Have you been wondering what the PS4 user interface might look like when you finally turn on the system later this year? Well wonder no more because we have quite a few screens from Sony showing just that!
Some of these images may change as time progresses but as of now this is what the system will look like.
The main menu is interesting I think as it’s sort of like a mix between the PS store and the new Vita menu with the colours and everything and the very distinctive blue background. It looks to go horizontally across like the ps3 but with better looking images and tiles. You can also see that games are the centre and focus for the console menu’s; you’ll need to scroll slightly to the right to get to music/video/Internet features. I like it! Games should be the centre and it looks clean, easy and quick.
Another interesting thing out of the new interface is the social features the console is now integrating. If you look at the picture shown below it appears there is a far greater integration on the PS4 with your friends. Things are shared, posted, and streamed.
For me I think the photo above really shows an interesting thing for the new console. I think I would like knowing what my friends are doing and I like the idea I can look at their screenshots from the game and comment on them. I like that it also tells me if someone beat my high score in a racing game and I like that it allows for sharing videos. I think for people with a lot of friends in their PS4 it could really be a great and fun part of the system. I also noticed that it is using people’s real names and photo’s which to me is also interesting as gaming has always been gamer names like on the PS3 so it will be interesting to see how this gets integrated on the system.
Furthermore there have been significant changes to the look and usability of the trophy pages compared to the PS3. In comparison to Sony’s previous generation offering; this one seems to have gone in the right step. There is now far more trophy information and stats available for the players to view. I also like that it looks very easy to invite friends and also that you can easily see what friends you have that also have the game. It just makes the trophy collecting experience much better in my view; especially for those who love collecting and comparing their trophies.
Finally there is of course the sharing features themselves. I think these as shown below look quite interesting but simple. It looks like it’s fairly simple to use as in taking pictures, and just pressing share. Same goes for videos that are filmed, but it does look like they have some basic video editing features.
Finally; the final feature that I think is very appealing is the video streaming features that the PS4 will have. It seems you can watch any game that a friend is playing on your PS4 and also on your phone! I also like that it has the ability to make comments on what is happening. It’s not known at this point to us how the player is notified when comments are made. But if you can get a good amount of people watching it’s always going to be fun to read the comments based on how you are playing in the game. Video streaming on phone looks very interesting as well for people on the go, hopefully it’s also available for the Vita as well.
Overall while this was a small preview of the user interface of the PS4 and there are likely many, many features coming to the system. It does look very easy to use and incredibly modern with a very large emphasis on sharing your gaming content with your friends.
