And though I cannot believe I’m saying this, there’s no option for folders of any kind at this point. There’s an unfortunate trend in UX these days to display bigger, splashier visuals at the expense of presenting a greater amount of choices to us users, and I’m not happy that it seems like Sony is chasing that trend.īack on the bar, all the icons have rounded corners, which contrasts most similar elements throughout the rest of the UI. With that change, most of the screen is now taken up by background graphics and sparse user interface (UI), which looks more attractive from a visual standpoint but offers little actual benefit so far. On the PS5, that bar-and its icons-are smaller, shoved up in the corner, and reduced in capacity (from 15 not-set-in-stone slots to 8). On the PS4, the bar of game, folder, and application icons took center stage.
However, a few of the basic changes don’t quite sit right with me. In fact, there’s a lot about the PS5’s interface that seems like the direct offspring of the PS4, and I think that was a smart path to take. I honestly think the PS4’s UX is one of my favorites of any console, mixing the elegance of the PlayStation 3’s Cross Media Bar (XMB) with a nice amount of extra flash and function. On some level, I’m glad Sony didn’t go too crazy in its redesign. The PlayStation 5’s Home screen-which kind of isn’t its home screen, depending on how you look at it-will feel familiar yet slightly foreign to any PlayStation 4 users. What I can now say about Sony’s latest console operating system, though, is that it’s more feature-robust than I was expecting (and fearing). I wasn’t able to say the same about the PlayStation 5.
However, from the very moment I powered on my Xbox Series X for the first time, I knew I was getting a dashboard that had years of polish and refinement behind it, without anything forgotten, left behind, or shelved for a later update. Sure, the company is still struggling to find those exact refinements that’ll give its consoles a truly great user experience, and yes, it’s unquestionably boring to purchase brand new next-generation hardware only to see the same interface you’ve been using for years. There are supporters (and detractors) for both of those game plans, and I’m going to be honest: I prefer the Microsoft way this time around. Microsoft, meanwhile, has moved the exact dashboard we already had on the Xbox One over to the Xbox Series X/S, an idea never tried for any console that’s had anything resembling an operating system. Sony, with the PlayStation 5, is giving us a brand new interface-well, sort of new interface-designed specifically for its new console. Unlike previous generations, Sony and Microsoft are heading down very different UX paths this time around. That’s an especially interesting question given the giant black-and-green elephant in the room. At the same time, it is important to see if what Sony’s UX team has given us is good enough for day one.
The experience we’re having on day one will no doubt be different than even on day 100, so we’re far from a point where we can pass full judgment. This will in no way be a comprehensive breakdown of everything that awaits on the console-especially given its community aspects have been difficult to test pre-launch-and I’m not sure it needs to be at this point. Instead, I’d like to run you through what I think are some of the stand out aspects, both positive and negative, of what Sony has created for the PS5. There’s a lot to talk about here, and things were reaching a point where the important aspects I wanted to stress were getting drowned out by lengthy breakdowns of every setting or switch.
The problem was that, the deeper I got, the more lost in the weeds I was getting. As someone deeply obsessed with the user experience (or UX) of video game consoles, I was ready to put together a big review of the PS5’s UX, both in what we should expect from a modern console, and in comparison to what Sony did on the PlayStation 4. With the official launch of the PlayStation 5, the final piece of Sony’s embargo on coverage of the console has lifted-and, with it, the limit on what we can talk about.