PS4 Has Important Day One Firmware Update

Makes sense. The hardware manufacture cycle and the software development cycle are two very independent things.

@jayjonesjunior: I watch DVDs and Blu-ray movies on my PS3, actually, and will likely do the same on my PS4.

@dougcl: LOL!!!!agreed

It's not super surprising you need to be online to download the online functionality. Really if you're not the type of person to play games online anyway it sounds like this patch will be completely unnoticeable aside from the PSP and dual screen stuff lol.

Patrick, and all else who are complaining about slow downloads on the PSN... when was the last time you tried? I get great download speeds online. Downloaded a full game off the PSN just the other day, over WiFi. Went super quick (over 1MB/second).

Not sure why everyone is okay with having to be online now when before everyone bitched enough before to have microsoft remove some of its most progressive features.

• Play Blu-ray and DVD movies

How was it not finished in time for the release

But how will our heroes of the military who have their PS4's shipped directly to nuclear submarines watch Blu rays now??

They announced a day one patch months ago

Some of those things don't seem so bad because you need an internet hookup for them to be useful anyway, but why the hell wouldn't you be able to watch a movie right out of the box?

You dont' have to be online to play games with this. You have to be on the internet briefly to get the patch, but then you're golden for all the features that work without the internet. The difference is that Xbone as it was described at E3 wouldn't have allowed you to even play your singleplayer games offline.

• Background patching enabled

This is a good way to make sure people who get one before the release date can't get online with them before it's intended

I think what we're seeing are improvements to the PSN infrastructure in preparation for the PS4 launch and the necessary speeds required in next-gen. I think you'll see PS3 downloads achieving 10 mbps on a much more regular basis going forward, and speeds faster than that for the PS4 (hopefully between 15 and 20 mbps).

That's the problem with people who say they think PSN is fast when it downloads at 1MB/sec. That is not fast. That's ONE megabyte per second. Download speeds of 15-20 Mbps would be an improvement, but still don't compare to steam or XBL.

My connection gives me downloads of 10MB/sec on steam. XBL is almost as fast. That's around 80 Mbps.

PSN does not come close. This is the thing people don't seem to understand. It's an issue for those us who have very fast internet, not the other way around.

That is the problem.

I would be willing to bet on PSN download speeds and their overall server structure not being very different when the PS4 launches. It will get better with time, but I'm sure there will be server issues on launch day. Much more significant issues than on the Microsoft side.

This patch is most likely being used to prevent people from playing the system before the official launch date. The dualshock 4 and ps eye are already available at some retailers.

I remember when the Wii U day 1 patch took about 6 hours to download 1gb...

A lot of those features seem like they should totally be in the base firmware that ships with the console. Methinks they're forcing people to upgrade by tying very basic features such as Blu-Ray/DVD playback to this patch, to ensure that everyone is compelled to get it instead of keeping their console offline (for whatever reason that might be).

Weird.

Hot. They are coming in HOT!

Depends where you live I guess 1MB/s might be considered "super quick", where I live (Europe), that is considered very slow and imagine downloading a 20+ GB game with that speed, would take forever. Sony really needs a solution for this, they promised it, so we'll see how it goes anything below 10MB/s is kind of bad tbh, considering most Europeans can push way past those speeds right now.

Sorry about your cable bill.

@syed117 said:

Its good sony atleast comes out and tells people before hand and lists what is in the patch. I'm not shocked by the patch. Did Nintendo warn people ahead of time about day one wiiU patches? didn't buy and was never interested in wiiU. Like someone above said who is buying day one but doesn't have internet.

PSN stuff downloads just as fast as Xbox Live stuff for me.

Why people upset about movies being locked up till you get the patch? Who is buying this day one, without internet, and wants to straight up watch a movie?

Why does it need a patch to play DVD movies?

PSN maxes out my 100mbit just like XBL does, maybe upgrade your poor person internets?

When was the last time you've used PSN to download games? It has improved a lot, and as far as I know, there's a lot of additional infrastructure going online with the launch of PS4. It's quite good now, and it's poised to get a lot better.

Who says that Stand-by isn't in? Aren't you reading between the lines there? Source? As far as logic demands, stand-by has to be baked into the hardware in some manner, and should most certainly be working out of the gate.

As far as I'm concerned, as a PS+ subscriber and PS Vita owner, Sony's flippin' bringing it. Like big time!

