Gamers and the press are currently focused on finding out how good the games look on the next-gen consoles, but there's also the promise of some novel new features being intrdocued with the PS5 and Xbox Series X. One of those just leaked for Sony's new console, and it's called "Activities."
Typically, playing a game requires booting the console, selecting the game's link on the console menu, and once loaded, selecting which part of the game to play. You might want to load one of several save games, jump into multiplayer, or replay a certain mission or course, for example. As VGC reports, the Activities feature is expected to offer a shortcut by displaying a list of gameplay options for each title directly on the console's menu.
The feature was leaked via a preview of the forthcoming racing game WRC 9 on Gamesreactor, which has now been taken offline. The game is launching on PS4 and Xbox One in September, but will receive an upgrade for PS5 and Xbox Series X. For the PS5 version, the preview stated the upgrade will include the Activities feature and describes it as, "an instant deeplink to specific races directly from the console's menu."
We're already expecting game load times to be reduced to a handful of seconds on next-gen thanks to the switch to SSD storage, but Activities promises to remove even more time between booting a PS5 and gameplay commencing. VGC also points out the feature ties up with a patent Sony had published back in March called, "Dynamic Interfaces for Launching Direct Gameplay." The patent describes associating multiple templates with interactive activity, which sounds just how Activities could function. Developers associate templates with different parts of their game which then get listed on the PS5 menu for their title.
Further Reading
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