Rumor: PS4 Getting Friend Notifications in Firmware Update 1.8; Some Features May Have Been Delayed (UPDATED)

Giuseppe Nelva April 30, 2014 6:59 PM EST

Sony released the 1.7 firmware update for the PS4 today, and it was a quite big one, featuring a lot of generally requested features, but there are a few that still didn’t appear: one of them is a notification when friends connect to the PSN.

According to Twitter user bjexbob friend notifications are finally going to appear with firmware update 1.8. The message was relayed by industry insider Tidux, who has a very solid track record of knowing what’s happening at Sony. I personally reached out to Tidux inquiring about Bjexbob’s identity, and he confirmed that he indeed works in a position that gives him plenty insight on the issue (we won’t disclose said position to respect his privacy).

Interestingly enough Tidux also added that Friend notifications have been working internally since update 1.6, but hasn’t been implemented yet for general users.

Finally, he mentioned that some of the features that were to be implemented in the firmware “slipped again.” That’s actually very interesting, because yesterday something definitely seemed to be up at Sony.

Community Manager Chris Owen tweeted very early in the morning on the 29th (it was 4 AM EDT) to keep an eye out on news about the firmware update on the PlayStation blog. Normally that means said news are going to appear shortly, but the usual posting times came and passed, and the post finally appeared only at 7 PM, which is uncharacteristically late for this kind of news (and extremely late for the European blog, at 1 AM). That definitely seems to confirm Tidux’s statement, and to indicate that some features may have been delayed at the last moment, making the blog post slip to later than expected as well.

Of course there’s no confirmation of any of this from Sony, and as all information coming from insiders, it should be considered as a rumor, but if you want to finally know when your friends get online on the PSN, chances are that it’s going to happen soon enough.

Update: in the morning Tidux actually specified that friend notifications might come before update 1.8, which possibly indicates a sub-update to happen sometimes between 1.7 and 1.8.