Data Backup Digest

Although console sales figures are never totally reliable, it’s fairly certain that the PlayStation 4 is currently the biggest selling current generation console, comfortably outperforming the Xbox One and Wii U.

Of course, consoles last much longer than their initial purchase. It’s important that the companies behind the kit keep everything up-to-date. Whereas in the past there wasn’t a reliable method to get updates out to everyone, every console is now connected to the internet and can be fed new features with ease.

While Microsoft have been updating the Xbox One almost every month, usually with incremental differences rather than anything major, Sony tends to hold off releasing anything until they can pack a nice selection of features together in one update.

The upcoming PS4 update will be called 2.50 and although Sony hasn’t released any official information, a number of details have begun to leak out from the community. A user on Twitter called isaparrot claims to be friends with someone who belongs to the firmware beta testing group and tweeted out information and pictures of the upcoming update.

This user says that the update will include new accessibility features (like text-to-speech, bold text, high contrast and more), a Suspend/Resume option for applications like Netflix, and a new data backup functionality.

According to the information provided in the leak, PS4 users will now be able to back up their data to an external drive. This has been a feature that has been long requested by users who have found that they are running out of space on the console’s internal drive. Although it is possible to switch out the internal drive yourself, it can be an off-putting prospect for those who aren’t totally confident with the idea.

Although this feature won’t allow users to install game data directly to their external hard drives, it’ll mean things like captures, save data, settings and applications can be moved off to another location and hopefully free up space internally.

The Twitter leak also came with an accompanying picture, which looks realistic. Although it is of course possible to fake such an image, it seems unlikely that this type of news would be created by those looking to hoax. The news has also been confirmed by other users who have been involved in testing the update.

Gamespot picked up on the story and contacted a Sony representative to try and find out more information, but the company remained coy beyond saying that an announcement about the firmware update would be coming soon.

“The next PS4 system software update will be released soon, and its features are currently being processed for quality assurance,” the representative said. “We will have more information on the update to share shortly.”

The announcement will hopefully include more specifics on exactly what data can be backed up and if specific types of external drives have to be used to ensure compatibility. Additionally, hopefully an update in the future will allow PS4 users to use external storage to its full extent.