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PlayStation 4

PlayStation 4 Firmware 6.00 Is Out And It's Not Clear What If Anything It Does

by Imran Khan on Sep 13, 2018 at 01:35 PM

As a general rule, when Sony does a firmware update with a round number, you know they have something good coming. When something is a 3.00 or a 4.00 instead of an iterative 3.4.0 or what have you, it usually means there was a feature ready for launch that was big enough to warrant a leap in naming. Sony even stokes this flame by giving whole number updates flashy names, like Kenshin and Shingen, named after powerful Japanese historical figures. This is why, when Firmware 6.00 launched in the wee hours of the morning, fans were kind of confused when it apparently...didn't do anything.

"This system software update improves system performance," the update note reads.

The generic message does not tell us much, especially when previous updates added total UI refreshes or general system usability improvements. For its part, Sony never announced any huge features coming to 6.00, but it did beta test the update, as it tends to do with big firmware releases that have features which could theoretically break things if not tested.

"Either there is some huge hidden feature announcement coming, or this is the biggest troll of an update ever," reads the top-rated comment for the firmware news on the PS4 subreddit.

Fans are reasoning that there are two possibilities here: either the 6.00 update is actually hiding something huge, or it's exactly what it says it is. The argument for hidden features comes down to the file size, as well as the precedence of these updates being significant. The argument against a trojan horse update hiding cool new features is: why would they ever do that? What would they have to gain from it? And how did no one beta testing it leak anything if there's anything to be leaked?

Regardless, whether there's something hiding just beneath the surface or your PlayStation 4 is merely more stable, at least be aware that you will have to restart your PS4 when you update. I forgot I suspended in the middle of a mission in Spider-Man last night right up until the moment my PS4 turned off.