Sony Computer Entertainment will deliver on its long-promised updates to the Playstation 4 Thursday with what they’re calling an “onslaught of features.”

At the top of the list of updates is the ability to suspend and resume games. The feature is said to be supported by nearly all PS4 games, and users can jump in and out of games by pressing the PS button.

According to the official Playstation blog, users will now be able to back up and restore data from their PS4 to an external USB drive. Users will be able to store settings, saved data, screenshots and video clips, ideal for heavy gamers who are running short of hard drive data. It’s not clear from Sony, but it would appear to support USB memory sticks, as well as external hard drives.

The new PS4 update, named “Yukimura,” also ships with a big upgrade in social features.

A new Facebook Friend Finder allows users to expand their PS4 network by linking with Facebook friends.

Friend requests and Real Name requests can now be sent together in one step when adding a friend on PS4, and a streamline party process allows users to create a party with a reduced number of steps.

The update allows users to find friends who play the same games as you do, and they can join friends directly from a news feeds, allowing users to join in a game if they own it.

Even more

There’s a range of extras in the update as well that are too long to list, but briefly include the ability to share earned trophies and the ability for users to optimize their trophy lists; improved and expanded accessibility options; remote play and share play; and even the ability to easily upload gameplay videos to Dailymotion.

The range of new features, particularly the ability to pause games, will be warmly welcomed by PS4 users who have been promised the feature for 12 months. The new friend-finding tools, with its links into Facebook, will certainly make not only friend finding, in general, easier, but friend finding for new users easier as well.

The update is expected to be available “Thursday” (no specific time) in North America, but the company made no note of other markets.