PS5 Homescreen now replaces unique video game art with annoying ads that you can’t turn off

UPDATE OCTOBER 1, 2024: Sony has attributed the recent changes to the PS5 home screen to a “technical error”, which has now been resolved.

IGN testing shows that news feed items are no longer forced on PS5 users when selecting their games. Original game art now appears in the background of the home screen as before.

In a tweet, Sony said: “A technical error with the official news feature on the PS5 console has now been resolved. No changes have been made to the way game news is displayed on PS5.”

ORIGINAL STORY SEPTEMBER 30, 2024: The PlayStation 5 now has an advertising system built into the dashboard UI that you can’t disable without disconnecting from the internet.

Users noticed how hovering over a video game icon on the homepage now forces an ad to replace the unique art – as close to a theme as the PS5 can get.

What seems to be happening is that the PS5 is pulling in the latest news for every game, whether it’s a YouTube video, patch notes, or even the announcement of a completely different game.

However, some users have criticized the move to replace the main video game images on the homepage with, in some cases, outdated advertisements.

IGN’s testing shows that the latest promotional Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 video released by publisher Focus Entertainment has replaced protagonist Titus’ art in the home screen background.

Black Myth: Wukong now forces an image indicating the latest patch notes.

And Call of Duty is promoting The Haunting Season 6 update.

Other users have reported particularly confusing ads. MP1st showed how an advertisement for the upcoming Lego Horizon Adventures takes up the background when selecting Horizon Zero Dawn, making it seem like you’re about to play a game that hasn’t been released yet.

Perhaps most annoying of all is that some of the latest news the PS5 pulls from is significantly outdated, which may confuse some less informed users. For example, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales brutally forces an ad for the “coming soon” theatrical release of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which was actually released in June 2023.

NBA 2K25, meanwhile, is showing an ad for early access to the game, which is now almost a month old.

Oddly enough, some games don’t take advantage of the new ad system (maybe there’s no breaking news to glean from). For example, the recently released Astro Bot will be spared for the time being, just like Yakuza Kiwami 2.

The PlayStation dashboard had contained advertisements for years, but these had largely been relegated to the PlayStation Store section itself. Likewise, Microsoft’s Xbox dashboard is littered with ads, but at least the console supports themes that take precedence over the home screen background.

There’s speculation that Sony added this feature as part of the PS5’s recent Welcome Hub firmware update, but there was no mention of it in the patch notes. Either way, it’s fair to say that core PS5 users aren’t big fans of the breach.

“There should definitely be a way to disable this,” said redditor mikelman999. “I understand its usefulness in modern games that are still being updated, but because it only displays the latest “news” item, it is a lot more problematic on older titles. Ultimately, your screen is covered with irrelevant information that may be ten years out of date.”

“Terrible decision and I hope this changes soon or this is a way to opt out,” ConcreteSnake said. “At least with the Explore tab I could ignore it and not infect every game I ‘own’.”

Wesley is the UK news editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].