Here's why you can no longer access Facebook on your Playstation 4

If logging on to Facebook by way of your PlayStation 4 has long been your method of choice when it comes to checking out social media, you may have recently been met with a rude awakening. As of Monday, October 7, Sony began rolling out its newest firmware update 7.00. With the advent of the update, gamers across the country were left wondering why they couldn't access Facebook on PlayStation 4.

The short answer? Sony has willed it so. The 447.9MB update 7.00 isn't all bad, though. It wasn't created solely to remove access to Facebook from your console, but that's certainly one of the things it's ended up doing. It also pairs some useful tweaks to PlayStation 4 software, such as the ability to create 16-person parties for games and the ability for Android device users to try out Remote Play. Unfortunately, it also brought the removal of Facebook Integration for PlayStation 4 owners, which means all the fancy ways you used to be able to share content to your profile are no longer accessible.

Facebook integration doesn't mean you can't use the PlayStation 4 browser to open the website and log in. It simply means that you can't use share features, which were previously simple ways to show gameplay and trophy activity from your favorite games with your friends on your feed.

Before the update, you could link your Facebook account to your PlayStation Network account, which would integrate your Friends List with your PlayStation username, making it easier to see which friends used the console and which did not. You could also use your profile picture imported from Facebook by way of this integration. Now that this feature has been removed, you won't be able to do any of that, though social media sharing is still very much an option by way of hitting the "Share" button on your PlayStation 4 DualShock Controller. You can still share to places like Twitter, for instance, if you're so inclined.

It's not a huge loss overall, as you can still access Facebook by manually typing in the address in the browser, but if you primarily used your Facebook account to communicate with other gamers on your friends list and used it to share gameplay, you'll unfortunately have to find another option to do so.

It seems that contract negotiations may be in part to blame for the lack of Facebook integration while other social media capabilities stay intact. Luckily, that means the issue should be fixed fairly soon. When that is exactly, however, isn't clear.

"We’re working with Sony to finalize an updated contract designed to improve the Facebook integration on PlayStation," a spokesperson for Facebook told Kotaku. "While these discussions are in progress, Facebook features will not be available on PlayStation 4. We hope to bring these features back as soon as our teams reach agreement."

Meanwhile, the Xbox One's infrastructure still allows for Facebook and Twitter integration, so if you're thinking you won't be able to deal with the lack of Facebook access on your PlayStation 4, you might want to head on over to Microsoft's side of things — or just stick to accessing the social network on your phone or computer. You don't want to miss out on all the exclusives coming down the pipeline (or the upcoming PlayStation 5), do you?