I don’t know about you, but something about the PS3’s user interface always felt a bit shoddy to me. Maybe it was too minimalist. Maybe the menus were so soothing that I could spend minutes floating around them without actually achieving anything. Whatever. The important thing is that the new Playstation is fixing it.
Earlier today, Japanese bulletin-board website 2ch released a series of images claiming to be screenshots of the Playstation 4’s interface. Given their similarities to what we saw at the recent release convention, I’d say these puppies are the real deal. Given that the website is in Japanese, and my Japanese skills are even worse than they used to be, I’ll be employing everyone’s favorite translation tool in my perusal of the descriptions.
THE HOME SCREEN
Two things are immediately apparent in this screenshot that weren’t at the convention: the web browser, and the video player. However, after muddling through the Japanese, it seems like the most thrilling thing you can access on the home screen is the ability to live stream content directly from your PS4. The description also alludes to the fact that the interface is highly customizable, which I hope means ‘you can put exactly what you want on here,’ other than the, you know, advertisements.
SHARING
The PS4’s claim to glory this generation is its ability to share content. Goodbye start/select buttons, hello activity feed. Not only do the screenshots confirm the ability to share several different mediums of content, but they also feature the minimalist design of the streaming function.
To top the whole streaming experience off, there’s even an example of how connecting to a PS4 livestream will look on your mobile device.
GAMER PROFILE
This guy is obviously exceptionally happy because the PS4 finally highlights exactly what everybody has unknowingly wanted in past console generations: trophies, man.
The major theme of the graphic design season seems to be in the style of Windows Metro, which lends itself highly to the activity feed-esque nature of the new Playstation’s share features. Luckily, like in past consoles, the interface seems to be just as customizable, so you can definitely downplay the whole blue blocks design if that’s your thing.
The biggest purpose that these screenshots indicate might not be overly apparent. Given the general difficulty of navigating the Metro style with a d-pad or the like, we can expect the pointing capabilities of the new PS4 controller to play a large part in the everyday use of the console.
Published: Mar 1, 2013 02:47 am