It’s been more than 30 years since Sony first broke into the console business with the originalPlayStationand the industry hasn’t been the same since. Three decades and seven iterations later (including handhelds), the console has shaped the experiences of entire generations of gamers. And with rumors constantly swirling around thepossible arrival of a PlayStation 6, Sony doesn’t intend to stop anytime soon.
To mark the console’s 30th anniversary, Sony launched a PS5 update that gave players access to a number of custom themes for their consoles. These themes were designed to evoke the look and feel of previous generations ofPlayStationconsoles. This update was hugely popular with players eager to relive the nostalgic sound effects of consoles like the PlayStation 2 or even something as recent as the PlayStation 4. Even though these themes were a temporary celebration of PlayStation’s history, they should only be the beginning of what Sony has in store.
Sony Should Embrace Nostalgic PS5 Themes
Sony Should Bring Back The Anniversary Themes and Then Some
There’s no getting around it: thePlayStation Anniversary themes were incredibly popular. Even a cursory look at social media during the launch of the Anniversary update would show hundreds of gamers happy to relive some small part of their childhoods hearing those iconic menu sounds. It was such a smash-hit success that it needs to be capitalized on.
First and foremost, these anniversary themes need to come back full-time. Making them a limited-time exclusive was a good start and an excellent way to commemorate three decades of memories, but the assets are there and sitting in storage. Bringing them back full-time would not only be easy, but a great way torekindle some fan goodwill after the high-profile PSN outage. But by no means should Sony stop there.
Sony Should Design More Premium Nostalgic Themes for Modern Consoles
Sony is leaving money on the table by not expanding on these anniversary themes with more in-depth premium themes that pay homage to its consoles of yesteryear. Despite its advanced age,the PS2 remains one of the highest-selling consoles of all time. There are a lot of potential customers out there who would be happy to pay a reasonable price to turn their sleek, modern gaming machine into a light facsimile of the system that got them into video games all those years ago.
As for what these premium themes could entail, the writing is on the wall. The UI design directly inspired by the retro Sony consoles is a no-brainer. The free Anniversary themes have already incorporated those iconic menu and boot-up sound effects. But there’s more that can be done to make this a really special prospect. Sony could let players choose the design of their trophies based on whatever generation they like. ThePS3 introduced the concept of trophies to Sony’s consoles, and they’ve been a mainstay since; nostalgic players should be able to relive the era of gaming that brought them so many classics, like the originalModern Warfare 2, inFamous, Prototype, Arkham City, Red Dead Redemption, and GTA5.
But even more iconic than the trophies of years past wasthe memory card UI of the PS2. Veteran gamers may remember combing through those menus full of heavily styled 3-D icons representing all their long hard hours of progress on their favorite titles. As of the current console gen, the equivalent menus are static, boring wheels of titles, file names, and maybe screenshots of the game itself. Though it may be complicated from a technical standpoint, a retro PS5 theme with a return to such a menu for saved data would instantly take older gamers back to the past, and show some of the younger blood what their older peers keep talking about when they describe the nostalgic “good old days.”
