Three weeks ago, Sony announced that there would be a beta program for the PlayStation 4's latest software update that we covered earlier, and the latest and greatest features have been revealed. Prepare to flail.
The biggest changes fall into six different categories: an UI refresh, quick menu, share button upgrade, folders and other library management features, trophy improvements, and an easier user profile.
This all sounds way too good to be true but this update, codenamed Shingen, is real. If you don't receive your beta codes soon then you haven't been included in the public beta program and there's no set release date for this software roll-out.
The feature that you'll notice the least is the UI Refresh, most of which are upgrades under the hood. However, things like the What's New tab and system icons have been redesigned. This leads into the newest UI development change: the Quick Menu.
The new Quick Menu is a complete redesign of what we have now, whenever you press and hold the PlayStation button on your DualShock 4 controller. This new one, as displayed above, only covers a third of your screen, as opposed to the original full-screen menu, and includes a few more options. From here you can now quickly access your party, communities, favorite groups, and more. All of these appear to be customizable so that you only need to throw on there the ones that you really need.
The Share button has also been given a revamp just like the new Quick Menu. It's to the left of your screen and takes up around half of your current gaming area. Other than looking like the new Quick Menu, it also makes it easier to save and upload screenshots to your favorite social media site. Video uploads to Twitter have also increased from 10 seconds to 140 seconds in length.
May we please have three cheers for folders? Instead of parsing words, here is exactly what this means straight from the horse's mouth:
One of the big requests we get is for more options to organize content on PS4. With this update, we’re adding functionality to create folders on PS4’s content launcher and Library. This will help collect your favorite games and select apps in one place for quick and easy access.
We’re also making some pretty big changes to the Library. We’ve added a new tab called Purchased, which will show all of the content you own — games, applications, demos, and betas you’ve participated in. As a result, the Games and Applications tabs focus on content currently installed on your system. This should help de-clutter your library, and make it faster to find the content you’re looking for.
There are some new sorting tools for your Library as well. You’ll be able to sort content by purchase date or install status, and search for specific games and apps via text input.
Trophy improvements and user profile changes are last on the list of things to make it into the Shingen software version, but they include some interesting new features. First of all, Sony will now allow you to view all of your trophies in "offline mode", one of the biggest omissions between the PS3 and the PS4. Along with this "new" feature, you'll also have the ability to see all hidden trophies that a game has, saving you one extra step of logging into your TT userpage and checking out those pesky trophies (but we do hope that you keep coming back for more in-depth information). The trophy rarity image has also been changed to look like a pyramid (not pictured).
The changes to the User Profile are also not as easily seen right now although it is reported to include a better portrait of potential friends who you may want to add. Trophy comparisons are easier to do and background images are allowed, like a screenshot from a game that you rather enjoyed or are playing at the moment. There is no word as to where you can grab such images, however.
With all of this information about the new PS4 software update, it's hard to wait. Within the next couple of weeks, more information should surface, including a launch date. As for myself, I'm pretty excited to have folders and better control over my unwieldy library, although the continued lack of the Wishlist feature in the PlayStation store is still bothersome. Thankfully Sony has placed me in the beta program so I can see how it functions starting today. Which features are you most excited about and which ones do you think that they forgot to add? Did anyone else make it into the beta program? Share us your thoughts below in the comments; we know that you have some.