You Can Now Get the Classic PS1 Loading Screen on Your PS5
PlayStation’s 30th anniversary is approaching, and in addition to over 500 sales, Sony is celebrating by giving PS5 owners a little nostalgia.
As part of an update released yesterday, PlayStation 5 owners can now customize their home screen, menus, and system sounds to resemble the interfaces of past PlayStation consoles, from the original to the PS4 (handheld consoles notwithstanding).
This is the system’s first real move towards the “themes” that are a standard feature of the Xbox , but unfortunately the changes will only work “for a limited time” and there’s no word yet on when the fun will end.
Personally, my husband and I use the PS3 theme on our PS5 as he has a soft spot for the old XMB menu. It’s not exactly the same, but we do get the old “soft click” sound when switching between games and apps, and there’s also an abstract PS3-style background that now sits just below the app drawer. If we leave the PS5 alone, our console will now thank us for 30 years of gaming (they don’t know that I personally missed out on the PS3), which you’ll also see no matter how you set up your UI.
PS1, PS2 and PS4 all have different menu effects (personally I’m partial to the PS2 cube background) and there’s also an overall ’30th Anniversary’ theme that highlights the classic PlayStation shapes. No matter which option you choose, they all share one particularly nifty trick: when you turn on a PS5 with the Anniversary Update, no matter which console you’ve chosen as your “theme”, the original PSOne loading screen will launch, complete in all its compressed glory .
Again, there’s currently no information on when the Anniversary Update will expire, or whether adventurous gamers will somehow be able to keep these themes in their hands. Either way, here’s how to get the PS1 anniversary themes and loading screen on your PS5.
How to Get PS1 Loading Screen on PS5
Download your PS5. You’ll be prompted to download the Anniversary Update, but if not, go to Settings > System > System Software and select System Feature Update.
Download the update and restart your console. You’ll see the original PS1 loading screen and several pop-ups introducing you to the feature.
Click on the pop-ups to be taken to a page where you can select one of the available themes. Click Appearance and Sound and select the theme you want.
To change the theme again after the initial download, simply go to Settings > PlayStation 30th Anniversary > Appearance and Sound .