With Sony today announcing some of the major features of the PlayStation 4’s upcoming v4.0 firmware update, we thought we’d take a look at the biggest things the company still needs to fix about their current console—and how likely we believe those fixes are to come.
Folders
Easily one of the biggest requests from PlayStation 4 owners has been for folders. While the console’s UI is sleek and easy to navigate, your favorite games can get lost if you haven’t played them recently. (Sure, you can find them in your Library, but it has its own problems that we’ll get to in a moment.) Plus, having the ability to organize and group games to your liking is something almost everyone can appreciate. How a game system launched in 2013 without folders we’ll never understand, but they’d be better late than never.
Chance of being fixed: Extremely Likely
Sony announced that, as a part of the PS4’s v4.0 firmware update, we’ll be getting folders—so that’s great news! The lingering questions, of course, are how they’ll work, how flexible they’ll be, what we can (and cannot) put in them, and how easy they are to use. So, we can’t mark this one off just quite yet.
Library
Until the arrival of folders, we’ve had to delve into our Libraries in order to find all of those games and apps that have been bumped off of the main apps bar. The problem with doing so is the Library feature on the PS4 has been something of a mess. Under the Games category, every game you own digitally is listed, and that includes demos, betas (many of which probably no longer work), and even the IGN and Crunchyroll apps—which, uhh, aren’t exactly games. The Library desperately needs some love and attention, with options for showing only the games you have currently installed on your PS4, un-downloaded games, betas and demos separately, and an actual understand of what is a “game” and what is a “media app”.
Chance of being fixed: Looking Good
Again, it seems the Library is an area of the PS4 that’ll be addressed in the upcoming v4.0 update, but the question remains just how much updating it’ll get. Even if we don’t get everything we want, though, it at least sounds like it’ll be an easier-to-use feature going forward.
TV & Video
Speaking of better organization, could you potentially take a look at the TV & Video option Sony? We have to wade through three rows of media apps we might not care about to get to the ones that we do. And once we are below that little divider line, there’s no option for determining the order of the apps, so that we can put the ones we use most exactly where we want them. Oh, except, some of the apps we have installed appear above the line instead of below, and apps can exists in both installed and un-installed instances in the same list—making the entire option feel like zero thought was given into what should go where.
Change of being fixed: Not Holding Our Breath
While we don’t have proof this is the case, it feels to us like apps are where they are on the list due to what Sony wants to promote, rather than being dependent on where would make the most sense.
PSN Username
One of the other biggest requests from players has been the ability to change their PSN usernames. Let’s be honest here: a lot of us aren’t the same people we were when we came up with our current PSN handles. Maybe we’ve grown out of being “xXx_Sephiroth420_xXx” now that we’re older (and wiser), maybe our likes and dislikes have changed, maybe we want a name that better suite our personality (or gives us better anonymity), or maybe we’ve gone through drastic personal changes in our lives and now want to reflect that.
Change of being fixed: Mixed
This is a tough one. Sony has admitted that when it originally set up PSN accounts, it had the username tie in to a lot of important account details, so what was originally a small issue has grown into a gigantic mess over time. However, at least for Japanese users, a way to have and use a “nickname” was put into practice, and Sony knows how much people want the ability to change their names. So, this one is tough to call for now, but we continue to have our fingers crossed.
Clans
Back when we were all gaming on the PlayStation 3, we could have a maximum of 100 friends, and the biggest problem was deciding who was your “friend” enough to get one of those coveted slots. Now that the PS4 supports friends lists up to 2,000 people, things aren’t quite as easy to navigate. It’d be really nice to have some sort of clan or “friend groups” system in place, so that you could better organize (and keep separate) your close friends and family, those people you mostly just play Call of Duty with, the fighting game community groups you’re a part of, and so on.
Chance of being fixed: It Could Happen
Sony is actually 3/4ths of the way there on this one, thanks to the introduction of Communities. Communities provide an easy way for groups of people to stay connected and game together without directly being friends or crowding up friend lists. The problem? There’s no easy way to access those Community members from the Friends and Party options. If Communities could more directly be connected to other parts of the OS, it’d be a huge boon for players.
Trophy Sorting & Progression
Sony has announced some great new Trophy updates for firmware v4.0, including checking your Trophies offline, the ability to know what hidden Trophies are (if you want to know), and a revised rarity icon. However, there’s still some other things that could certainly be improved. We’ve yet to get any way to sort our main Trophy list other than “most recently earned,” and once you’re looking at a game’s Trophies, you can’t sort them by name or see the progress you’ve made on them. Sony has caught up to Microsoft’s pioneering of Achievements in large part, but there’s still a handful of ways in which they lag behind. Oh, and what about some sort of filter for separating out PS4 Trophies from those on PS3 and PS Vita?
Chance of being fixed: Not Good
In terms of better sorting options, Sony seems to be totally committed to the “most recent” idea, while being extremely allergic to anything having to do with alphabetical order. So, not so hopeful on that one. And, as we’re not sure any sort of progress tracking is built into the PlayStation Trophy system, adding progression bars could be a huge ordeal that older games may not be able to support.
Emojis
Love them or hate them, emojis are a big part of how we community now, and the lack of emoji support on the PlayStation 4—especially when sharing videos and screenshots out to social platforms—is glaring. Sure, we have stickers for PlayStation-to-PlayStation chats, but that’s not really a proper substitute—especially given that no new stickers seem to have been added since the feature was introduced.
Chance of being fixed: Hopeful, But Not Certain
At some point, it feels like the lack of emojis will just be too big of a hole not to be filled. With Sony seemingly having little drive to really push the stickers idea, they don’t have a lot of reason to not bite the bullet and include them in a future update.
Two-Factor Authentication
Let’s be honest: one of the most terrifying things for PlayStation gamers is the idea of getting your account stolen. We’ve all heard horror stories of people whose logins got compromised, leading to stolen funds, identity issues, and even having their accounts locked by Sony. In this new era of digital-only libraries, we need a better way to keep our money, investments, and games secure.
Chance of being fixed: Rumored
Rumors hit the internet late last week that Sony would be rolling out a new two-factor authentication system for a few select countries as a test, with the rest of the world to follow. While we can’t speak to the validity of those rumors, this is an issue Sony has to deal with at some point no matter what. So, even if it doesn’t come as soon as it’s been whispered to be coming, it’d be shocking to still be lacking the option for too much longer.
External Hard Drive Support
Finally, with so many games being digitally downloaded, where do we put them all? The PlayStation 4 has supported internal HDD upgrades since day one, but some owners prefer the easier approach of just hooking up an external drive and calling it a day. With both the Xbox One and Wii U supporting the playing of games off of an attached USB drive, the PS4 is definitely the odd man out.
Chance of being fixed: Could Go Both Ways
We know that Sony is okay with users hooking up external drives to the PS4, as the system can currently back itself up to them. So why not games? It doesn’t seem like it would be too hard of a feature to implement, but at the same time, there is already the internal drive swap route console owners can take. While not completely braindead (or always as cheap) of a solution, it’s still extremely easy for most people to do, and it’s the more elegant choice to boot. Still, more options are always better than less.