PlayStation 5 Gets April Update With Ability to Transfer PS5 Games to External Storage, Social Features, More

PlayStation 5 users were unable to move their native PS5 games to an external storage till now.

By Vineet Washington | Updated: 14 April 2021 14:44 IST

PlayStation 5 Gets April Update With Ability to Transfer PS5 Games to External Storage, Social Features, More

PlayStation 5 was launched in November last year

Highlights

PlayStation 5 users can now Share Play together with PS4 users
PS5 can play games from external storage
Sony has made improvements to social features as well

PlayStation 5 is receiving its first major update that brings new storage options and some social features. There are some personalisation options as well as new PlayStation app features in the April update. Most importantly, the new storage options now allow users to transfer their PS5 games to an external USB storage device to free up the console's internal SSD storage. The PS5 was launched in November last year with support for external storage but had limited functionality.

Sony announced through a post on the PlayStation blog that the April update for the PS5 has started rolling out globally. This update brings new storage options, some social features, personalisation options, and PlayStation app improvements. The update now allows PlayStation 5 users transfer their PS5 games from their internal SSD storage to an external USB storage device. This will let users free up space on their console and make way for games that they play often.

However, there is a catch, as PS5 owners still won't be able to play native PS5 games off their external storage device. Sony says this is because PS5 games are designed to take advantage of the high-speed internal SSD and external storage devices will be relatively slower. Still, this will let players offload some of the games that they don't play as often instead of deleting and then re-downloading. Also, games that are transferred back from the external storage to the internal storage will automatically update whenever applicable.

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Coming to new social features, PS5 and PlayStation 4 users can now Share Play together, that means PS5 users can let their friends using the PS4 view and play PS5 games from their own console and the other way around. Both the PS5 and PS4 will show joinable game sessions of your friends, making it easier and faster to play together.

Additionally, the April update improves Game Base menu and users can now easily switch between parties and friends and notifications can be turned on or off for each party. It is now easier to disable in-game chat, title updates can be pre-downloaded, customise game library, and more. Sony says that in the coming weeks, players will be able to join multiplayer sessions on the PS5 from the PlayStation app, manage PS5 storage, compare trophy collections, and more.

The update has started rolling out globally and should reach all users within this week.

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PS5 vs Xbox Series X: Which is the best "next-gen" console in India? We discussed this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.

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Sony PlayStation 5

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS

Good
DualSense is great
Very powerful
Reduced loading times
Friendlier storage expansion
Capable of 8K / 120fps
4K Blu-ray player (finally)

Bad
Expensive
Lack of truly next-gen exclusives
Not a generation leap over PS4 Pro at launch
Game prices now go up to Rs. 5,000
Missing next-gen upgrades for PS4 games
No "Quick Resume", as on Xbox Series X
Limited backward compatibility
No support for Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos
SSD storage amount is restrictive

Read detailed Sony PlayStation 5 review

HDD 825GB PCie Gen 4 NVMe SSD

Processor Custom 8-core AMD Zen 2 CPU @ 3.5GHz with SMT

Graphics Custom AMD RDNA 2 GPU 36 CUs @ 2.23GHz (variable frequency)

RAM 16GB GDDR6

USB 4

Weight 4.5kg

Ethernet Gigabit

More Sony Gaming Consoles

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