PS5 UI Does Not Have Custom Themes

The PlayStation 5’s UI brings with it a host of changes that evolve what players experienced on the PS4, and while things like Trophies, Account Avatars photos, and more have made the transition, one notable piece of the PS4 UI has not made the next-gen leap - themes. Themes have played a big role in the life of the PS4 as a way of customizing the console’s UI. Both static and dynamic themes have been available by the hundreds for players to purchase or grab for free, some reskinning the icons to a game-specific look, or adding music from your favorite games to your PS4 hub. Other, more static themes just change the look, but still let players add an additional personal touch. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/ps5s-ui-the-5-biggest-gamechangers"] The PS5, as of our pre-launch experience, has no themes. IGN has reached out to Sony about the decision to not have themes for PS5, and whether it’s a feature the company is considering adding back in. We’ll update this story should they respond, but there’s at least one likely reason we aren’t seeing themes. For the most part, PS5’s UI takes an inverse approach to the PS4’s. Sony’s soon-to-be last-gen system largely put all its icons on display at once and made them the focal point of the UI. A host of games, apps, and settings icons are often shown all prominently on screen simultaneously. The PS5’s UI moves many of those features to the top of the screen, or even more directly in the pop-up Control Center menu, which acts as an overlay to the PS5. Instead, each PS5 game we’ve seen so far comes with its own mini-theme of sorts. Take Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, which showcases a big piece of art for Miles in his Spidey suit while one of the game’s themes plays in the background. But if you switch over to Astro’s Playroom, a new piece of Astro art dominates the screen, with music from that game playing. While not as much of an overhaul to the UI as a dynamic theme could be, it seems each PS5 game will offer a bit of specialization to your PS5 dashboard as you hover over it. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=confirmed-playstation-5-games&captions=true"] And given the PS5’s Control Center now letting you quickly switch between games, check downloads, check in with your friends list, and more all without actually leaving a currently active game, it’s quite possible players will spend much less time in the PS5 dashboard than they did the PS4’s. Of course, should we get any official word from Sony on the decision, we’ll be sure to update this story, but in the meantime, you can check out plenty more on the PS5, including our PS5 console review. We also have news on how the PS5 has 667GB of usable storage space, what its new Activity Cards are for, and how the Create button differs from the PS4 Share button. And if you're interested in the PS5's launch lineup, check out our Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales review and our Astro's Playroom review. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jonathon Dornbush is IGN's Senior News Editor, host of Podcast Beyond!, and PlayStation lead. Talk to him on Twitter @jmdornbush.