A new PlayStation 4 system software update has gone live today in all regions.

　　The new update, update 8.01, is around 470MB big, and doesn't seem to bring any new major feature to the console, as the patch notes only mention the usual system performance improvements.

　　The previous PlayStation 4 system software update, update 8.00, brought updates to Party and Messages, new Avatars, the ability to mute all Mics from the Quick Menu, improved parental controls, and more.

　　Updates to Party and Messages

　　Following this update, Party and Messages will be more tightly linked together and you will see changes to the UI. Both apps will now use the same ‘Groups’ of players for Party voice chats and message exchanges, instead of having different groups setup across the two apps. So now you can start a Party chat or send a message to the group you’ve previously chatted with across PS4, as well as PS5 when it launches.

　　New Avatars

　　We’re expanding the collection of pre-set avatars for players to showcase on their Profile. An array of new avatars from your favorite games will be available, including Bloodborne, Journey, Ghost of Tsushima, God of War, The Last of Us Part II, The Last of Us Remastered, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and many more.

　　Mute all Mics from Quick Menu

　　We’ve added an option to “Mute all Microphones” in the PlayStation 4 Quick Menu, so you can easily mute your mics while gaming.

　　Simplified and more flexible Parental Controls

　　Under Parental Controls, we’re combining the ‘Communicating with Other Players’ and ‘Viewing Content Created by other Players’ into one setting – ‘Communication and User Generated Content’-  to cover both areas of communication and UGC sharing. This offers a simpler setting that’s easier for parents to understand and apply to their children.

　　The PlayStation 4 system software update 8.01 is now live worldwide.