PS4 System Software Update 4.50 Features Detailed

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PS4 System Software Update 4.50 Features Detailed

Starting today, those of you selected for our beta program will get an early peek at some of the new features coming to PS4 with our next major system software update, version 4.50 (codenamed Sasuke). If you signed up for the beta and were chosen, you’ll receive an email with instructions on how to download and get started.

Even if you’re not participating in the beta, we still wanted to give you a quick glance of the key features that will be rolling out with this update. We’re refining the user interface of PS4 even further, and adding highly requested features like external HDD support and custom wallpapers.

External HDD Support

It’s easy to upgrade the HDD that came with your PS4, but if you’re still looking for more storage space on the console, we’ve got you covered. With this update, you have the option to store content to an external HDD. Just plug a USB 3.0 HDD into your PS4, and voilà, you now have more space on the console.

PS4 System Software Update 4.50 external HDD support

This is compatible with HDDs up to 8TB in size. You can download and install applications directly to your extra storage, and the saved contents are easily manageable through the settings menu.

Also, all the applications saved in the external HDD will appear in the Content Launcher of the Home Screen so it’s easy to keep track of what apps you launched recently.

Please note: user save files are still stored locally on your PS4 HDD. Only games and applications are stored externally.

Custom Wallpapers

This update adds the ability to set your favorite in-game screenshot as the background image for PS4’s home screen. Drop-shadows on text, and the option to dim the Function Area, will help keep the system icons and texts on the home screen clearly visible even if the background image you selected is super bright.

You can also edit screenshots using Photo Mode in Sharefactory to make your one-and-only custom wallpaper.

Quick Menu Refresh

As you may know, in the last system update we overhauled the PS4 Quick Menu feature (the menu that appears after a long press of the PS button on DualShock 4).

This update brings additional improvements to make it even more accessible. Now the Quick Menu will cover even less of your gameplay screen, and you’ll be able to access handy Party features via Online Friends, like creating new parties, inviting friends, and joining parties, without transitioning to the separate Party app. The goal is to keep you in the game — and not stuck in menus.

Simplified Notification List

Before this update, the Notifications app had a variety of tabs on the left-hand side, like Game Alerts, Downloads, Uploads, and more. We’ve condensed all of the tabs to a single simplified list, making it easier to see all of your notifications all at-a-glance.

You can also quickly access the Notification settings from the Options Menu to turn off or customize which pop-up notifications appear on your screen, so you’re only being notified about your top priorities.

Post on PlayStation Network Activity Feeds

We’re adding the ability to post directly into the Activity Feed, which appears in a variety of places across the console, including What’s New. Under What’s New, you’ll see a new option to post things like text, screenshots, and gifs directly into your Activity Feed. You can also tag games or other users to make sure they don’t miss your post. It’s a great way to show off your greatest triumphs.

Tying into this new feature, Live from PlayStation will show screenshots that users uploaded to PSN as a Public Activity, so you can show off your best gameplay moments not only to your friends, but to users around the globe.

3D Blu-rays on PlayStation VR

If you’re a fan of 3D movies, and you own PlayStation VR, we’ve got good news — this update adds the ability to view 3D movies in stereoscopic 3D directly on the PS VR headset. Grab some popcorn and enjoy!

There are more features included in 4.50, so make sure to keep an eye out for additional info, including launch timing, in the weeks to come.

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878 Comments

  • An external hdd sounds perfect!!!! Now all that needs to be done is a patch that allows users to turn that battery killing lightbar off on the controller for those of use who do not have nor need a ps camera.

    Also it would be nice for those of us that were young dumb and full of s**t that those such as myself have been using the same user id since the launch of the network in November of 2006 it would be really nice to be able to change my user id. Since 2006 i have purchased $30k+ in items from the Ps Store including several digital downloaded games + all of their
    in-game dlc content. Forgot my password once and their solution was to create another account needless to say i had to hire a lawyer because i dont care who you are $40k in online content over a 10 year period is theft in everybodies book.

    • Except it has a function outside of that. How would you tell your controller is even on, synced, which controller is which if you have multiples in use?

