I spend a lot of time hanging around my playstation 5: Delete games here, download them there, find old saves, and try to talk to friends. It has made me appreciate every new firmware update, no matter how small or specific the improvements it makes. And earlier this month, Sony delivered a bunch of satisfying tweaks.
The players got a March 7.0 Big Firmware Update Preview in February, revealing Discord integration, new save data transfer options, and more. It recently went live, and it’s a far cry from the usual opaque”improves system performance” updates. It’s not as important as the PS5 finally getting foldersand there are still many other new features that I would love to see, but it is another milestone in the continuous improvement of the platform.
Use Discord to voice chat with Xbox friends
Crossplay has been great at bringing people together on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, but actually trying to communicate with them was still a drag. discord integration it fixes that and allows you to easily start conversations with anyone and stream the audio through your console.
Plus, it doesn’t even have to be game specific. someone playing rocket league? another person watching mandalorian? No problem! Discord is really great for relaxing together while everyone is doing their own thing.
Capture the game using your voice
It sounds silly, but now you can use the DualSense controller’s microphone to ask the PS5 to record gameplay. Perfect for capturing gameplay in the heat of battle or a tense competition when you don’t want to lose control while manually shifting. Now if only there was text to speech to write the social media posts sharing my highlights.
Update your DualSense wirelessly
There’s nothing worse than trying to play a game and finding that your controller needs a firmware update. Previously, this required connecting it to the PS5. Now, you can download and install it wirelessly. It was the smallest of inconveniences, and thankfully gone.
Get variable refresh rates on 1440p monitors
Variable refresh rate support came to PS5 last year. It helps the frame rate flow more smoothly and makes the graphics look sharper. With the latest patch, it will also work with 1440p monitors, a niche but handy middle ground between 1080p and 4K. I don’t play my PS5 on one of these screens, but I’d be pleasantly surprised if I did.
Receive notifications to save data in the cloud
Like many PS5 owners, I have a huge library of PS4 games and back up data from all of them in the cloud. Unlike the Xbox Series X/S, however, the PS5 doesn’t automatically pull that save data. But now, it does something almost as good: it sends a notification message when you install a game that supports your existing PS4 data (like a PS5 game where you can transfer saves). Clicking on the message will automatically start the transfer, instead of having to dig through a bunch of menus.
Join the games directly from the party chat
Another button request shortcut, it’s now possible to meet up with friends in-game directly from the party chat menu. It’s a nice time saver considering how often you can group up to play the same thing, and your friends or clanmates have probably already started before you.
See what your friends are playing more easily
This feature is still somewhat incomplete, but it’s still a step in the right direction. Just like with Steam, it’s now easier to see which friends have a game you own or are actively playing it. A small section with that information sits below each game tile on the PS5 home screen. My only quibble is that you have to click to see which friends have it, and it only tells you someone is playing that game if 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 screen sharing, usually because if I’m online with friends, we’re probably already playing something together. Still, it’s another nice shortcut for being able to quickly see what someone is playing right from their profile, bypassing another bit of the PS5’s tedious and often esoteric scrolling menu.
Filter games when adding them to a folder
Alright, game folders are my favorite new feature the PS5 has received since launch, and now they’re even easier to do. When they were first released, you had to scroll through your entire library adding things as you went. Now you can filter it by various categories, making the whole organizing process much, much faster. Will I ever play 99 percent of the games I keep in the folders on the PS5? No way. But I like to do the same. It helps me relax and feel less guilty about my late work.
We may get another batch of PS5 tweaks later in the year. “We’re always thinking about features our fans might want to see and ways to make their gaming experiences on PS5 more fun, social and connected,” said Hiromi Wakai, Sony’s vice president of product management. said in a recent interview. “We maintain a very long list of features and think carefully about how we prioritize our time and resources to deliver the ones that will have the most significant impact on our players’ experience.”
Let’s hope PS5 background themes aren’t too far off.