In the battle of the consoles, one leg up that the PlayStation 3 and 4 always had over the Xbox One was the ability to add customized themes to the UI. Over the years, PlayStation owners undoubtedly gathered a sizable collection of themes, free or otherwise, for their consoles. In February 2020, several months before launch, aleaked image purporting to be the PS5 UIseemed to reveal that there would be few changes to the new console’s user interface.
To the disappointment of many, however, that turned out not to be the case. Sony kept the PS5 interface secret right up until the console’s release, even going so far as to bar attendees of a PS5 demo event from accessing the UI. Although Sony patents in the preceding year seemed to hint that the console’s interface might experience an overhaul, aPS5 exclusiveStranger Thingstheme listed on the PlayStation Storealso made people believe that this feature would carry over from previous consoles.
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Alas, when the console launched in November 2020, one of the most noticeable changes to thePS5 UI was the absence of customizable themes, and there have been numerous fans requesting that the feature be returned ever since. Instead, Sony incorporated dynamic, console-managed themes that change according to the game or menu item selected. The images are high quality, but they’re not always necessarily what players want to see. A recent Reddit thread shows that many players are still holding out hope that Sony will bring back this well-loved feature.
It’s unclear why exactly Sony did away with customizable themes on thePlayStation 5. The company surely has metrics that show how many people took advantage of the feature but, because many themes were often free or on sale, perhaps it just wasn’t lucrative enough for Sony to keep themes around. This is unfortunate because many gamers did spend a lot of money over the years buying themes to personalize the UI of their PS4, and it would have been welcome if those could be used on the new console.
TheUI of the Xbox Series consoles, on the other hand, remains pretty much unchanged from that of the Xbox One. That meant the transition from last gen to an Xbox Series console was pretty seamless, with no adjustment period, unlike the move from PS4 to PS5. Although the Xbox 360 had fun themes for owners to customize their console’s interface, that was removed with the Xbox One. Microsoft chose to limit customization to changing wallpapers and selecting a dark or light theme, but it’s likely that Xbox owners would also like to be able to further personalize their user interface.
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