PlayStation 5 players scrolling through their game library may have already noticed a big change to the system interface: gone is the art on the home screen when you mouse over a game title. As a replacement: patch information, news updates, and in some cases advertisements for other games from the same publisher.
A September update to the PS5 operating system appears to have changed the way game title screens display information. As a number of gaming sites have noted, and CNET has confirmed on several PS5-based titles, the art of each game has been replaced with information apparently pulled from each game’s news feed.
A Sony representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Read more: What I learned while playing Sony’s PS5 Pro
For example, the main image on the title page of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is now a video roundtable with some of the game’s developers. The art for Black Myth: Wukong, a recent smash hit, now shows a background image behind information about the game’s latest patch notes. Star Wars: Battlefront 2 now includes ads and prizes for other Star Wars games.
While the new artwork and information on the title screen aren’t advertisements for the likes of Tide detergent or Nike, they can still be considered promotional material and mark a major visual change from multiple generations of PlayStation consoles that use the Cross Bar interface.
While the September update added new features such as 3D audio profiles and Party Share, it also appeared to have removed an activity resume feature that, according to PlayStation Lifestyle, only worked intermittently before being removed.