Sony's PS4 FAQ reveals some very bad news...

Sony just released their official FAQ on the PlayStation Blog, and it comes with some very bad news.

Will users be able to connect an external hard drive to expand storage on PS4?

No, this feature is not supported on PS4.

Will I be able to play background music while I play PS4 games?

Yes, the Music Unlimited streaming service will allow you to listen to music while you play PS4 games. A subscription to Music Unlimited is required. Get full details here

Does PS4 include a music visualizer feature?

No.

Will I be able to play MP3s on PS4?

No.

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No external hard drive support (so no backing up data if the console breaks). No MP3 playback. Forcing Music Unlimited on us just to play music. Bad form, Sony.

The "no" external HDD support could easily be because of pirating and/or other illegale issues, so that doesn't bother me really. 500 Gb should be enough. No Mp3-playback doesn't really bother me, but I see that it has caused a lot of other being concerned. I play my music on cd's and I have an external cd-player which I use to play music from. Call me old-fashion'ed, but I just enjoy the better quality from a cd.

500gb's actually won't be enough. Most next gen games are asking for a 45-50gb install. Good thing is at least we can still swap hdd's

PS Plus will keep save files on cloud at least.

They said external harddrives, but you can still add your own internal harddrive? Correct? If not that's ridiculous. Games like Killzone are nearly 50GB now, and 500GB just isn't going to cut it.

Not only did the removal of mp3 support feel backwards, it also means we would be stuck with Music Unlimited's choice of music. I have a hard time believing their service will have most of the j-rock i have.

I also like to listen to podcasts while playing games that don't require full attention to it, like button mashers (Dynasty Warriors) or just doing random exploring in an open world game.

I completely agree. 500 GB does not seem sufficient. But, yes, we can always consider swapping HDDs.

Well I don't have to put up with Music Unlimited.. I have my TV audio plugged into my PC with the simple use of an audio cable. Therefore I can listen to game volume coming from my PS4 and anything that's on my PC at the same time on the one headset. Simple work around if you have the correct cable and your PC is somewhat close to your TV. Sony think they can control people, but people will always find the next best easiest method out there. People are not suddenly going to pay for some music service because they took a feature away. Silly Sony.

@dipdish: well, my opinion is that 500 Gb is plenty, at least _for me_. 50 Gb per game nets you 10 installed games (AAA) on your console. I don't expect indie games to take up to 50 Gb's of data... Though you can also play games of the blu-rays, so not every game needs to be downloaded/installed. "Killzone Shadow Fall" takes 38-40 Gb of data, and is considered a "uber file". If the usual space for games turns out to be 30 Gbs, then you can store additional 50% of games on your Ps4. The first game I'm getting is the disc version of FIFA 14, and I'm not going to install that game. We'll see how it turns out in two-three weeks :)

Those are all pretty stupid, especially having to pay for a music a subscription to some crappy streaming service if you want to listen to songs on your ps4.Being able to listen to your own music in the background for games has been a request by many PS3 gamers for a long time, and it's pretty lame that this shit is the best they could offer (and that they had to remove mp3 support just so they could utilize it).

Do that many people actually buy the digital version of games? I've never, ever seen a console game that I couldn't find for significantly cheaper by buying the disk version.

Some people, like me, have ps3s that no longer read game disks. so instead of spending the ridiculous $99 to get it repaired this close to ps4 launch, i'm stuck with digital games. Though i do agree they are overpriced. But it forces me to only buy games i'm sure i will like and play for a long time.

* External Harddrive is as Ugly as PowerBrick on the xbox

* Why should we play music on a console?? doesn't make sense mp3 and cd audio are not 1080 or 720 .... lol

Why play music on a console? The same reason why people play music on computers, tablets, phones, etc. And TV speakers sound much better than any of those devices.

Can the Xbox One play MP3s? Or is Microsoft forcing people to use Xbox Music for streaming?

That's disappointing about not being able to play MP3s... I like keeping my music on my PS3 although I rarely listen to it on there. But I was hoping some next-gen game would support custom soundtracks, but it seems that won't be possible now. Hell, that was even possible on at least one PS3 game- Burnout Paradise, though it just played your music in the background like this Music Unlimited will, but I don't want to subscribe to some shitty music streaming service.

Nintendo allows external hard drives, yet Sony doesn't. Logic?

Even the frickin' Vita requires external memory cards. So what's Sony's excuse for the PS4?

• I don't really care about an external HDD, if I need more space I will simply swap the internal HDD for a bigger one.
• I don't care about streaming my own music while gaming, never did that on my PS3 anyway.
• I haven't ever used my ps3 for mp3 playback, so I won't miss that feature. As a result I won't miss the music visualizer either.

In other words, these issues don't matter at all to me.

Most likely an anti-hacking and anti-piracy measure. The Vita memory cards are proprietary so you can only use them with a Vita (to my knowledge) so the equivalent example would be a Sony branded external hard drive that you couldn't use with anything but a PS4.

Its confirmed that MP3 and DLNA support will be added with Update 2.

@comptonst88: Source?

http://n4g.com/news/1384779/mp3-support-dlna-and-more-features-to-follow-on-2nd-ps4-update

I'll copy and paste what it says in the download, to save everyone some time.

MP3 Support, DLNA and more features to follow on 2nd PS4 update

Though there have been a few missteps on Sony’s behalf from the recent FAQ post riddled with mistakes of no MP3 support, No DLNA support, and a few other features that are not available at launch. We were able to speak to a Sony rep today about if any of these features could be implemented in the near future and much to our surprise we have received a “Yes“. The future update that is in process to be rolled out shortly after the PS4′s launch(November 15th) will include the following detailed features listed below:

• Legacy headset support
• Mp3 support for not only in-game but non gaming as well.
• Suspend and resume play feature
• DLNA support for media such as (streaming Mp3, Videos etc.)

All of these features are set to hit PS4′s consoles by late 2013- to early 2014. Which we hope Sony will deliver sooner upon. From what we know these features are being packed in the 2nd forth coming PS4 firmware update. Also, these details were hinted today when Shuhei Yoshida made a post on twitter stating that he had a discussion with other PlayStation 4 development team members about received feedback. With this news being provided Those these features are a definite step in the right direction. We were still unable to confirm future external hard drive support for media or game data would be supported later on. lastly we’re still waiting to hear if there will be future YouTube support for video sharing. What do you think of this good news do you think Sony still needs more features to claim the living room in this next gen console war? comment below let us know.

@Ne-Plus-Ultra: "The future update that is in process to be rolled out shortly after the PS4′s launch".

Not sure if this means the same week or the same day but I sure will not appreciate having to wait weeks to get a feature that even cheap TVs can implement successfully, my TV plays MP3s from external storage and has built in DLNA. I am sure the decision to not include these was a Japan decision, it seems everything that goes wrong with the Playstation brand is a Japanese decision of stubbornness.

Ah well at least one of my main media uses(DLNA) is coming back in an update so I'll just keep my PS3 hooked up until then.

"very bad news" would be that the system didn't have the power to play games at 1080p. This stuff is sure not an issue for me. I expect the system to get more robust over the years.

microsoft has no mp3 playback either and they also have a music service they're pushing.

the only difference is microsoft will allow streaming from a windows device, but I mean if you have to go that far to play music then you'd might as well just play the music on that device and attach speakers to it.

@Swedish_Chef: source?