The PS5 has introduced many new next-gen features. This includes having one of the fastest SSDs out there, and UI improvements like the new Activities feature, which enables players to instantly jump around to different game quests or ‘activities’ by sorting through a menu.

Back in 2019, Sony distributed confidential documents to internal developers (via Vice), which were part of a presentation telling them all about this new Activities feature.

In the presentation, Sony pointed out how single-player games were thriving, but players often encountered problems like the following:

• “No idea how long I might need, don’t play unless I have 2+ free hours”.
• “Takes a lot of time to scan through long help videos when stuck”.
• “How to engage socially without risk of spoilers”.
• “Forgot what I was doing in this game last time, hard to get back in”.

According to Sony, the main issue is that players don’t have enough information to determine when and how they should play a single-player game, especially when they don’t have a lot of free time.

Thus, PS5 Activities will not only let them instantly jump into specific parts of the game, but also suggest how long it will take to finish those particular parts.

So far, different games have implemented the Activities feature in different ways. In Demon’s Souls, players can warp between worlds. In Marvel’s Spider-Man Miles Morales, players can just jump straight into a story mission or side quest, instead of swinging through New York to get there.

However, it can also be incorporated in other ways. Sony’s 2019 presentation suggests a “challenge” activity that lists the fastest lap times around a particular track in a Gran Turismo game and how many times the player has attempted it. This is already currently being used in Astro’s Playroom.

Some players might prefer to play a game traditionally, but Sony is right in that some players don’t have time to fully immerse themselves in a 100-hour open-world game. The PS5 Activities feature goes a long way in helping them enjoy what little playtime they have.

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