns off your mic audio and the voice audio of other players. Additionally, you can easily adjust the individual voice chat volume of other players in the same chat so you don’t have to ask your friends to lower or increase their mic volume each time.
- Game Update Pre-download. Once it’s enabled by developers, title updates for games will pre-download to your console if the “automatic updates” setting is enabled and your console is on or in rest mode. This will let you start playing the latest version of a game immediately after the update’s release.
- Customize Game Library. With the ability to search your library or hide games from view, it’s now easier to find content and personalize your view of your game library.
- Screen Zoom. You can now adjust the magnification of the screen to suit your preference from the Settings menu.
- New Trophy Settings and Stats Screen. The level of trophies that results in automatic capture of a screenshot or video clip can now be customized — so you can now choose to only capture and save images/videos of moments when you earn higher-grade trophies, like Gold or Platinum. We’re also introducing a new player Trophy Stats screen, where you can check out the summary of your trophy level and status at a glance.
New Features for PlayStation App
We’re also introducing a myriad of new features for PlayStation App to make it easier than ever to connect with your console experience remotely. Recently, we introduced the ability to save products in a wishlist, get notifications when your friends are online, and change your console online status. In the coming weeks, we’ll be rolling out even more, including the ability to join a multiplayer session on PS5 from the app, manage your PS5 console storage, compare trophy collections with friends, and sort and filter products shown in the PlayStation Store. You can download PlayStation App for free from Google Play and the App Store.
The new update will arrive this month, along with a now mandatory dosage of extra stability.
Last Updated: April 13, 2021
