PlayStation 5 user experience video introduces new control center and card system

Sony unveiled the PlayStation 5’s user interface in a new video that showed off some impressive features.

The user experience video went through a lot of info, but there are three things in particular that stood out: the design, which is specifically made for 4K displays (sorry, HD gang), the control center and the card system.

Control center is where you can access everything on your PS5 console. If you’re a PlayStation 4 owner, it’s basically the PS5’s version of the home screen. Sony touted it as a central part of the PS5 interface and it’s basically your home base.

It’s also where you will be able to access the card system. Cards on the PS5 can be anything from news updates, game information, guides and more. The cards are reminiscent of status updates or news aggregation threads on social media platforms.

For example, one of the cards featured in the demo showed a card that aggregated news stories about various games the player owned. Another card revealed the player’s progress on a level in Sackboy: A Big Adventure, showing the percentage of completion as well as the estimated time it will take the player to finish the level.

Cards can even be used to provide tutorials and walkthroughs. Using the card system, players can use picture-in-picture mode or the side-by-side view to play the tutorial video while still playing the game in real-time. However, this feature is only available to PS Plus members and it’s implied that not all tutorial cards will be pinnable.

There’s also an explore feature that will provide you with trending content from the community and official news from PlayStation and any games you’re interested in. This feature won’t be available to all regions at launch and Sony will be testing it first with U.S. audiences.

If you’re aesthetically minded, there’s also a screenshot mode that’s capable of taking photos up to 4K quality. You can also use the card system to watch your friends streaming while you’re each playing your respective games and chat with them in real-time through the DualSense wireless controller’s built-in mic, but if history is any precedent, that controller mic is going to be trash. You’ll be better off investing in a headset.

And that’s pretty much just the gist of it. With the silky smooth transitions and speedy load times — thanks to the PS5’s powerful solid-state drive — it’s shaping up to be quite a formidable system.

The PlayStation 5 is launching on Nov. 12 in the U.S., Japan, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea. It will be available everywhere else on Nov. 19.

If you enjoyed this story, check out In The Know’s article on how the PlayStation 5’s backwards compatibility with the PS4 will work.

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