      And it’s not the lightbar that kills the battery. if you care enough, take your controller apart and disconnect the lightbar.

    • Fortunately i have allready took all my controllers apart and disconnected the lightbar. I dont need a light to tell which controller is which cause i play bymyself granted i have 2 controllers but one long press on the ps button and it tells me which is which and where the charge level is on screen.

    • Sorry, but the second paragraph in your post. Say what?

      I mean, if you forget your password, you can reset it through your email.
      If you don’t have access to the email, you can supply a copy of your identification card.

      And 30 to 40k in the PS Store? That’s almost every game released.

      But I agree, they should have a system for name changes. I’d rather see a similar system like Blizzard have with battle.net, where you don’t need to have a unique name, but each name has a unique number attached.

    • Unique number stuff is just dumb. Don’t do that. Someone shouldn’t have to know my username and my unique identifier number I have no control over.

  • Hopefully we can still keep music from other themes with the custom wallpaper i just need that persona 5 theme music with a custom wallpaper lol.

  • I don’t like how the notifications are changing I like them how they are where I can go straight to downloads, uploads.

  • Mr. Knoller, was wondering if you had further info on the HDD support. I was wondering if USB 3.0 was the ONLY type supported? I have a bunch of friends who were also curious.
    Thanks!!

  • Best update ever since the folders one!

  • uhhh what about PSN name change?

  • So about the external HDD support.
    Does this mean that we can just store game saves, digital downloads, game install data, etc on an external HDD (up to 8TB USB 3.0) and not have to delete/reinstall data?

    I hope this is true because I’ve been looking for a 2TB internal replacement and Seagate Firecuda is apparently the best choice cost-effective choice and I don’t particularly trust any Seagate products.
    Then there’s the Samsung 850 Pro 2TB SSD, but that costs way too much.

    This is amazing news.
    I might have to go get a 6 – 8TB Western Digital external HDD soon.

    • waste of money putting an ssd in a games console you would never see it hit its rated performance a hybrid drive is the way to go

  • amazing . but why i can’t choose a music with the wallpaper picture

  • External HDD support. Bless you, Sony.

  • Good update overall except Simplified Notification List. That sounds like it’s gonna make notifications a big useless mess. Are they gonna be gone for good once we clear the list? That’s not good for keeping track of stuff.

    The next step towards customization should be allowing to choose a custom [flow] color for any theme, and selecting whether we want to override system sounds, system music etc when using a non-default theme.

  • So the HDD has to be USB3.0?

  • Where is the update so we can play bog standard cds on the ps4 ? And backwards compatibility so we can use our old singstar discs.

  • Could I add another idea to the “Quick Menu” screen?
    Think we could edit the opacity of the sidebar, by chance? At least the blue background, if anything.

  • “External HDD Support”! Better late than never!

  • When you say “You can download and install applications directly to your extra storage” please tell me that includes games.. That would be the dream!

  • For the love of all that is holy please stop asking me if I want to turn on internet access for Blu-ray movies every time I put in a disc.

  • Excellent update that deserves the crown of ‘4.50.’

    The PS4 has absolutely been dominating this generation in games and features. The number one thing that I like about the PS4 aside from the games, is the OS. The OS makes or breaks any consumer electronic, and the PS4 has easily by far the best OS of any video game console to date. It’s fast, fluid, and functional. Love it.

    Keep up the great work, whoever you guys are.

  • Why Don’t They Upgrade The Ps4 pros sofTWARE So It Can Display On Any 4k tv…It’s A wasTeam Of My MoneY Buying And Expensive pro… But It dispaYS Just Like A regular, Ps4.

  • So, did they sent all the emails for the beta already or will they start sending them today?

  • Thank a lot Sony you make our dreams come true so very thank you to all staff to make better our experience !!!!

  • I like ps4

  • Far out Maaaan! Just bought PSVR Tuesday and was wondering why 3D bluray support was absent. Can’t wait to try the few 3D/Standard BR combos that I bought in the slim chance that I would be able to take advantage of them. Now I definitely will be buying the 3D Dr. Strange next month! This plus external hdd support and gotta say that Sony is killing it!

