PS5 New UI Update Also Brought Ads You Can't Turn Off and Unwanted Forced News Feed to Select Titles

Sony's PS5 update that brought in the Welcome Hub seems to have also implemented forced ads and news feeds you cannot turn off completely.

[Profchaos]

I've noticed this myself when looking at ff7 remake I was advertised rebirth I thought it was a glitch apparently not.

I just want to play the games I own without being told to go buy more games or services is that to much to ask

[pwnmaster3000]

No offense is it really that big of a deal?
It’s just informing you about rebirth and it’s not really in the way.
I actually think it’s pretty convenient.

Now if it’s like YouTube where it’s not gaming related like McDonald’s or car ads then yes I will be upset. hell if it’s not even about the series or game then I will be upset. Or even those 30 sec videos be upset.
But something in the background about the next game your playing isn’t to bad for me.

[Profchaos]

I personally find it annoying as it detracts from the premium ui design which has always been prioritised since the xmb on ps3.

where the game would previously display its own artwork and assets the entire page has been replaced with an ad for the next game with the tiles to select your game on top.

[MDTunkown]

It’s not a big deal but it always starts with a no big deal until you start receiving every 30 minutes a video advertisement of absolutely random stuff

[bloop]

That's how these things start pwnmaster. It started with just small banner ads on YouTube and now we have 30 second un-skippable ads.

[SPEAKxTHExTRUTH]

Well people got their panties in a bunch last week when a article came out about Xbox doing the same thing so I’d expect the same reaction for Sony

[Lightning77]

It'd video game ads so who cares. I said the same with Xbox and the same energy applies here also.

[paulust2002]

What you have to understand imo is that if it's not protested...It will only get worse.

[GamerRN]

So wait, when Microsoft started it before game unrelated ads, it was a HUGE deal...

Where can I buy me some Sony gloss?

[pwnmaster3000]

@GamerRN

Shut the hell up with that.
I don’t even remember that article or seen it.
I would say the same thing if it was like this also.

Look in my comment history that condemned MS for doing this “ad”.

You can’t and you won’t because you a mindless Xbox defender, that will say anything to defend precious MS that will step over you if your dying.

[UltimateOwnage]

Yes. When I subscribe to a cheap service like GamePass, I'd expect ads and interference to try and bag more of my money. But when I pay full price to BUY a game, and a premium console, I don't want to see ads and crap that I don't care about getting in the middle of my experience. If I want to see ads, I'll go to the digital storefront and have them recommend things to me there. This is yet another bad move by Sony to follow in Microsoft's footsteps.

[TheKingKratos]

They also Removed Resume Activity which was super awesome and helpful feature that makes you dive directly into the games ... They added an update that made games glitch graphically and get worse performance which they fixed later on ... They again added adds (by mistake) and then remove it later ... Which i doubt was a mistake and more of them testing water

Sony is becoming what i hated about Microsoft and with now Microsoft dropping out they will run wilde and they have the sony fanboys who champion everything shit they make

F this gen

[VariantAEC]

Somehow when I commented about Nintendo Switch's news feed acting similarly and also being mandatory on Switch's lock screen showing ads (at least for game related stuff) no one had anything to say about it.

Now PS5 supposedly does something similar and you are getting insane levels of disagreement for saying it isn't bad.

Oh boy, time for me to check this out! If true it's wrong and grossshould just be wrong flat out.

Apparently, this wasn't a mandatory update. So, I had to download it. Before the update I had 3 games listed in the news tile on the Welcome Hub and 23 followed games. I first had to enable tge News tile in the Welcome Hub to see what is going on since I disabled it, and I disabled it again before installing the update.

After updating there were no changes to functionality of the Welcome Hub or news feeds. I could still enable and disable the news tile in the Welcome Hub (which was already disabled upon boot saving my previous setting before updating), and I still had the same three news stories in the news tile and 23 followed games. Unfollowing games and logging out and then back in to PSN updated the news feed removing games that I didn't follow.

So, it is as I expected. Everyone disagreeing is overreacting and this story is a flat-out lie. I only see GT7 stories which is fine because that I actually follow because I play it often.

Are people talking about the "From PlayStation" section of the Welcome Hub that you have to scroll down to even view?

[Christopher]

Looks like Sony let the publishers decide what to put for a splash screen. But... it's an ad about the game you're on at least and not something totally random? I find this is pretty much the exact ads you see in games when you load them up. It's not great, but way better than just pushing random ads on the home page.

[blackblades]

Random like McDonald's, honestly I haven't seen any advertisements but of course I'm not looking for them. I go straight to the game without paying attention as usual. I'm there to look whats in the background but to get to the game.