I have a crappy 6 Mb/sec DSL connection, and right now I can typically download 300Mb on my PS3 in about 10 minutes. This is no big deal.

Coming in hot. Caliente!

Lets hope that they'll offer them as downloads before day1 and allow install from usb so people can prepare and maybe Sony's servers won't explode on day1.

More on-topic. I'm a bit scared of the day 1 patch. If anything goes wrong, will it brick my system? I hate nothing more than faulty electronics trouble.

@robertorri:

You are assuming that Sony comfortably has all the software ready to go and bug-free and that holding it back is an easy choice they can make to improve PS4 Internet stats. I think they are barely going to have everything working by release date and that they will patch many times in the early weeks after release. Same for Microsoft.

Nice $ony, not everyone is a billionaire that can afford internet!

Its in the link in the article:

Some features will not be available at launch, such as “suspend/resume mode” which is a feature that keeps the PS4 system in a low power state and promptly takes users back to their game.

Just a guess, but I would bet money that movie playback is part of this because they want to get the newest version of their Cinavia anti-copyright bullshit in there day 1.

That's a bummer then. Love the stand-by feature in my Vita. One of the many great things the Vita does.

Everything comes with day one patches now, not really a surprise to be honest.

I hope they include this version update with launch titles. It's only 300mb but SEN is still slow as heck.

I'm tempted to not connect my PS4 on Nov 15 to the internet and document what this console could do without an internet connection. It doesn't look like much. You couldn't even play Blu ray movies without this patch... odd.

I bet it does a lot of this already, the update is likely just to optimize those features. PS4s have been getting boxed up for months, this is just going to be a patch to roll out the latest certified updates.

Never had any real issues with MP on the PS3, PS4 will have dedicated servers for BF4, Ghosts, and Killzone day one. I thought long and hard about the online component of the consoles and decided to go with the one that didn't put everything, including their web browser, behind a pay wall.

On the other side of the coin, we're already seeing reports of XB1 versions suffering from lower native resolutions that PS4 versions of the same games (1080p vs. 720p with Ghosts for instance). Even Jeff has said on the podcast that it looks like the PS4 will probably be the place to go for multiplats. If the One is showing signs of weakness out of the gate, I would be more worried about how it's going to perform 2-3 years out when developers are really starting to push the systems.

To each his own though.

Hopefully it's not as bad as the Wii U day 1 patch.

Microsoft got so much shit for needing an internet connection once (after they changed their policies for the Xbox One). I doubt anyone will complain about this much, which honestly is alright - it hardly matters to most people, despite the inevitable problems people will have day 1. Some consistency would be nice though.

Internet shouldn't be required, and neither should power!

The XBONE needs to have a battery powered Cellular chip built-in so that it can receive OTA updates 24/7. Even while sitting in a train car and being hauled across the country! Also, even while it's unplugged and sitting in a closet. Or off and the power goes out!

ANyway, I have shit internet. I live in the country and am on a WISP. I download things I need by using Free Download Manager, because it will keep retrying after the wind blows and knocks my antenna around and my internet breaks. It also breaks apart the file into sections and downloads 10 sections at a time instead of just trying for one at at time. Can PSN do this? Or will it just restart when my connection dies at 50MB?

Bugger, mention of Blu-Ray has just made me realise that I'm going to need a new remote control for them unless the old one is compatible.

To head off the question; no using the DS4 is not an acceptable alternative.

I think this has to to with threading the needle of tax and tariff regulations in various countries. We see from Brazil a country can do all sort of nonsense to regulate the technology entering a country. I can only imagine how a PS4 is 'defined as a device' by a country that taxes computers different from consoles different than DVD players. What the system can be used for, defines the taxes and tariffs.

There are also issues of just wanting more time to make something work well. As we have seen PSN has had to updates in the last 40 days of the online store both of which probably had to mesh with PS4 for the sake last minute things that work or don't work on PS3. That means PS4 firmware is also trying to keep up with what PS3 firmware is like weeks before lunch. It probably isn't possible to manufacture system if everything has t work across multiple platforms three months away.

Yeah, I'm one of those wait until about a year or so later to get the consoles, just so there's a library worth exploring, and the yellow, red failure points have been addressed. Good wishes to the pioneers, no matter your platform, hope you get your money's worth.

All of this stuff is likely locked behind a patch to prevent people that get the system early from doing things ahead of schedule.

It just seems like an activation patch to enforce street dates, judging from the size. I wonder what they'll do for reviewers.