PS5 Activities System Allows Instant Access To Select Parts Of Games

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PlayStation 5's latest announced feature is “Activities,” a system that allows players to instantly jump from the PS5’s home menu directly into select areas of various titles. This exciting new addition to the PlayStation’s repertoire is made possible through the PS5’s custom solid-state drive (SSD), which holds 825GB of story and is capable of transferring 5GB/s.

For those unfamiliar with the technology, all of this essentially means that the PS5 will be able to save, transfer, and load data at significantly faster speeds than the original PS4 (or any other console that uses a hard disk drive, or HDD). Originally teased by Sony’s Mark Cerny months ago, the Activities system is just one example of how SSD technology can be integrated to greatly enhance the gaming experience outside of simply performing basic tasks faster. It will be the next step in keeping console players continuously engaged with their games - both single player and multiplayer - and is sure to be a major consideration for players who don’t want to waste a single second.

Wccftech examined today what Activities would look like in practice. In the upcoming racing game WRC 9, players will be able to go directly from their home menus into a race of their choice, effectively skipping the process of booting up the game entirely. Not only this, but the Activities tab itself will feature live updates regarding in-game events, races, and other missions, meaning that players will constantly be aware of everything going on in WRC 9’s world. In Mark Cerny’s own words, “Multiplayer game servers will provide the console with a set of joinable activities in real time. Single-player games will provide information like what missions you could do and what rewards you might receive for completing them.”

Cerny’s clarification that this system will apply to both single-player and multiplayer games is a significant one that holds great potential. For MMO players, Activities could drastically cut down on the amount of time players spend booting up titles like Destiny 2 in the hopes that a specific quest is available. Similarly, it would be a great implementation into mission-based games, like Nioh 2, which features daily Twilight missions with different rewards for each completion. The same goes for popular multiplayer shooters like Call of Duty: Warzone and Overwatch, which also regularly cycle through playable game modes.

Back when consoles first implemented the ability to see which friends are online and what they were playing, it seemed like the wave of the future; Activities appears to be the next step in that process. With the PlayStation 5 due to release in only months, it would seem that Sony is saving the announcements of some of its most intriguing features for last.