PlayStation 4 firmware update 8.00 might have received the most intensely negative reaction to a Sony console patch ever. Fans are not happy with the new, convoluted way of setting up a party to begin chatting away with their mates. However, it doesn’t look like the feature will be changed in any significant way on PlayStation 5 — in terms of how it operates at least. As part of yesterday’s UI reveal, Sid Shuman touched on how you can share the images you capture with parties, which look a lot like the message groups we are currently having to put up with.
Towards the end of the demonstration, Sid chooses to share a Destruction AllStars capture with some buddies. He selects a party named Nifty Voyagers, which is shown to be already having a voiced discussion by the headphone icon to the right of the group’s name. Because of that, we have a lot of evidence to suggest that these parties will work in a similar way to message groups whereby you can send text messages, start parties, and share media with your friends all in one place.
Sid Shuman even reinforces that with the quote: “Remember, parties are bigger than just voice chat now.” It’s an awkward situation to be in because this new system does bring with it a lot of benefits if you have a dedicated friendship group you play your PS4 and PS5 games with. It acts like a Discord channel as everything happens in one place. But as soon as someone else wants to join the team, things get a lot trickier. PS4 users have also found out that adding new players to your message group allows the newcomer to see your entire chat history. That’s no good, is it?
