Sony has announced the start of the PlayStation 5 system software beta program, with registrations now live for anyone that wants to test out new PS5 system features.
Registration is now open to PS5 owners aged 18 and over in the US, Canada, Japan, UK, Germany and France. Just head to https://www.playstation.com/ps5/ps5-beta-program-sign-up in order to put your name in the hat.
if you are chosen, you’ll receive emailed instructions to download and install the beta PS5 system software, and will automatically be offered betas in future without having to register again. If things aren’t quite to your liking, you will be able to roll back your system software to the most recent official release version.
Changes are coming to the PS5 system software. Will you help test them out?
The first major PS5 update came out in April, adding support for external USB game back ups, cross-gen share play, tweaks to the Game Base chat set up, and more. They will be sharing more about what we can expect in the coming weeks, but we all know that one of the biggest features they’re working on is unlocking of the internal SSD expansion slot, closely followed by broadening support for the Tempest 3D AudioTech to run on surround sound systems and TVs.
Further Reading: PlayStation 5 – The six month report card
Sony regularly leant on the community to help beta test upcoming system software through the PlayStation 4 generation, right the way up to system update 8.0 last summer, where they previewed what ended up being quite controversial changes to the party and chat system ahead of the PlayStation 5’s launch.
On the Xbox side of thing, Microsoft has had a long-standing Xbox Insiders group, with those signed up to the programme managed in different tiers and getting staggered access through Alpha and Beta rings to upcoming software updates. Sony aren’t quite as freeform with their beta tests, instead aiming to deliver less frequent, but more substantial system upgrades.
Source: PS Blog
camdaz
I’ve been testing the PS4 updates for many years so don’t see a reason not to carry on with the PS5.
MrYd
The PS5 seems to be a lot more sensitive to things going wrong. It’s quite easy to upset it by not turning it off properly (a power cut or a game crashing hard) which leads to having to reinstall the system software. Which wipes out everything on the SSD.
I know the SSD doesn’t have a huge amount of space, but it’s still a bugger to have to download everything again.
So yeah, I think I’ll be avoiding running any beta versions of it.
camdaz
I’ve already factory reset mine once as it wouldn’t always wake up from rest mode without having to rebuild the drive (works fine now) but I moved everything to an external SSD first.