Although we’re now past 2 years since the console first released, it appears the releases of titles like Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8 on the horizon will likely finally push the PlayStation 5 forward as the “main platform” for the fighting game community, and now it’s got a few new tools to help out with that.
Sony has now released one of its largest PS5 system software updates to date, which comes packing a bunch of new features including Discord integration and improved Variable Refresh Rate support to help mitigate input latency.
PS5 users can now link their console accounts to Discord to join in on voice chat sessions on the application that should prove quite useful for the FGC considering how much of our communication and organization goes through the service — especially as more and more titles become cross-platform.
There’s interestingly no mention of text chat messages, however, but you’ll still need to keep your phone or second screen handy anyways to join a voice chat.
The other notable addition for dedicated fighting game players will likely be the expansion of the PS5’s VRR support to now include 1440p on top of 1080p and 4K resolutions.
This feature can provide a dramatic performance, especially when using a monitor / TV that supports 120 Hz output, which can cut display / input latency by up to 50% depending on the title.
Having 1440p now is a nice middle ground of visual fidelity and performance, but users will need access to an HDMI 2.1 compatible screen to turn on VRR like for 4K resolution — but 1080p can use VRR on HDMI 2.0 devices.
Variable Refresh Rate will best benefit games that specifically support it like Street Fighter 6 though it should hopefully provide some better performance overall.
Other new features included in the PS5 update are start / request Share Screen from profiles, Join Game icon for Party Chats, and more ways to transfer save / system data.
PS5s are going to start popping up quite a bit more here in a few months when SF6 arrives with majors like CEO 2023 and Evo 2023 already confirmed to be using the console, so it’ll probably be a good idea to start getting acquainted with them if possible for those who have interests in competing offline.
It’s going to be quite interesting to see how the tournament life of the PS5 and Xbox will be like in this new generation of fighters, and though Sony’s console got off to a rockier start in terms of lag, things seem to be in a much better spot now.
More information about the PS5 update can be found on the PlayStation Blog.
