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With Sony’s next-generation PS5 console set to be released next month, the new update 8.00 patch recently brought in widespread changes to various aspects of the UI. The messages and the Party apps are now linked together, which means that voice chats are now required to be take place through permanent message groups.
Fans have described this new change as being extremely cumbersome and needlessly complex, and the update itself has seen immense criticism. Further, the PS5 will have a new feature which will allow players to record 20 seconds of chat and send it directly to Playstation using their consoles.
According to Sony, this change has been brought in to make ‘voice chats’ a safer place for gamers. However, people have cited various privacy concerns, which has led to further criticism of the new PS4 update.
PS4: Sony could have been monitoring you PSN Party Chat even before the recent update
Since the update, various posts on Reddit have popped up talking about the PS4 update. While most people have an issue with the unnecessarily complex nature of the new system, there are various minor changes that have been talked about as well.
Apparently, people cannot be kicked from parties anymore, while muting people now applies to only outward chat. This means that while you cannot hear the person you have muted, they still can!
Further, because of the integration of the messages and parties app, playing with random online players now requires them to be added in message groups from which they cannot be kicked from. The new system is cumbersome, and every separate PSN chat will be permanent until deleted.
In a recent interview, Sid Shuman, Sony director for global content communication had said that the intention is to make PS4 parties ‘bigger than just voice chat’. While that has effectively happened due to the Update patch 8.0, the other issues mentioned above will need to be solved quickly.
Further, Reddit user JDBriggsBlader claimed that Sony had always moderated PS4 party chats, and that the new notification has been released merely because some countries have laws making it compulsory for companies to disclose this ‘potential breach of privacy’.
The user further said that the widespread changes to the messages and party apps and the overall cumbersomeness of the new PS4 system is the ‘real issue at hand’.
On 18th October, Sony announced on Twitter that they are currently looking into the feedback, and will respond with changes if deemed necessary. While no other updates have since been released, the overall feedback suggests that Sony might have gone in a bit too far this time.
Regardless, as always, some PS4 users were there to look at the brighter side of things.
