When PlayStation 4 machines were being built, work didn’t stop on the machine’s launch firmware, which means users will be asked to download a 300MB update on day one.
How will they guarantee you download version 1.50? You can’t participate in online multiplayer without it! But that’s not the only piece of basic functionality that’s unlocked.
Sony broke down what version 1.50 unlocks on the PlayStation Blog this morning.
- Remote Play with Vita
- Second screen experiences on other devices
- Recording and streaming functionality
- Play games as they download
- Multiple user log-in
- Voice chat
- Face recognition with voice commands
- Background music player
- Online multiplayer
- Play Blu-ray and DVD movies
So, uh, yeah--it’s important. But who wouldn’t be connected to the Internet, anyway? At least we’ll see an early stress test of PlayStation Network, and whether Sony’s figured out how to make sure everyone’s able to grab content at decent speeds. (I’ve never been able to.)