UPDATE 1/10/24: Sony has responded to complaints around a recent PlayStation 5 update festooning the console’s homescreen with promotional art and outdated news, blaming the now “resolved” incident on an unintended “tech error”.
“A tech error with the Official News feature on the PS5 console has since been resolved,” the company wrote on its Ask PlayStation social media feed, adding, “There have been no changes to the way game news is displayed on PS5.”
ORIGINAL STORY 30/9/24: PS5 owners are reporting emotions ranging from mildly miffed to deep-seated annoyance following Sony’s decision to plaster the console’s homescreen with ugly artwork and often irrelevant promotional news stories following its latest update.
The changes – which appear to have been slowly rolled out over the last few weeks, gaining attention on social media this weekend – mean the PS5 now prominently displays promotional article headlines across the centre of its homescreen alongside full-sized background images, based on whatever happens to be top of the currently selected game’s newsfeed.
Now, rather than displaying aesthetically pleasing artwork when a game is highlighted as was previously the case, PlayStation 5’s homescreen is a chaotic mishmash of random, busy promotional art (sometimes fighting against the existing UI) and drastically out-of-date news stories – which, in some cases, are only tangentially related to the chosen game.
Eurogamer Newscast: When it costs £700, who exactly is the PS5 Pro for?