Yesterday, a patent was discovered that teased some possible features of the PS5 OS, including the ability to set certain dynamic templates for where you want a game to open up and more thoroughly integrating features of the game directly onto the console’s dashboard. More details have come to light, indicating that Sony wants the PS5 dashboard to be “as easy to use as Netflix.”
Kotaku’s Jason Schreier revealed this on the ResetEra thread detailing the aforementioned patent. He said that one of the things he’s heard regarding Sony’s pitch about the PS5 to developers is that “playing a PS5 game should be as easy as Netflix.” Schreier indicates that the goal is to incentivize more players to start up their console for short play sessions by providing clear information and paths for specific tasks, knowing “exactly how much time a given activity is going to take” right from the PS5 dashboard instead of needing to take the time to load into the game.
I have heard some fascinating things about the PS5’s operating system like this – one of the pitches they’ve been making to developers is “playing a PS5 game should be as easy as Netflix.” They want to make players feel like they can load up the game immediately and know exactly how much time a given activity is going to take them. They want people to feel more inclined to play in short bursts rather than only wanting to turn on the console when they have a few hours to spare.
Paired with the details of the patent that would remove unnecessary barriers between things like continuing your campaign save file or booting the game right into multiplayer matchmaking, it seems like Sony doesn’t just want the PS5 dashboard to be a platform to launch your games, but an information and activity hub that integrates these features deeply and uniquely into the system itself.
Remembering back to Mark Cerny’s talk with Wired about the PS5 last year, he addressed the PS5 dashboard and this very thing, so these features don’t come as any surprise:
Even though it will be fairly fast to boot games, we don’t want the player to have to boot the game, see what’s up, boot the game, see what’s up. Multiplayer game servers will provide the console with the set of joinable activities in real time. Single-player games will provide information like what missions you could do and what rewards you might receive for completing them—and all of those choices will be visible in the UI. As a player you just jump right into whatever you like.
Of course, such features wouldn’t come without developers being onboard and programming them to work with the PS5 dashboard, but it seems like that kind of things that could enhance most players’ experiences and keep people engaged in specific games, which would be default be a big win for the developers as well. Imagine if loading into your latest DOOM Eternal save was as easy as a single button push from the main menu that told you exactly where you were, or queuing for a Call of Duty Warzone match could be done directly from the PS5 dashboard, already knowing what loadout you are taking in and the daily challenges you need to work on. If what Schreier says is true (which the evidence strongly supports), we could see these features and more make gaming on a PS5 more convenient than ever before.
[Source: ResetEra; Via: Push Square]