What New Trophy Features Do You Want on PS5? Talking Point 1

Trophies are one of the best things about Sony's family of consoles. Allowing you to document your progress through every single game available on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita, it's a very handy feature when you want to look back at your gaming history. It could be better, however. The Japanese giant proved that it is open to improving Trophies when it introduced rarity ratings upon the launch of PS4 way back in 2013, and the feature has largely stayed the same since then. Could Sony be planning to implement some new features when the PlayStation 5 releases at the end of this year? We think it's a given, and here are just some ideas which could improve the system tenfold.

Track Those Trophies and Yearn for First Place

Microsoft is actually pioneering in this aspect, with some of the concepts we've come up with already fully integrated into the Xbox One ecosystem. We want better Trophy tracking. Too many times have we come across Trophies which ask us to kill 20 enemies with a certain weapon, or perform a specific task a number of times without confirming that we carried it out successfully. Essentially copying what the Xbox One does, we'd love to see Sony actually track these objectives with bars and graphs which increase as you near the completion of a Trophy. That way, you can ensure that you're correctly executing what the achievement is asking of you and work out how close you are to finishing it off.

Going hand in hand with that is better Trophy stat tracking and leaderboards to create competition amongst friendship groups. Again, this is something that the team in green already has up and running, so it makes sense for Sony to follow suit. We know that Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Trophies all have a numerical value attached to them so let's surface that with a leaderboard which users can compete for first place on.

What New Trophy Features Do You Want on PS5? Talking Point 2

This would also give Sony the chance to expand the Trophy statistics it makes public. When do we earn the most Trophies? Is it at the weekend or Tuesday evening? What's the largest amount of Trophies we've earned in a single 24-hour stretch? Let's highlight that and celebrate it. Did someone earn more Trophies this week compared to the last? Let us send our friend a like to commemorate that on the What's New dashboard. Being able to share these achievements with other users would encourage them to engage with the system even more -- thus leading to more and more Trophies being unlocked.

Trophy Rewards Make the Investment Worth It

Now, here's where we think the PS5 Trophy system could get really, really cool. And it's something that Persona 5 Royal is already sort of doing. After reaching certain points in the game, Atlus has been sending players free PS4 themes and avatars in emails. How about we expand that idea to the point where it is built in at the system level? If a developer chooses to, players tough enough to earn the Platinum Trophy in Demon's Souls Remake could instantly unlock an avatar. Or if someone happens to beat Horizon Zero Dawn 2, they gain access to a PS5 theme sporting Aloy and any one of the new mechanical animals Guerilla Games has cooking up behind the scenes. What Atlus is already doing with Persona 5 Royal is really cool, but the idea could be expanded to a point where any next-gen game rewards its fanbase just for playing. Trophies most definitely enable that.

Speaking of customisation, why don't studios get creative with Trophy icons and allow those who unlock them to use the artwork as PS5 avatars? It's only a little thing, but we have to imagine that some titles will include some seriously tough challenges in the next generation. Once again, we're looking at you Demon's Souls Remake. As such, if we've beaten a particularly hard boss, let's celebrate that by making it the avatar associated with our PSN account. We're sure someone out there will be impressed by it.

What New Trophy Features Do You Want on PS5? Talking Point 3

Show Off with Badges of Honour

But this idea is just part of a feature we've dubbed Badges of Honour. This would be a new section on your PSN profile where you could essentially pin Trophies to your personal home page and show off your in-game achievements. If there's a Platinum Trophy you're particularly proud of unlocking, make it known by attaching it to your profile. This would circumvent the current tactic of having to scroll through a friend's entire gaming history just to see what Trophies they earned in a certain game. Is there a difficult multiplayer Trophy you managed to unlock? Pin it. Did you beat Starfield without killing anyone? Pin it. Did you complete Watch Dogs Legion only playing as a Grandma? Pin it. We think this would be a really nice way of showing off the gaming achievements you're most proud of.

What new Trophy features do you want to see on the PS5? Do you like the sound of our ideas or can you come up with something better? Place your vote in our poll and expand on your thoughts in the comments below.

What new Trophy features do you want on PS5?

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