Today, Sony released a firmware update to both the Playstation 4 and Playstation 5, bringing new features and promises. For both consoles, Sony has tweaked voice chats, and for the PS5, Sony has added some accessibility features. Furthermore, Sony has stated that a new, heavily requested feature will come to the PS5 later in a future update.
For both the PS4 and PS5, the chat system has been updated. Now, players can create or join open parties, meaning any friend can join, or close parties, which is invite-only. For the PS5, Game Base has now been altered into three different tabs: Friends, Parties, and Messages. Additionally, now players can Start Share Play directly in the voice chat, meaning players do not have to start Share Screen beforehand anymore.
For accessibility features, Sony has released three major fixes: languages, voice commands, and headphones. In the latest update, the PS5’s screen reader can now read aloud notifications and read six additional languages: Russian, Arabic, Dutch, Brazilian Portuguese, Polish and Korean. Furthermore, PS5 now has Ukrainian language support as well. Also, in the U.S. and U.K., PS5 now has a voice command (beta) that “understands speech commands for finding and opening games, apps and settings, as well as controlling media playback.” Lastly, PS5 headphones now have the ability to play mono audio, so that both sides play the exact same audio, under the Display and Sound settings within Accessibility.
On top of the updates already released today, Sony also promised a later release of another update, one fans have been waiting for: Variable Refresh Rate. With VRR turned on, players will be less likely to experience frame drops, resulting in cleaner-looking video game play-throughs. This feature has been highly requested due to many recent video games containing consistent frame drops, most notably Cyberpunk 2077 and Elden Ring.