September 2024’s major PS5 system software update introduced an annoying change to ads, which has stirred some controversy as the issue has gradually become quite prominent. Over the weekend, a viral thread pointed out that the game tiles on PS5’s main dashboard are now clogged with ads, which smack us in the face when hovering over them.
September 2024’s PS5 system update disguises ads as game news
We initally dismissed the viral thread because the examples the user provided of the “ads” running in the background of a game tile were specifically marked “game news” by Sony and appeared to be relevant to the game selected. However, others have since tested out the change by checking various game tiles and have found quite a lot of unwanted ads running in the background disguised as news.
MP1st pointed out that Horizon Zero Dawn’s game tile displays an ad for preordering Lego Horizon Adventures, and what’s more is that the ad is crafted in such a way that it looks like a user is playing Lego Horizon Adventures instead of Horizon Zero Dawn. Of course, that isn’t true because Lego Horizon Adventures has yet to release, but going forward, this will be confusing.
Another example that has been highlighted, and which I can confirm, is that Spider-Man 2’s game tile now promotes a dev video where there was once a background image of Peter and Miles as seen on the game’s cover.
For those who have yet to receive the Welcome Hub, do note that the feature comes with the ability to turn off ads. What Sony neglected to mention was that it’ll run ads of its choice in the background of every single game tile, with no way to opt out or turn them off unless you take the PS5 offline.
