I spend a lot of time cleaning around my playstation 5: Delete games here, download games there, look for old saves and try to talk to friends. It made me appreciate every new firmware update, no matter how small or niche the improvements it brings. And earlier this month, Sony delivered a number of satisfying tweaks.
players have a March 7.0 major firmware upgrade preview back in February and unveiled Discord integration, new transfer options for saved data, and more. It just went live and far from the usual opacity.”improves system performance” Update. It’s not as big a deal as the PS5 Finally got foldersand there are many other new features I’d like to see, but it’s another milestone in the continuous improvement of the platform.
Use Discord to chat with Xbox friends
Cross-play was great for bringing people together across PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, but trying to communicate with them was still an obstacle. Discord integration fixes that and allows you to easily start conversations with anyone and feed the audio through your console.
Plus, it doesn’t even have to be game specific. someone is playing rocket league? Another person is watching Mandalorian? No problem! Discord is actually great for just chilling together while everyone does their own thing.
Record gameplay with your voice
It sounds silly, but you can now use the DualSense controller’s microphone to prompt the PS5 to record gameplay. Perfect for capturing gameplay in the middle of combat or a tense competition when you don’t want to lose control while manually switching. Now if only there was text-to-speech to type out the social media posts sharing my highlights.
Update your DualSense wirelessly
There’s nothing worse than trying to play a game and realizing that your controller needs a firmware update. Previously, it had to be connected to the PS5. Now you can download and install it wirelessly. It was the slightest inconvenience and luckily it’s gone now.
Get variable refresh rates on 1440p monitors
Variable refresh rate support came to PS5 last year. It helps the framerate flow smoother and the graphics look sharper. With the latest patch it also works with 1440p monitors, a niche but practically halfway between 1080p and 4K. I don’t play my PS5 on one of these displays, but I’d be pleasantly surprised if I did.
Receive notifications for data stored in the cloud
Like many PS5 owners, I have a massive library of PS4 games and store data from all of them on the cloud. However, unlike the Xbox Series X/S, the PS5 doesn’t automatically pull over this saved data. But now it does something almost as good: send out a notification prompt when you install a game that supports your existing PS4 data (like a PS5 game that allows you to transfer saves). Clicking on the prompt will automatically start the transfer instead of having to dig through a series of menus.
Join games directly from the party chat
Another shortcut that you can now use to meet up with friends in-game right from the party chat menu. It’s a nice time saver considering how many times you’ve teamed up to play the same thing, and your friends or clanmates have likely started before you.
See what your friends are playing more easily
This feature is still a bit incomplete, but still a step in the right direction. As with Steam, it’s now easier to see which friends own or are actively playing a game. A small section with this information is located under each game tile on the PS5 home screen. My only issue is that you have to click through to see which friends own it and it only tells you someone is playing this game when they’re online in the middle of an active session. Small steps.
Request to watch a friend’s game directly from their profile
I rarely use the screen sharing feature, usually because when I’m online with friends we’re probably already playing something together. Still, it’s another nice shortcut to quickly see what someone’s currently playing from their profile and skip another chunk of the PS5’s tedious and often esoteric menu scrolling.
Filter games when adding them to a folder
Okay, game folders are my favorite feature the PS5 has gotten since launch, and they’re even easier to create now. When they first went live, you had to scroll through your entire library and add things as you went. Now you can filter it by different categories, which makes the whole organization process much, much faster. Will I ever play 99 percent of the games I put in the PS5’s folders? No chance. But I still like doing it. It helps me relax and feel less guilty about being behind.
It’s possible we’ll get another set of PS5 tweaks later in the year. “We’re always thinking about the features our fans want to see and ways to make their gaming experiences on PS5 more fun, social and connected,” said Sony Product Management VP Hiromi Wakai said in a recent interview. “We maintain a very long list of features and carefully consider how we prioritize our time and resources to deliver those that have the greatest impact on our player experience.”
Hopefully PS5 wallpaper themes aren’t too far off.
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