[lukasmain]

It's been confirmed that it's a bug. Straight from Daniel Hiatt, senior product manager at PlayStation. So this submission should be failed

[Profchaos]

@potatoeal bug or not it's live and it's happening for a few days now it makes no sense to fail this.

[Christopher]

@potatoseal: I'm glad Sony is pulling it, but 'bugs' don't include specific image file associations from the database that are tied to game ids. The bug is likely pushing this now or that we saw one of the things they were developing behind the scenes. Not that this wasn't something they weren't working on and isn't designed as intended.

[badz149]

yup, noticed it too when I was trying to finish my NG+ on very hard difficulty for HZD on PS5. the splash screen shows ads for LEGO Horizon. at first I was like, did one of my kids download the demo or something? was there even a demo? but then I made sure that I was on the HZD tile, and it hit me. so this is how things are going to be now, ha? I'll try to play Borderlands 3 later today to see if ads for BL4 will be on the splash screen.

please, Sony, this is as much as I will tolerate. Please, pleas, PLEASE...no non-gaming related ads!

[i81duce]

This has been confirmed a bug…

https://www.theverge.com/20...

[badz149]

will definitely check back later if the LEGO ads is still there

[MaximusPrime_]

At least it doesn't have McDonald's adverts like Xbox does

[OtterX]

Came here to say the same thing. I don't mind game suggestions, bc we're on a gaming console, but advertising Mountain Dew, McDonald's etc is crossing a line.

[OtterX]

@TheNamelessOne "It didn't show up on mine, so it's okay!"

No, that's just wrong that it shows up on anyone's, even if it doesn't show up on yours. The world doesn't revolve around you.

https://www.purexbox.com/ne...

**Oops responded in wrong spot, but you can see his comment below.

[MaximusPrime_]

Yeah I saw TheNamelessOne's comment. I laughed. He doesn't know how the console in different regions work.

I'm in the UK and I haven't got that welcome page either.

[Neonridr]

that's how it starts

[darthv72]

Well... I do have the Mountain Dew Xbox...

[Master of Unlocking]

There shouldn't be a single ad on either the PS or XB since users bought the damn things with their hard-earned money and pay subscription fees to play online on top of that.

[OtterX]

@Octomarsho "sony toddlers", hmmmm. Says the guy who made an account less than an hour ago and has spammed 18 troll comments so far. Don't worry, I flagged your account for you. Have a nice day, man.

[Limitedtimestruggle]

Don't go and give them any ideas now.

[TheNamelessOne]

It's weird. Neither does my Xbox.

[Gamingsince1981]

Because you haven't had a reason to turn the xbox on in years

[CS7]

God, the but but Xbox has it worse comments are so pathetic and immature.

Xbox has been trash for the past decade. Do we really want to use them as a standard?

[InUrFoxHole]

Lol. I love watching sony gamers. You guys really have no clue do you? They just slow walk everything. They literally do all the things you say they're not gonna do.

[shadowT]

I think I saw an option to deactivate, where you can select the feed display of each game. But did not tested yet.

[excaliburps]

Nope. Won't work. Even if deactivated, it will still show these ads/news thingies.

[shadowT]

ok, maybe bug or not. This menue is also a bit diffucult to use, since you have to select each title and can't select them all.

[lukasmain]

I don't have a single AD on mine. I'm on the home screen and NO ADS and I have the update.

[Hofstaderman]

Maybe region related? I also do not have any ads.

[FIELDMARSHALL_P]

Me either I'm in the US and have the update. I'll have to check again but yesterday when I turned it on I didn't see anything when I went to Starwars survivor and then over to the Plucky Squire. I have Eldin Ring and some other stuff so I'll check those. It really won't bother me as long as I can still just hit x on what I want to play and not "watch" an ad.

[thorstein]

I don't either but what puzzles me is the screen grab on the site this article links to. The ad is for May the Fourth which is Star Wars Day in the USA. If this was part of this update... in September, why would there be an ad that doesn't relate for another 7-8 months?

[Jin_Sakai]

I never noticed them so I guess it’s not that intrusive. At least it’s game related ads and not McDonald’s like Xbox.

[TorpeAlex]

If you are debating which mandatory ads you're being served on your $400+ gaming platform, you know you've lost to capitalism

[Jin_Sakai]

I get served ads on my $1,500 OLED TV. What should I do about it?

[VariantAEC]

Since when is advertising a specific feature of Capitalism? People, I could take you seriously if you understood what the heck you were talking about.

I hate ads as much as everyone else, but they're just as prominent in Socialist and Communist nations and it's so in your face we gave it a different name, though, to be fair I would consider commercials as propaganda, too.

[Killer2020UK]

I understand why companies do this but it seems incredibly foolish as the price of their consoles creeps towards a low-mid PC budget that buys you hardware capable of no subscription online play, access to multiple digital storefronts, a lot more functionality beside gaming, modular upgradability.

