PlayStation has just rolled out a new update for the PS5, which gives the console’s Welcome Hub a seasonal vibe that changes with each passing season. It looks great; however, the announcement replies are filled with people who just want the PS4’s custom themes back, along with the limited-time PS1 startup the PS5 had for its 30th anniversary.
The Welcome Hub update has already begun to roll out, which means it could either be waiting for you the next time you boot up your PS5, or you may have already seen it. If so, there’s now a dynamic theme option that gives your Welcome Hub a makeover, making it match the current season. For example, it’s fall now, so if the update has been applied, the first image from the post announcing the update should be the one that now adorns your console’s hub.
I’m unsure if you can just choose a season rather than wait for it to change, as the update hasn’t arrived on my PS5 yet.
The PS5’s Welcome Hub Came From A Team “Hackathon
The Welcome Hub was a major gamechanger for PS5.
It looks great, and it will be a welcome change from the somewhat bland UI options we have on the PS5, five years on from its release. However, it has been made very clear in the replies to PlayStation’s update announcement that, as pretty as your welcome hub might look moving forward, this isn’t what PS5 owners want.
PS5 Owners Only Want Two Things, But I Don’t Think PlayStation Wants To Give Them To Us
It seems when it comes to the PS5’s UI, all everyone really wants is the PS1 startup, and the customizable themes we had on PS3 and PS4. On PlayStation’s last two consoles, there were countless themes to choose from, many of them based on different PS4 games. There was a very popular Tifa theme, for example, that plunged your UI into Midgar with Tifa’s theme playing while you perused your library.
PlayStation’s themes were left behind when we made the jump to PS5, but the addition of themes based on each of its first four home consoles made up for that. They were added to celebrate PlayStation’s first console turning 30 and then taken away again. In that instance, vociferously complaining on Twitter actually worked. The themes returned, and they’re still available now.
There was a caveat, though, and it’s a big one. The best part about the overhaul PlayStation gave the PS5 in 2024 was the OG PS1 startup screen that played when turning on the console. That was taken away with the console themes, but didn’t come back when they returned. The people haven’t forgotten, though, or if they did, the seasonal Welcome Hub themes have reminded them of what we lost.
The requests for customizable themes will probably fall on deaf ears. Between their disappearance on PS5 and Nintendo now going two consoles with just black and white themes to choose from, it’s almost certainly a case of it simply taking too much work to create more themes. The PS5’s home screen has so much going on – it added a recent game stats widget via this latest update – that making tens, if not hundreds, of themes work without something breaking just isn’t worth the time and effort. The PS1 startup screen, on the other hand. There is no good reason why that was taken from us.
- Brand
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Sony
- Original Release Date
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November 12, 2020
- Original MSRP (USD)
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$499, €499, £449, ¥49,980 (Base) // $399, €399, £359, ¥39,980 (Digital),
- Operating System
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Orbis OS
- Processor
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Custom 8-core AMD Zen 2
- Resolution
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720p – 8K
