Summary
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The PlayStation 5 “Welcome Hub” added a lot of customizable features, including moving information widgets.
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According to a Sony VP, it came from a hackathon run by Sony with a small team that was “passionate about this space”.
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The VP also said that PS5 users are split 50/50 between sleep mode and turning the console off completely.
In the middle of last year, Sony introduced a major update to the PlayStation 5 user interface via the “Welcome Hub”. The update allows users to customize the hub with a variety of moving widgets to enhance their gaming experience. Although it had a few initial hiccups, it was largely welcomed for the number of useful additions.
Through the “Welcome Hub,” users can see how many trophies they've earned, how much battery life their devices have, or how much space they have left on their console's storage, among other nifty features.
As it turns out, the update came from a PlayStation-focused “Hackathon.” In an interview with Game File (paid), Sony's Vice President of Products, Games and Player Experience Cory Gasaway shared how the “Welcome Hub” came to be.
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“Welcome Hub came from a hackathon project designed by a small team that is passionate about the space,” he said. “We all loved the idea and encouraged them to move forward and turn this project into something special – which is now the landing page that millions of gamers around the world see when they boot up their console.”
Ultimately, the goal was to allow each type of player to customize their experience as they see fit. For example, trophy hunters can see their progress, while multiplayer enthusiasts can see which of their friends are online.
Other notable trends
According to Gasaway, the most used widgets are: “Battery, Storage and Online Friends.” This is not too surprising given the essential information they provide in an easy-to-digest format.
Elsewhere, Gasaway shared that despite an “internal hypothesis” theorizing that more players would put the console into sleep mode instead of turning it off completely, that's actually not the case. “As it turned out, it was actually about 50/50 between the two options among all our players,” he added.
As for future widgets and updates, Gasaway had nothing to share. He noted that being able to separate some areas allowed PlayStation to deploy “faster, more agile versions”. In other words, it probably won't be long before the PS5 UI evolves further.
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