PS5 Wishlist: Improvements We Want To See

Still fresh off its release in 2020, the PS5 continues to be a massively popular console. It's an excellent piece of hardware, but there's still so much that Sony needs to improve about it. After interfacing with the console these past several months, we began to consider what Sony could do to further improve its latest console, whether through firmware updates or future hardware iterations.

Below we detail our biggest wishes for PS5 after using the console for a few weeks and what we think would help the PS5 shine even brighter than it already does. As a note, this article is focused more on the console from a feature-set or quality-of-life standpoint, so don't expect any wishes about specific game franchises coming back. If you're intrigued by the things we list below, then be sure to check out the poll results from the GameSpot audience around what they wanted to see improve about the console.

After you're done reading, be sure to jump into the comments to share your biggest wishes for the console moving forward. If you're still on the fence about buying one, read our PS5 review. And if you're looking to get a PS5, be sure to check out our PS5 buying guide, where we offer the latest updates on which retailers have the console back in stock.

Add Folder Organization

When you first open up your PS5 library, it's quite the sight to behold with all your game icons laid out in such a tidy manner. But while it's nice to view your collection in this way, you may find yourself wanting to organize it further into sections based on your preferences. Unfortunately, PS5 currently doesn't have any folder options you can use to customize or manage how your games are laid out. It's an odd look for PS5, seeing as it's something the PS4 can already do. Here's to hoping we'll get folders, or maybe something even more useful!

Quick Resume-Like Functionality

We don't want this to become a list of features that Xbox Series X/S but PS5 doesn't. That said, we feel that Quick Resume--which allows you to bounce between multiple games without having to boot each one from scratch--is something that would be cool to see Sony implement into the PS5. How feasible that is to do from a technical standpoint is unclear, and the feature is certainly more of a luxury than a necessity. But we still feel passionately that PS5 could benefit from such functionality in the future, particularly if it can address some of our gripes with how it works on Series X/S.

Allow Us To Play PS5 Games From External Storage

Okay, so maybe this is a pipedream for now, but it would be wonderful to be able to play PS5 games from external storage. As is, there's not a lot of wiggle room on the internal drive, and with game install sizes being pretty massive these days, it can fill up pretty quickly. Letting you play PS5 games on an external would be an enormous help for people who have to worry about slow internet speeds and data caps. Sony has, at least, allowed us to store PS5 games on external storage with the latest system update, so maybe we'll soon get our wishes fulfilled in a subsequent update.

Make Older PlayStation Games Available On PSN

In the months leading up to launch, Sony said it didn't have time to make the PS5 backwards compatible with PS3, PS2, and PS1 games, and it was a total bummer. While PS4's library is outstanding, it still feels like a missed opportunity for the company not to include older PlayStation generations in its backwards compatibility list. That said, running older-generation PlayStation software on new hardware is no easy task when we're talking about Sony getting its oldest games to run on PS5 just by inserting the discs alone. Who knows if Sony will commit to adding such a capability to the console in future models.

But if we inevitably can't play old PlayStation games that way until a new console version arrives, then we're hoping that Sony will re-release some of its most highly-regarded classics on PSN via emulation, much like what it did on PS4 with its "PS2 Classics" series. Heck, it's possible to run those PS2-on-PS4 games on PS5 via backward compatibility, and you can even access a decent catalog of PS2 and PS3 games using PS Now. If you're really looking to play old games on PS5, there are a few ways to do so--it's just a bit scattered.

So, our biggest wish in all this talk about playing old PlayStation games on PS5 is for Sony to unify its approach to making previous-gen games available to play. Perhaps new classic games from PS1 to PS3 can be sold on PSN under a new banner. Or better yet, maybe all these games get clumped into Sony's PlayStation Plus Collection. With the recent controversy around Sony attempting to close its legacy stores, but then subsequently walking back on the move, it seems like now is as good a time as ever to support older games--if only to get back the good faith of longtime PlayStation fans. Whatever the company chooses to do, all we want to do is play its older games on its latest platform.

An Easier Way To Access Your Trophy List

Given the relatively seamless all-in-one interface allowed by the PS5's Control Center, it's a bit disappointing that there's no easier way to check the Trophy list for the game being played. As it stands, you can't seem to quickly pull up the list for the game like on the PS4. You can only access it by going to the Trophy menu directly.

It's also far too tedious to sift through the Trophies, as Sony decided to give each Trophy a flashier design than the basic list on the PS4. It certainly makes you feel like a champion when you earn one, but it's a chore to look through the whole list.

Improve PlayStation 5 Games Defaulting To PS4 Versions

On PS5, if you've got a game like Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales that's available on both PS5 and PS4, you can choose which version you want to download. However, the PS5 often defaults to downloading PS4 versions of cross-generation games when they appear in your library. When you highlight a cross-gen game in the Library tab, it's typically the PS4 version, and not the PS5 version, at first glance. To get to the next-gen version, you actually have to hit the button with the three dots that appear when you select a game to pull up a menu where you can choose between and download each version.

Sony implemented an update late last year to address this issue, by popping up a notification to inform you whenever you're about to boot a PS4 version of a game that has a PS5 version/upgrade. But this seems like a minor bandage in the grand scheme. After all, this notification doesn't account for the mistake in the install phase, meaning you might've taken up a chunk of your day installing the PS4 version of a game instead of the PS5.

We're hoping that Sony improves the general user experience around installing games from different generations because this interface issue persists even after you download the proper PS5 versions. Honestly, it seems like this issue might be tied to how some games get automatic updates, but again, if you're moving quickly through the UI, you can start a download accidentally that'll instantly need to delete. And if you have both versions of a game installed, it's very easy to start the wrong one and not realize it, which has become increasingly frustrating the more we've had it happen.

Let Holding Down The PlayStation Button Bring Up The PS5's Power Options

If there's one thing that utterly throws off new PS5 users coming in from the PS4, then it's how the DualSense controller's PlayStation button doesn't let you bring up the console's power options when you hold it down. Instead, it just throws you directly to the home screen, which is somewhat handy but seemingly unnecessary given the number of inputs it takes to do so from a single PlayStation button press. In contrast, it takes two inputs to get to the power options.

Maybe we're splitting hairs with this one, but being able to pull up the power options simply by holding down the PlayStation button was one of the most intuitive things you could do with the PS4's DualShock controller, and it remains sorely missed. We hope Sony will update the PS5 to include an option that changes what the DualSense's PlayStation button does when held. It would be cool to have a more custom approach, where you can change its functionality at any time.