A dangerous game they're playing!

[Gamingsince1981]

Low-mid pc for the price of a ps5 ? Nah

[TheTony316]

Is this US only? I don't have any ads, not even on my US account.

[Prayingathiest]

I'm the same getting no ads on 3 different accounts UK based. Tbh I don't care if there was ads I'll just ignore and boot a game up

[isarai]

I haven't seen any but that is ridiculously atrocious🤮, wtf is going on?! And why only some people?

[pwnmaster3000]

Do you consider these ads??
It’s news about the game and community.

I think of ads of them trying to sell you something.

[isarai]

Yes, if im highlighting a game installed, and it's trying to send me to a buzzfeed article, or a completely different game, that's an ad.

[pwnmaster3000]

But is not trying to send you anywhere.
It’s just highlighting news about the games community.
Idk I think that’s pretty cool.
If it’s ads like cars and stuff over horizon or like those ads YouTube then yeah that’s annoying, but news about the community like cosplaying and artwork I think is pretty dope.

I guess if they had an option to deactivate it that would be cool

[isarai]

That's still an ad

[FIELDMARSHALL_P]

@isarai do you have to manually click on the article or anything because I don't have the ads or news like that. I'm just wondering how it works.

If I can still just hit x to boot up a game I'm not really tripping, now if you have to move something to start the game instead of going to BuzzFeed or whatever is up that would suck.

[pwnmaster3000]

What ever, but my point is it that bad if it’s about a game. Specifically about the game your playing
Idk I guess I’m not as sensitive to this type of stuff like you.
As long is it’s not selling me a table or drink and it’s not blocking access to a game unless I watch the ad then it’s fine.
It’s literally news about the game I’m playing.

[northpaws]

They need to find a new thing to bitch about everyday! I don't see anything problem with it as well, when I am on my console, I am either playing a game, or want to find out more about a game, i don't see how this change is making anything worse.

Although an option to turn them off would be good, I don't care either way.

[FIELDMARSHALL_P]

Yea that's not too crazy for me either I just ignore that type of ish anyway. Even youtube ads gives me some extra time to light or finish rolling my blunt or grabbing another beer. Now I want to complain about Hulu giving me ads in the middle of a show, I'm using that as refill time now.

[VariantAEC]

Personally, I would still consider this annoying, but it's not selling you anything so it really is not an advertisement by definition, because you already bought the game and the background news isn't selling you stuff in the overwhelming majority of cases (save for one possible example, which I will get to later). It's just news related to the game you have selected on the homescreen, presumably to play. I'm personally happy that this isn't affecting my PS5 for some reason or another, even with the update, and I hope it is not normalized, but in it's current form, it's not even an ad.

...Except for the Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition example showcased in the article where the Lego Horizon game news is featured and is about an unrelated and upcoming game. So, we can just as easily see how ads could be pushed with this feature if it is something PS is really planning on keeping around, which is why I'm hoping this will not become a thing.

I did not experience any of these changes to my PS5's homescreen when moving focus to any given game listed in the article even when I was online, and hopefully the will be the case throughout the PS5 generation and will also be the way PS treats the PS6's UI.

[Michiel1989]

who knew concord tax had so many facets?

[Grievous]

Info about the game is an ad now. Really.

[BlackDoomAx]

Oh please...

[NewTestDrive]

Squeezing those last drops of money😏

[purple101]

would you like a ladder, it sems you are reaching

showing Elden Ring - dlc when you hover on the game,
a message with happy StarWars day when hovering over the game,. these are ads.`? come one, / you need to do better

[FIELDMARSHALL_P]

I didn't even see the star wars day thing I was hovering over that game yst deciding to play that or plucky squire while the wife and kids were taking a nap. I have the most up to date OS too so I don't know. I didn't go over to Eldin Ring though I'll check that tonight.

[Deeeeznuuuts]

I don't mind as much when it's games I might potentially like, what I do mind is when it's nothing game related, such as McDonald's or something

[Smok91]

Wowww Xbox still with this crap…oh wait.

[badkolo]

they are already making excuses for DEI and now they will love these ads. its sony, doesnt matter how far their fist goes. right ??

[cthulhucultist]

Just let us play games undistracted. These gaming companies (MS, Nintendo, Sony) are getting too greedy for their own good.

What's next? Forced add view in order to boot up start screen? Domino's pizza stands as save points at GT6? Windows ads at Gears of War 6 computer screen?

[UltimateOwnage]

What has Nintendo done along these lines? The Switch UI is the most basic and bland of any modern, hell they don't even have custom themes like even the 3DS did, let alone ads or demos getting pushed to it randomly.

[cthulhucultist]

I was talking about their general direction in gaming which is characterized by greediness.

