PlayStation 5’s latest 7.0 update brings some long awaited features and quality of life improvements. Here’s everything you need to know.
The headline feature of the update Discord support. Originally tested in beta, Discord’s integration into PS5 consoles will allow for voice chats across hardware platforms and Share Screen functionality.
One of the other new features in the update is variable refresh rate support at 1440p resolution. Variable refresh rate, or VRR, is where a screen can actually change how often it is refreshing an image, ideally syncing with how many frames are being generated a second by a game.
Without it, for example, you may have a game that is generating frames between 30 and 60 per second depending on what’s happening in the game, but a screen would be locked to 60Hz, meaning that no matter what, the screen is refreshing the image 60 times a second. VRR, in syncing the screen’s refresh rate with the fps output of the game on display, allows for smoother visual performance.
Just keep in mind that not only do you need a display that supports VRR, you need to be using an HDMI 2.1 cable, which, if you are using the one that came with your PS5, you are.
A “join game” icon in Party Chats, a “friends who play” tile so you can see which games are active in your social circle, and the option to manually upload game captures to the PlayStation App are also included in the update.
There are a couple of other interesting features as well, so make sure to head to GameSpot dot com for the full list.
If you have an Xbox Series X or S rather than a PS5, you’ve probably been waiting on when to expect the updated release date for Bethesda’s Starfield. Well, surprise, surprise, it’s not happening in the first half of the year like it said it would when the delay from November 22 last year was announced.
Xbox and Bethesda have officially announced that Starfield will release on September 6, 2023 for PC and Xbox Series X and S. More information about the game will be a part of a Starfield Direct, which was previously made mention of by the companies around Xbox’s Developer Direct in January. We now also know this Starfield presentation will be happening on June 11.
If you’re plugged into the industry, and keep up with all its events and showcases, you might be thinking that June 11 is awfully close to when Xbox usually holds its annual major presentation. Is the Starfield Direct all we’re getting?
It’s not! As it turns out immediately preceding that presentation, Xbox will be having its showcase and will theoretically be showing off a ton of games that aren’t Starfield. What those games are is anybody’s guess, as by then, most of the brand’s big titles that have release dates will have already launched save for Starfield and Forza Motorsport.
