After a very controversial month, Sony fans started October with another sigh: apparently, PlayStation 5 home screen will have obligatory ads. According to reports from some users, the background arts of several games were replaced by various promotional or informational materials — including posters, YouTube videos, and news about updates.
At first, the change seems harmless, as it could “inform” players of important news about their favorite game. However, this is not what happens: In some cases, the content displayed does not even refer to the selected game — for example, a poster of LEGO Horizon Adventures is displayed in place of the art of Horizon Zero Dawn.
To make matters worse, selections do not seem to consider users’ interestsas a common algorithm. In this way, a PlayStation 5 home screen could easily become more cluttered and impersonal with ads. And the only way to disable them is to disconnect the console from the internet.
LEGO Horizon Adventures ad in place of Horizon Zero Dawn art.Fonte: MP1st via IGN
Interestingly, the new feature doesn’t seem to get along very well with older titles. In Spider-Man: Miles Moralesfor example, the art was replaced with a promotional poster for the film Spider-Man: Through the Spider-Verse, released in 2023.
In practice, it seems that the change tries to display the latest news available for a given title, even if they are already dated. Likewise, games that do not have news or updates do not seem to “suffer” from the feature — on the other hand, it is worth remembering that the “method” of displaying ads has not yet been detailed.
Sony says it’s all just a bug
As angry users complained on social media, Sony released a statement on the matter. The company said it was all a technical error. According to the company, the PlayStation’s news and updates function suffered from a problem, which resulted in the display of incorrect information in some games.
“A technical error with the Official News feature on the PS5 console has now been resolved. There have been no changes to the way game news is displayed on the PS5,” said the company, in an official support profile.
Has PS5 always had ads?
Technically, yes, the PlayStation 5 home screen always had ads. However, promotional spaces were used to promote games and other content from the PlayStation Store itself“blending” into the interface.
Similarly, Xbox also has ads of different types, but allows the user to adjust their relevance through some themes. It is not the appropriate solution, but it still guarantees players some autonomy.
And you, what did you think of the problem? Do PlayStation 5 ads bother you? Share on social media Voxel!
Source: https://www.tecmundo.com.br/voxel/290197-playstation-5-tera-propagandas-obrigatorias-tela-inicial.htm
