PlayStation Releases March 8 PS5 Update

The PlayStation 5 received its latest update this week with PlayStation releasing Version 21.02-4.51.00, but if you've been around for a couple of these updates by now, you'll already know that the patch notes are pretty boring as far as these sorts of things go. The update in question merely "improves system performance," according to the brief notes provided by Sony to detail what was new in the release. That naturally doesn't offer any specifics about what's actually changed, but hopefully PlayStation 5 owners will see their consoles running a bit smoother now that the latest update is out.

Those notes are identical to what we've seen in the past few updates as well which is why this shouldn't be surprising to see a release being so vague about what's changed. This latest update is the fourth in a row that's used that language to describe the changes made with the same wording used in updates from last year, too. The last time a PlayStation 5 update actually made some noticeable changes was when the Version 21.02-04.00.00 update was released which allowed people to use different SSD devices with their consoles to store their games on various drives, a big boon for those who'd already filled up their consoles' built-in storage options.

Based on what Sony has said before about what's coming for PlayStation users, there is at least one update to look forward to in the future that'll actually have something noticeable for people to try out. We know that's coming because PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 users recently got an offer to try out some features being added to the consoles in an upcoming release with a few big main focuses: New party chat options, UI enhancements, accessibility features, and a voice command preview.

The party chat options will be released for both the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 consoles, but the rest of the beta's changes are only for the newer consoles. Of those, the voice command is one of the more notable additions since it allows people to find and open games and other apps via voice commands, though that feature is limited only to the U.S. and U.K. regions for the time being. The patch notes for that beta update are already out and available, and though they'll likely change between now and the time the update actually goes live for all non-beta users, they're much more interesting to read through.