First major PS5 update will launch tomorrow

A major PS5 update is due to launch on Wednesday 14 April, which brings players the ability to move PS5 games to an external hard drive.

Taking to the PlayStation Blog, Senior Vice President of Platform Planning & Management Hideaki Nishino revealed several major updates to Sony's new-gen console. 

He writes about the ability to move games onto a supported external hard drive: "With this feature, you can now transfer your PS5 games to USB extended storage from your console’s internal storage.

"It’s a great way to extend the storage capabilities of your PS5 console, and you can seamlessly copy your PS5 games back to the console’s internal storage when you’re ready to play. It is faster to reinstall PS5 games from USB extended storage than to re-download or copy them from a disc."

While you won't be able to play PS5 games from a hard drive, this will be a huge bonus for PS5 players, who are already feeling the pinch with the console's SSD size.  If you're looking for an external PS5 hard drive, the Sony blog also links to a requirements list for supported hard drives. These include support for SuperSpeed USB 5Gbps and a minimum 250GB capacity. 

On top of that, the update will also bring enhanced social options for PS5 and PS4 players. This includes the ability to Share Play across generations, giving PS4 owners a chance to sample their friend's PS5 games. The blog also reveals that this means that through Share Play, you'll be able to play co-op games together between generations.  

On top of that, there's also a new feature called Request to Join Game Session, which the blog claims will "[reduce] the time it takes for you to get into games with friends." 

Finally, there is a raft of customization options that are being added for PS5, including an improved Game Base which will allow you to turn on notifications for individual parties you're in, manually adjust the volume of your friends chat audio, customize your Game Libary, magnify your screen through the console settings, and customize what type of trophies your console will take automatic screengrabs of.

There's also a refresh of the PS App, with new features being added to the mobile companion as well. 

This marks the first major console update for Sony's machine, with a previous updates focusing on the Dualsense controller, and while we're glad to see an option for moving our PS5 games onto an external hard drive, here's hoping for more news soon on when we'll be able to utilize the PS5's expanded SSD slot. 

While we wait on official word for what other expanded storage the PS5 will support, check out our PS5 SSD guide.