Update, September 30, 2024, 6:34 p.m. ET: It seems that the new home screen experience that users reported today was the result of a bug that has been fixed. On September 30 at 6 p.m. ET today, the AskPlayStation X account wrote:
“A tech error with the Official News feature on the PS5 console has since been resolved, There have been no changes to the way game news is displayed on PS5.”
Users say they’re no longer seeing ads or other confusing content on their home screens as described below.
Original article below:
PlayStation 5 owners are reporting advertisements on the device’s home screen. Frustratingly, the ads seem to be rather difficult to disable, and some are also outdated ads and/or confusing content.
The ads, visible on users’ home screens when they hover over a game title, can only be removed if you disconnect from the Internet, IGN reported today. However, that would block a lot of the console’s functionality. The PS5 dashboard previously had ads but not on the home screen.
Before this recent development, people would see game art if they hovered over a game icon on the PS5’s home screen. Now, doing so reportedly brings up dated advertisements. For example, IGN reported seeing an ad for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse “coming soon exclusively in cinemas” when hovering over the Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales game. Webheads will of course recall that the Spider-Verse movie came out in June 2023.
Similarly, going to NBA 2K25 reportedly shows an ad for gaining early access. But the game came out early this month.
Per IGN, it seems that the console is “pulling in the latest news for each game, whether it be a YouTube video, patch notes, or even the announcement of a different game entirely.” That means that not all games are showing advertisements. Instead, some show an image for a YouTube video about the game or a note about patch notes or updates for the game.
There also seem to be some mix-ups, with MP1st reporting seeing an ad for the LEGO Horizon Adventures game when hovering over the icon for Horizon Zero Dawn. The publication wrote: “The ad also make[s it] confusing a bit, as… it looks like you’re playing LEGO Horizon Adventures and not the actual Horizon game we’re on.”