PS4 update 1.70 ‘coming soon’; introduces SHAREfactory

Sony has announced that the eagerly awaited PlayStation 4 update 1.70 will be coming "soon," revealing a number of new features it'll introduce. Though some of the features were briefly talked about last month, SCEA's Director of Product Planning & Software Innovation Scott McCarthy took to the PlayStation Blog to go into a little more depth. 

SHAREfactory

First up we have SHAREfactory, a new "rich video editor app" that will make it easy for you to customize your gameplay videos. "With SHAREfactory, you can now easily combine your captured video clips for editing, personalize them with special effects using filters, transitions, and themes, as well as share them with your friends and social networks," Sony explained. You'll be able to add text, stickers, and a set of included audio tracks, as well as video commentary with picture-in-picture capability with the PlayStation Camera. It also lets you import your original music to add to the custom soundtrack for your video.

HDMI Capture & USB exporting

With update 1.70, you'll finally be able to turn off HDCP, enabling you to capture gameplay video directly from your HDMI output. This will allow you to record and share longer clips of your gameplay sessions. Additionally, once you've captured and edited your video, you can upload it to Facebook or export it to an external USB storage device to upload them elsewhere, like YouTube. It may not be as easy as a direct upload to YouTube, but at least it's an option. Other PS4 SHARE enhancements include the ability to change the recording time of your gameplay to shorter increments, the ability to change who you share your clips with on the SHARE screen, and the removal of default saves for screenshots and video clips.

Play Just-released games even faster!

"Providing you with immediate access to your games is a priority designed into PS4, and something we will always strive to make better," McCarthy said. "We’ve had a great response from PS4 fans about the Play as You Download feature, the snappy load times when launching and playing games, and the general speed and responsiveness of the UI."

To that end, the 1.70 update will add features to build on to this idea and make it even faster to play games you pre-order with an auto pre-download capability. This will allow you to pre-download your pre-ordered game up to several days prior to release. If you have auto-download enabled, it will automatically pre-download your pre-ordered game so you can play as soon as it is unlocked on release day.

"As I mentioned earlier, some of these features were a direct result of the great feedback we’ve been getting from you, our dedicated gamer community," McCarthy said. "We enjoy listening to your comments, and encourage you to continue sharing your thoughts with us. And this is just the beginning. We’ve got a lot more coming in PS4 system software update v1.70 and beyond. The PS4 experience will constantly evolve, and new innovative ideas can come from anywhere to ensure the platform continues to deliver the best in gaming and entertainment every time you turn it on."

Update 1.70 doesn't yet have a release date, but Sony said it is coming "soon." An industry insider believes the update will release sometime next week.