Starting today, those of you lucky enough to be chosen for the PS4 system software 4.50 beta (codename Sasuke) trial will be able to get your hands on the new features from the forthcoming update. Keep an eye on your email inbox – if you were chosen, you’ll receive an email with details of how to download the update and get started.

In the meantime, here’s a quick overview of the biggest features coming your way. For this update, we’ve focussed on some of the things that you, the PS4 community, have requested most often – including external HDD support, custom wallpapers and more ways to connect and share with friends.

External HDD support

Struggling to find space for all the games you want to play? Well worry no more; you can now connect a USB 3.0 external HDD and download, save and install games, apps and add-ons directly onto your removable HDD. You can also move any games and apps you’ve already saved onto it to help you stay organised.

When you connect the external HDD, everything will be accessible from your PS4 Home Screen as normal. What’s more, your PS4 will support an external HDD up to 8TB in size, giving you a huge amount of space to play with.

Custom wallpapers

If you’ve captured a truly epic in-game moment with the SHARE button, you can now set it as the background image for your PS4 Home Screen. To make sure the Home Screen icons and text don’t get lost against your new wallpaper, you can tweak the drop shadows and brightness of the menus to keep them clearly visible.

If you’re feeling particularly creative, you can also use SHAREfactory’s Photo Mode to edit your screenshots and make something entirely unique to use as your wallpaper.

Quick menu refresh

System software 4.0 introduced the Quick Menu (accessed in-game when you long-press the PS button on your DUALSHOCK 4) and the latest update further enhances this popular feature to make it even more user-friendly.

The Quick Menu will cover less of the game screen, and you’ll now be able to create, join and manage Parties on the go, meaning you can connect with friends without having to leave the game.

Post status updates to your PlayStation Network activity feed

Just like updating your Facebook status or posting to Twitter, you can now post updates directly to your PSN activity feed. You’ll be able to add simple text updates, tag friends, add screenshots and include specific games, then send your updates to appear in the What’s New section for all your PSN friends to see.

You’ll also be able to send your in-game screenshots to the Live from PlayStation section as a Public Activity, meaning players from around the world can see your best moments as they happen.

3D Blu-ray support for PlayStation VR

If you’re a PS VR owner, you can now use your PS4 to play 3D Blu-ray discs and watch them in stereoscopic 3D via your headset.

This is just a taste of the features included in system software 4.50, so make sure to keep an eye out for more information, including launch timing, in the upcoming weeks.

For those taking part in the beta trial, we hope you enjoy trying out these new features and, as always, your feedback is really important to us.