The marketing from both Sony and Microsoft on their new consoles have been a little untraditional. With the cancelation of E3, instead of one big info dump it’s been a long drip feed. Some have liked that, others have not, but either way, we know a lot now as we’re less than a month away. On Sony’s side, we’ve seen several games hands-on on the PS5 as well as information about backwards compatibility. And now Sony is ready to finally unveiled the PS5’s UI and its new features.
In a surprise State of Play video, it’s all about the “User Experience.” The layout isn’t super different from what we have on the PS4 now, but a little more minimal in nature with game icons smaller and more in the upper part of the screen. Each game also has a more streamlined hub that integrates information about news, progress and DLC for each game. It’s said that even some PS4 titles will benefit from this via BC, but it was not specified how. There is also an explore tab that will bring together everything relating to your current titles.
Within the games themselves, we got a little demo of how they work with two launch titles, Sackboy: A Big Adventure and Destruction AllStars. Probably the most interesting feature here is the new Control Center that you can bring up with the tap of the PS button which brings up several items, including Trophy progression. It has the new Activities feature, which break down goals within the game you’re playing on easy to access cards and lets you jump directly to certain missions or levels to finish objectives and goals. You can also get hints and video tutorials to put picture in picture. Things like joining voice chats and sharing photos have been streamlined. And one thing to note is that it is fast, as you can see below. You can also read full details at the official blog through here.
You’ll get to try the UI out for yourself when the PlayStation 5 launches on November 12th in select regions with the full worldwide release coming November 19th.