After months of anticipation, Sony’s PS5 is finally out now. Although it’s only just now getting into the hands of eager fans, we’ve had the chance to interface with the console for quite some time. In our testing, we began to consider what Sony could do to further improve its next-generation console, whether it be through firmware updates or future hardware iterations.
Below we detail our biggest wishes for PS5 after using the console for a few weeks and what we think would help the PS5 shine even brighter than it already does. As a note, this article is focused more on the console from a feature-set or quality-of-life standpoint, so don’t expect any wishes about specific game franchises coming back.
After you’re done reading, be sure to jump into the comments to share your biggest wishes for the console moving forward. If you’re still on the fence about buying one, read our PS5 review. And if you’re looking to get a PS5, be sure to check out our PS5 buying guide, where we offer the latest updates on which retailers have the console back in stock.
Add Folder Organization
When you first open up your PS5 library, it’s quite the sight to behold with all your game icons laid out in such a tidy manner. But while it’s nice to view your collection in this way, you may find yourself wanting to organize it further into sections based on your preferences. Unfortunately, PS5 currently doesn’t have any folder options you can use to customize or manage how your games are laid out. It’s an odd look for PS5, seeing as it’s something the PS4 can already do. Here’s to hoping we’ll get folders, or maybe something even more useful!
PlayStation 5 Video Review
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Quick Resume-Like Functionality
We don’t want this to become a list of features that Xbox Series X/S but PS5 doesn’t. That said, we feel that Quick Resume–which allows you to bounce between multiple games without having to boot each one from scratch–is something that would be cool to see Sony implement into the PS5. How feasible that is to do from a technical standpoint is unclear, and the feature is certainly more of a luxury than a necessity. But we still feel passionately that PS5 could benefit from such functionality in the future, particularly if it can address some of our gripes with how it works on Series X/S.
Store PS5 Games On External Storage
Okay, one more thing that Xbox has: Gosh darn it, the option to store PS5 games on external storage sure would be nice! As is, there’s not a lot of wiggle room on the internal drive, and with game install sizes being pretty massive these days, it can fill up pretty quickly. Letting you install PS5 games on an external would be an enormous help for people who have to worry about slow internet speeds and data caps. And luckily, it does seem like Sony has heard people’s pleas, and is looking to address this issue in a future update.
Make Older PlayStation Games Available On PSN
In the months leading up to launch, Sony said it didn’t have time to make the PS5 backwards compatible with PS3, PS2, and PS1 games, and it was a total bummer. While PS4’s library is outstanding, it still feels like a missed opportunity for the company not to include older PlayStation generations in its backwards compatibility list. That said, running older-generation PlayStation software on new hardware is no easy task when we’re talking about Sony getting its oldest games to run on PS5 just by inserting the discs alone. Who knows if Sony will commit to adding such a capability to the console in future models.
For some reason, the PS5 library menu defaults icons for cross-gen games to the PS4 versions.
But if we inevitably can’t play old PlayStation games that way until a new console version arrives, then we’re hoping that Sony will re-release some of its most highly-regarded classics on PSN via emulation, much like what it did on PS4 with its “PS2 Classics” series. Heck, it’s possible to run those PS2-on-PS4 games on PS5 via backward compatibility, and you can even access a decent catalog of PS2 and PS3 games using PS Now. If you’re really looking to play old games on PS5, there are a few ways to do so–it’s just a bit scattered.
So, our biggest wish in all this talk about playing old PlayStation games on PS5 is for Sony to unify its approach to making previous-gen games available to play. Perhaps new classic games from PS1 to PS3 can be sold on PSN under a new banner. Or better yet, maybe all these games get clumped into Sony’s PlayStation Plus Collection. Whatever the company chooses to do, all we want to do is play its older games on its latest platform.
An Easier Way To Access Your Trophy List
Given the relatively seamless all-in-one interface allowed by the PS5’s Control Center, it’s a bit disappointing that there’s no easier way to check the Trophy list for the game being played. As it stands, you can’t seem to quickly pull up the list for the game like on the PS4. You can only access it by going to the Trophy menu directly.
It’s also far too tedious to sift through the Trophies, as Sony decided to give each Trophy a flashier design than the basic list on the PS4. It certainly makes you feel like a champion when you earn one, but it’s a chore to look through the whole list.
Fix PlayStation 5 Games Defaulting To PS4 Versions
On PS5, if you’ve got a game like Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales that’s available on both PS5 and PS4, you can choose which version you want to download. However, the PS5 often defaults to downloading PS4 versions of cross-generation games when they appear in your library. When you highlight a cross-gen game in the Library tab, it’s typically the PS4 version, and not the PS5 version, at first glance–although the difference isn’t made visually clear. To get to the next-gen version, you actually have to hit the button with the three dots that appear when you select a game to pull up a menu where you can choose between and download each version.
It’s easy to forget, but PS4 did have PS2 games you could play via emulation.
We’re hoping that Sony patches this up because this interface issue persists even after you download the proper PS5 versions. Repeatedly during pre-release testing, we had PS5 apps that we’d already played switch their icons back over to PS4 versions on the home screen, which prompted the menu to start a download of the PS4 version every time we selected it, rather than just start playing the PS5 version.
Honestly, it seems like this issue might be tied to how some games get automatic updates, but again, if you’re moving quickly through the UI, you can start a download accidentally that’ll instantly need to delete. And if you have both versions of a game installed, it’s very easy to start the wrong one and not realize it, which has become increasingly frustrating the more we’ve had it happen. For more about our thoughts and frustrations around this UI issue, check out our feature detailing our experiences.
