While Sony has been fairly open with most PlayStation 5 features ahead of its launch next month, the user interface has been a different story. Earlier this month, reports flooded in that Sony prohibited Japanese publications from opening any menus or using the DualSense Create button during their hands-on time with the console in order to not reveal the system's UI. While fans have only heard the start up sound and animation previously, Sony has finally revealed the full UI experience for the PS5.
In a new blog post from Sony's Senior Vice President or Platform Planning & Management, Hideaki Nishino, players can get their first glimpse at the PS5 user experience. Nishino admitted that the goal for this completely revised UI was based around the player and getting them where they needed to go quickly. After logging in, the system opens up the Control Center. If a player was previously playing a game, it also picks right back up where they left off.
The Control Center gives players immediate access to just about everything from news, trophies, friends, and more. Better yet, for those currently in a game, it remains up in the background instead of getting minimized. The Control Center can be accessed upon logging into the system as well as pressing the PlayStation button on the DualSense controller.
Activities are a new feature for this generation, which are shown as on-screen cards within the Control Center based on the game that is currently being played. In this example, Sackboy's Big Adventure is currently running, so the Activity cards present the player with new gameplay opportunities to discover, trophy progress, and stats like how far the player is in the current level as well as some objectives that have been or haven't been completed.
Some in-game activities also come with official Game Help for PlayStation Plus users. Indicated by the lightbulb icon for supported games, players can use picture-in-picture mode with the Activity Card to get hints, guides, and other tips to help complete the activity or objective. Sony's goal with this is to prevent users from having to go to a website, dig online for information, or accidentally come across spoilers watching a long video.
From a technical standpoint, the team at Sony also made a number of background enhancements to further improve the experience. Party chat is now cross generation, letting PS4, PS5, and mobile app users connect. Friend notifications also appear, letting players interact with them such as joining parties, watching them if they share their screen, and more all from picture-in-picture mode.
The Control Center also enables players to join each other. In the demo video, the user jumps from Sackboy's Big Adventure into Destruction AllStars right from the press of a Control Center Activity Card. The PS5's powerful SSD quickly transitions the game without multiple popups appearing first.
Fans have been waiting a while to get a sense of how the user interface for the PlayStation 5 would look compared to the PlayStation 4. With a month to go before the console launches in full, fans were looking for any little detail or tease. In fact, earlier this week, Burger King teased PlayStation 5 details when the company mascot was shown opening a bag with a blue light and launch sound coming from a PS5. While the tease was for a cross-promotion between Sony and Burger King, some fans were under the assumption that a UI reveal was imminent.
The PlayStation 5 will launch on November 12.
Source: PlayStation Blog