PlayStation 5 owners have been in a rage over a recent so-called “bug” that saw their home screens turn into adverts for whatever game icon they were on. Usually, sitting on a game icon would show off a large wallpaper for the said game behind it. Sure, these wallpapers changed to different images such as seasonal events or in-game screenshots depending on your progress in the game, but ads? Never.
Some of these ads included sales for certain titles such as a Star Wars Day sale when hovering over Star Wars Battlefront II. Another ad included critic scores for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth when hovering over the icon. The worst one was an image of Space Marine 2 which had some guy slapped across the screen trying to teach you about the game.
By the look of things, all these background ads were somehow linked to the PS5’s “News” section for each title. This section often displays news on these games with the latest trailers and related sales. However, this section is tucked away and accessed through the PS Button. I actually enjoy this news feature on the console as it updates me on seasonal content for the games I own and new trailers.
Of course, the internet went wild when these wallpapers were no longer wallpapers but instead, ads. Thankfully, Sony says the issue has been fixed. Game icons will have game-related images and no longer showcase other content.
The fix arrived early this morning and was likely done remotely. The fix also coincided with the PSN outage that is still ongoing at the time of writing.
So it turns out that the recent PS5 UI update that let you disable all the advertisements on the dashboard was too good to be true. Now EVERY SINGLE GAME on your homescreen shows you an advertisement in the background with no way to remove them lol https://t.co/Nts6eCq8Eb pic.twitter.com/29p56mYn34
— Earl Turlet (@alfredobofa) September 29, 2024