Nintendo is also a culprit since it has given us basic remasters released 11 years |(Luigis Mansion) for 60$, or even remakes with half the framerate of the original for higher price (Paper Mario 1000 year door), no price cuts on game console, half decent value online service with phone app for communications, Super Mario 3D All-Stars limited physical release, to name but a few.

I feel this generation with endless bug infested non complete for DLC reasons microtransaction oriented games released by most publishers, price increases and endless remaster/port frenzy, has truly gone the wrong way and the digital only future will only make things worse.

[VariantAEC]

Nintendo features news on the Switch lock screen and sometimes that "news" includes links to purchasable DLC for games that you may or may not own on your Nintendo Switch if some screenshots I found online are to be believed.

[Iceball2000]

I still think the PS3 UI was the best over all. Simple and nicely organized.

[Goodguy01]

oh how sony have fallen

[MetroidFREAK21]

Good thing my PS5 is an offline device

[Dandizzle]

Oh yeah advertising a game in their store is totally the same as pumping McDonald's ads

[jambola]

did they bring back patch notes?
or remove shovelware garbage from the store? or just another crappy update that makes things worse

[VariantAEC]

News acts as a way to get that information especially for GT7 which is basically one of the only games I follow on my PS5 because I play it so often.

[DaniMacYo]

My 4K tv does the same damn thing but I’m getting all kinds of ads on my tv. Food to furniture the list goes on.

[harv052]

Well, I STILL don't have access to this elusive Welcome screen....So I can't really comment on this.

[P_Bomb]

I don’t have the welcome screen yet either. PSN has been down for 2 hours too. Couldn’t check if I wanted to.

[VariantAEC]

What region are you and P_Bomb both in?

[harv052]

East Coast Canada.

[VariantAEC]

@harv052
Then you should have access to the Welcome Hub. It replaces the Explore Tile in the US or will appear to the immediate left of the first game on your home screen.

[GhostScholar]

Can’t wait to see the ponies defend this after blasting Xbox for a way less invasive ad model.

[FIELDMARSHALL_P]

I don't have an Xbox and I don't hate on it either.......I heard they show Mcdonald's ads on xbox is that true. If so that is a little much I can take some news about the game I have.

[RaiderNation]

Am I the only one who just goes into my game and looks completely past all that shit? I barely notice any of it.

[northpaws]

Same for me, I am in a game within 2 seconds unless I am looking for a game to buy.

[GhostScholar]

You’re not the only one. Worrying about that stuff is a fanboy loser behavior

[northpaws]

Another day, another thing gamers try to make a big deal out of, something they probably don't even care before they see this article.

I don't know about you guys, I boot up my game before I even notice what the background image is when l highlight a game.

And why would it bothers me if it is telling me info related to the game? It was always supposed to tell me any information related to that particular fans even before this. Such as tips about the game, community video uploads, DLC, in app purchase...etc

And btw the original article is from IGN, which have been trying to find random things on PlayStation to bitch about non stop recently.

[InUrFoxHole]

Lol this is great! 👏 👏 👏

[hiawa23]

I like the tiles and there are several options depending on what you want to see. The forced so called stuff just wasn't a big deal to me.

[Bebedora]

I'm glad I pulled the plug on my PS5 and keeps it off the net.

[TheTony316]

It's confirmed to be a bug

[YourMommySpoils]

So that's why when I looked up Horizon Zero Dawn in my library to see if I can upgrade already, it showed me Horizon Lego. I thought that was a glitch lol

[TheTony316]

It was. A product manager from Sony confirmed it was a bug but it's fixed now.

[YourMommySpoils]

Oh right. Thanks for letting me know. Bugs and ads are a bad mix.

[hiawa23]

Did not even notice the ads. Runs to turn on PS5 to see what the fuss is about. Meh, not really an issue to me. I mean Sony is a business and the goal is to get you to buy more games. If you don't want to buy then continue on with your normal gaming and ignore the ads.

[Firebird360]

Games advertised now, give it time and itll be just like xbox. Home screen plastered with mt dew and big macs.

[HyperMoused]

At this point with everyone going digital, games being cross platform, just get a PC, you wont have to put up with any of this crap or pay to be online

[gold_drake]

ugh can we not

[SimpleDad]

Again, PS copying MS. Absolute trash.

[VariantAEC]

Uh... I still need to scroll down to see the "Official News" section on my PS5 even when looking at the offending titles alleged in the article (GT7 and Marvel's Spider-Man 2) and I do live in the US. So, I'm still confused. To even see the words "Official News" in GT7 I need to scroll down past "Play Game" and "Activities" and I can't actually see anything other than the game's default background in the affected games.

It could be that everyone was lying... or it could be that this was already rolled back. Those are basically the only two available options I see.