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Isn’t it funny how fast we forget? The PlayStation 4 felt like a revolution after almost a decade of PlayStation 3’s unwieldy game installs and barely functional PlayStation Store, but Sony’s current-gen console is considered tedious by contemporary standards. Huge patches, update copying, and a flaky operating system have all contributed to the PS4 feeling a little long in the tooth.

The exciting thing is that the more we learn about the PS5, the more it sounds like it’s been designed with all our gripes in mind. At the forefront of that is the PS5's SSD, of course, which will not only enable developers to build bigger and better worlds – but will also get you into games faster than ever before. As architect Mark Cerny elaborated last week, “fast travel will finally be fast”.

This increase in speed will expand to everything, of course: no longer will you have to wait 20 seconds twiddling your thumbs when you die in Dark Souls; those lengthy delays before matches in NBA 2K will be a thing of the past – although 2KTV fans may lament that. The immediacy means you’ll spend more time playing and less time sitting around.

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Naturally, this expands to the patching system as well, which will no longer require copying time – perhaps one of the most common complaints pointed at the PS4. Patents suggest Sony plans to bundle game menus into the operating system itself as interactive widgets, meaning you’ll be able to circumvent entire user interfaces in order to play what you want to play.

It sounds like Sony has been listening, not just to developers, but also to consumers – and PS5 sounds like a direct response to the problems that have plagued PS4. They’re little things on the surface, but when bundled together it’s easy to see that next-gen is going to be all about immediacy, and getting to the good stuff faster than ever before.


Are you excited for the immediacy that PS5 looks set to provide? Get into your games quicker in the comments section below.