In a surprise reveal today, Sony released a State of Play video that walked us through the PlayStation 5′s user experience (UX), including the Control Center and Activities feature.

“We believe your play time is valuable and should be meaningful, and all the new features we’re delivering are inspired by that concept and vision,” said Hideaki Nishino, Senior VP at Sony. “The new UX introduces several new features designed to make your gaming experiences more fun, engaging, personalized and social.”

The Control Center is the new main menu for PlayStation 5, displaying everything you need without even having to leave your currently played game. The new Activities are displayed as on-screen cards and show useful information such as how much time is left in a level, and major objectives, including those you may have missed.

Acknowledging that many of us pull out our phones to look up a video or hint on how to solve a problem, Sony has built in picture-in-picture hints and walkthroughs that you can quickly pull up without having to leave the game. Note that this game help is available only for PlayStation Plus subscribers, and only for games that support it.

Navigating the menus and switching between games has never been faster due to the integration between the console and the network.

PlayStation 5 will launch November 12 with a regular and digital-only edition.


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Eric has been writing for over nine years with bylines at Dicebreaker, Pixelkin, Polygon, PC Gamer, Tabletop Gaming magazine, and more covering movies, TV shows, video games, tabletop games, and tech. He reviews and live streams D&D adventures every week on his YouTube channel. He also makes a mean tuna quesadilla.