Sony PlayStation Just Opened Sign-Ups for a PS5 Beta Program

RJ Pierce, Tech Times 17 June 2021, 11:06 am

Sony PlayStation offers fans the chance to be early birds to a number of PlayStation 5 updates down the line.

Yahoo reports that Sony PlayStation just announced a beta program for the PS5, with sign-ups already open. Anyone who signs up for free will be given a chance to beta-test numerous features and updates for the PlayStation 5 console before they officially go live. Any feedback from the users will be relayed directly to the Sony dev team, who will then consider these during the official development of any new feature.

Sign up for the first PS5 system software beta program: https://t.co/lbwHlsWh9B pic.twitter.com/1lL9ETSPhU
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) June 17, 2021

Sony PlayStation, however, is only opening the beta program for PS5 owners in the US, UK, Germany, Canada, and Japan. The sign-ups are open for anyone over the age of 18, with each participant receiving an official invite via email, which contains the download link for the firmware. Also, beta participants only need to sign up once.

The update will be available from June 17 onwards, according to Polygon. However, there is no official end date announced yet. Multiple reports suggest that the main goal for Sony PlayStation is to prepare its users ahead of time before the next planned "major update" comes later this year.

According to the official Sony blog, this PS5 beta program is their first in roughly six years since they offered the same thing for PS4 owners. It also comes after the last big PS5 update back in April, which introduced nifty features such as cross-generation Share play, USB extended storage and various UI enhancements.

Sony PlayStation 5 Beta: What to Expect?

If you're among those who are looking to sign up for the aforementioned beta, you have to be aware of a few things. This is to make sure that you understand what the program's main goal really is.

For the uninitiated, a beta is a software developer's way of testing out a specific program and seeing which features need extra work to fix, improve, or a flat out removal/addition. This is quite common in video games, where studios release a so-called "open beta" so players can test the games (or specific game updates) out before the official launch, which is often a few weeks down the line.

Your goal as a beta tester is to see and feel how a certain feature or program works. And since the software itself is in its earliest stages, you should expect a lot of bugs and other issues that will hamper the overall experience. This is where you could be as nitpicky as you can because all of your feedback will help the dev team create a far more satisfying experience in time for the feature's official launch.

Sony PlayStation sees the PS5 console's popularity as an excellent candidate for public beta-test important updates and features. They want to ensure that the overall user experience on their current-gen console is an excellent one because powerful hardware can be rendered useless if the software isn't up to snuff.

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Written by RJ Pierce