The PlayStation 4 has had a bit of a rocky history of rolling out updates to the console itself that, for want of a better word, bork things for some players.

So with a really big update on the horizon, Sony has made a smart decision to enlist gamers to test said update before it goes live, in order to iron out any bugs and avoid making a lot of loyal fans angry.

Interestingly, the PlayStation Blog says this process is taking the form of a “beta programme” that gamers can sign up for, much like Microsoft’s Preview Programme that rolls out updates to a group of Xbox One testers two weeks before it goes live for everyone else.

To opt in, all interested PS4 owners have to do is go to this website, fill in their details and wait for the programme to kick off, which happens next month.

Sony will then contact interested parties to confirm a few things and take care of the legal details (presumably), and from there updates will arrive for those players early with the proviso that they give feedback to Sony on any significant developments arising from their deployment.

This is actually pretty good news for PS4 owners, who – with a bit of luck – will no longer sit in front of their updating consoles holding thumbs that at the end of it, all they’ll have is an expensive brick.

[Source – PlayStation Blog, Image – Sony]