  • Really? 18 minutes to download 11Gb for Uncharted?? ON WHAT UNIVERSE?!?!?!

  • Seeby4 and altercode-cupid
    I’m presuming it has to be USB3.0 for the speed needed for smooth data transfering. 2.0 would slow loading times etc down. Imagine gta stopping mid jump as it loaded another part of the map you move into. 3.p enclosures can be picked p for a few quid from ebay . The one i use on my xbone cost less than £5 with a hdd i had sat hee doing nothing:)

  • just a week after I bought a 2 TB internal HDD for 129 euros. Can’t Sony announce these things in advance? Then I could’ve bought a bigger external hard drive for the same money.

    So pro tip sony: Announce things in advance

  • Can we only use screenshots for our backgrounds? Allowing us to set a video clip of no more than 60 seconds for both the top and bottom parts of the home screen would be pretty epic.

  • great update!

  • Any chance we will have the option to leave the notification list as it was? I actually really like the way it’s organized now and would be very disappointed if all of my notifications were clumped together into one mess. The new look for notifications looks confusing and jumbled. Please don’t ditch the categories.

  • Please fix the notifications BLOCKING my VIEW of in-game content! E.g. Notifications block the view of the UAV in all Call of Duty games.

  • Bring PSN username change!!!!!

  • PlayStation, why don’t you ask us what changes we want before you make changes and people don’t like them?

  • I actually preferred the way the notification page was already, it looked neat and tidy to me, now not so much, looks like ps3 download page :(

    other than that, thanks Sony for saving me money by adding external hdd support, also the ability to use screenshots as wallpaper saves me money on themes(which I never bought)

  • This is great! I’ve already put a 2Tb drive into my PS4 Pro, and its run out of room… Can’t wait to plug in my external :)

  • So, before I drop money on a new external HDD: Will drives powered by USB work with PS4, or will I need an HDD that has it’s own AC power source? There’s a significant price difference between those two types of drives.

  • notifications now a “single simplified list”? were gamers clamoring for this? “less organization! now with more scrolling!” because this doesn’t appeal to me at all.

  • Great update Sony.

    Still waiting for the ability to take pictures with the playstation camera! When I have guests over the house they love logging in through facial recognition and it usually would be a perfect picture too.

  • Users on gaf also reporting pro boost mode

    “boost mode for PS4 Pro
    higher frame rate for old game which dont have Pro patch”

  • THANK YOU SONY!!!! I have so many game that lately I have been deleting my games after completion. Now I can finally Have them and go back to them easily. I applied fo the beta so I hope to be chosen

    The only thing I need now is the chance to change my PSN ID and I would ne the happiest gamer on earth XD

  • oooo! The VR 3D support gives me hopes that Avatar will be just as good or better than the imax experience ;O

  • Like so many others I’d like to get clarification on external HDD support. It says we can load “apps” on an external HDD, but doesn’t say games.

    So a pessimist would say this is a place to store screenshots and video clips, maybe Netflix, but not install games.

    Would love some clarification.

  • I think most of my prayers have been answered now, at least regarding system functionality. Thank you

  • Does the external hdd give you the option to view things from your Capture gallery yet? I moved some clips from madden and such to an external drive but can’t see any of that. I can see the space is taken up by them, but can’t actually watch them or pull them back to the internal drive

  • I see there is still nothing about backward compatibility, Xbox One has this and updates it’s games list regularly…..whilst I can’t play games from ps3 on a ps4, I won’t bother buying one…..

  • Simple but neat, i like this update… i hope we can have some sort of slideshow for the wallpapers =)

  • Cool, now when can we make our custom avatar public and not just for close friends? So far the only feature I want to be added…

  • External HDD support!!!! Thank you Sony!!!

  • I’d like to see the ability to change the color of the light bar on the controllers

  • no more deleting games to make space for new games!! woot woot!!!

  • So can we play off a external hdd like we can on xbox one we can download an install to external an play right off that or is it just for storage then when we want to play it we have to copy it to system storage

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