As far as initial sales are concerned, the PS5’s launch has been a homerun for Sony, and thanks to the console’s solid launch lineup, those who’ve managed to get their hands on the PS5 have been having a solid time with it right off the bat. Even so, the PS5 does have a few features missing that we’re hoping Sony will be adding in down the line. Here, we’re going to be talking about a few such features.
SIMULTANEOUS DOWNLOADS
While the PS4 allowed for simultaneous downloads, the PS5 instead puts them in a queue, which means you’re only ever allowed to download one thing at a time- which is a weird step back. It’s not a deal-breaker by any means, more of an inconvenience, but we’re hoping that Sony will still make the decision to revert back to simultaneous downloads sooner rather than later.
SMART DELIVERY
Microsoft’s Smart Delivery program has been praised by a lot of people, and for good reason, seeing as it enables cross-generation transitions for games to be a much smoother process. Just boot up one of these games on your Xbox Series X or S, and you’ll automatically get the version best optimized for that system. The PS5 has no such feature, and in many cases, you even have to manually select the PS5 versions of games, since they’re set to PS4 versions via backward compatibility by default. A Smart Delivery-style system would do a lot of wonders for the PS5.
LEGACY BACKWARD COMPATIBILITY
We are, of course, glad that the PS5 is backward compatible with most of the PS4’s library, especially given the complete lack of the feature on the PS4. But Microsoft have shown that having backward compatibility that spans multiple generations can be a huge selling point. Having the entire PlayStation library, from PS1 to the PS4, playable on one single system would be a massive bonus- and it’s not necessarily something that Sony can’t add to the PS5 mid-generation. Microsoft did it with the Xbox One, after all, and we’re hoping that Sony, too, will follow in their footsteps.
8K UPSCALING
4K resolution is only just now starting to be used widely, and even it isn’t an industry standard just yet. The PS5 is, of course, a machine that’s capable of 8K as well, however- but surprisingly enough, there’s no 8K upscaling even when you’re playing the console on an 8K screen. We’re assuming this is just something that’s missing at launch and will eventually be added in- especially since it literally says on the PS5’s box that the machine is 8K capable.
DOLBY VISION AND ATMOS SUPPORT
Microsoft proudly touted not that long ago that the Xbox Series X is the first and only console ever to feature support for Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. The PS5 supports HDR10, of course, but not Dolby Vision, while Dolby Atmos isn’t supported either (not counting Atmos bitstreaming for Blu-ray and UHD Blu-ray). Seeing as the PS5 is such an impressive machine on a technical level in most other ways, it not supporting Dolby Vision and Atmos is a bit of a bummer.
MASS PS4-PS5 TRANSFERS
Data transferring from a PS4 to a PS5 is really rather convenient when you’re first setting up your console- though bafflingly enough, once you’re done with the initial setup, it becomes something of a hassle. During that initial setup, you can transfer data from across multiple users, but if you decide not to do it right then, after that, you can only do transfers for one account at a time. Clearly, simultaneous transfers for multiple accounts is something the PS5 can do, so hopefully, Sony will release an update that will enable users to do so whenever they want.
VRR, EXPANDABLE STORAGE
Thankfully, both these things are confirmed to be coming down the road. Variable refresh rate is one of the Xbox Series X’s biggest and most useful visual features, and the PS5 doesn’t have it at launch. Meanwhile, the console doesn’t yet support SSD expansions either, owing to the fact that no SSDs have been certified yet for that purpose. Hopefully, it won’t take too long for both these features to be added in.
QUICK RESUME
The new consoles put a great deal of emphasis on speed and usability, and on the Xbox front, Quick Resume is one of the biggest and best features that enables that. The PS5 doesn’t have anything like that. Sure, it has a Switch, which is a decent substitute, especially when combined with Activity cards- but it just adds in a couple of steps that make the process a little slower. Here’s hoping something that’s equivalent to Quick Resume will be introduced on the PS5 eventually.
MEDIA PLAYER APP
For a console to launch in 2020 – especially one as impressive as the PS5 – and not have a media player app is honestly quite surprising, and though we doubt it’s a crucial feature that will make or break the purchase for anyone, it still feels like a fundamental necessity. The PS4 didn’t have a Media Player app at launch either, and it took quite a while for it to get one- here’s hoping the PS5 is quicker to get one.
INTERNET BROWSER
An internet browser is far from the most crucial thing that a new console needs to have, but like the Media Player app, it’s something that you’d expect one to have anyway. The PS5 is a multimedia device, after all, and for it to not have an internet browser at launch is a little weird. Granted, most people probably won’t be using an internet browser on their PS5, but Sony will still probably want to tick that box sooner rather than later.
“BEST DEALS” SECTION IN PS STORE
The PlayStation Store has improved massively on the PS5. Since it’s no longer a separate app and built into the console’s UI itself, the experience of using and navigating the store is much faster and smoother. There is one pretty glaring omission in there though- it doesn’t have a section for “Deals”. Just recently, the PlayStation Store had a sizeable Black Friday sale, and yet those on the PS5 had no way to navigate these deals in a single, collated page or tab. It’s a pretty baffling thing to be missing, and we’re hoping it’ll get sorted out eventually.
NATIVE VR
The PS5 supports the PSVR, but with a catch- you can only play VR games through backward compatibility, even if it’s for games that have native PS5 versions. So with games like No Man’s Sky or the upcoming Hitman 3, if you want to play them in VR on the PS5, you have no choice but to play their last-gen versions. Native VR support is something that Sony should prioritize adding to the PS5, especially if upcoming technical showcases like Resident Evil Village feature VR support.
1440p SUPPORT
This has gotten plenty of attention in the last few days. The PS5 not featuring support for 1440p resolutions is a baffling error for a console that is 4K capable (or even 8K capable, as we mentioned earlier), and a huge bummer for those who play their games on 1440p monitors. To be fair, Sony has indicated that this is something they would consider adding in if there was enough demand for it. Well, there seems to be plenty of demand for it, so let’s hope it doesn’t take too long for this to be added to the PS5 in a future firmware update.
PS5 SAVE BACKUPS
Save backups on the PS5 are kind of tricky. Though you can backup your saves to the cloud, you can only do so if you’re a PlayStation Plus subscriber- there’s no other way to backup your save data. That just makes no sense- why the PS5 can’t allow users to backup their saves to external USB drives is beyond us. Hopefully, Sony will see the logic in letting users do that and allow it sooner rather than later.