With the PlayStation 4 approaching the end of its reign, Sony has just pushed Firmware 8.00 which has been in beta for quite a while. With this update, Sony has revamped the Party & Messages features and added more avatars together wtih some other minor QoL & security updates.
Sony releases PlayStation 4 FW 8.00
The PlayStation 4’s Party & Messages features have received updates with FW 8.00 but community reaction hasn’t been stellar (from PlayStation Blog link below)
Having originally been released in late 2013, the PlayStation 4 is still going strong when it comes to support from Sony despite the PlayStation 5’s release not being too far off with a release set for mid-November. Now, the console has received its 8th major update which brings along a decent arsenal of changes which include:
- New avatars from numerous popular PS4 titles including God Of War, The Last Of Us Part II & Uncharted 4
- The Party & Messages functionality has been revamped which includes UI changes
- Party & Messages will use the same Groups of players for both Party voice chats and messaging rather than having separate groups for each application
- It is now possible to mute all microphones from the Quick Menu accessed by long-pressing the PS button
- Apparently, muting works in a different manner now because before FW 8.00, muting a player meant that neither of you could hear each other. With FW 8.00, muting someone only mutes the other person on your end but NOT on their end!
- 2-Step Verification has been updated with the ability to use 3rd-party authenticator applications
- It is no longer possible to create Events, access existing events or create new private communities.
- Updates to Parental Controls
- While not directly related to FW 8.00, the Remote Play app has been renamed to PS Remote Play and it can now connect to PlayStation 5 systems
Community Reaction & Should You Update?
As usual, if you care about hacking your unjailbreakable PS4, it is recommended to stay put on the FW version you’re currently on rather than updating. While FW 6.72 is the latest hackable firmware, FW 7.02 will eventually take this title as a kernel exploit for it exists but still needs a userland (probably WebKit) exploit to be jailbroken!
After major firmware updates are released, the community is always quick to react to the changes. This time around, most criticism revolves around the updated Party & Messages functionality together with the changes to muting which many have described as a step back. Some have also voiced concern about the Parental Controls updates as the ‘Communicating with Other Players’ & ‘Viewing Content Created by other Players’ settings have been combined into one which Sony claims to have done in order to simplify stuff although this somewhat reduces control.
Other than the aformentioned gripes, FW 8.00 does not seem to have any significant issues making updating mostly safe as long as you do not care about hacking/jailbreak your console. As usual, if jailbreaking your console matters, it is imperative NOT to update as newer firmware versions often patch security issues thus reducing the chance of hacking your system any time soon!
Conclusion
To read more about PlayStation 4 FW 8.00, you may check out PlayStation Blog’s post about it.
PlayStation Blog’s post on FW 8.00 Update (article source): https://blog.playstation.com/2020/10/14/ps4-system-software-update-8-00-launching-today/
