Killer PS5 feature explained — and it will change how you experience games

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The Activities feature lets you jump into a specific scene

PlayStation 5 Life Cycle 5 Years
(Image credit: Sony)

Until game developers can harness the full graphics power of next-gen consoles, the biggest benefit of playing on the PS5 or Xbox Series X will be near-instant load times.

Both Sony and Microsoft have touted the capabilities of the SSDs inside their respective consoles but we haven't gotten too many details about how they will change the gaming experience.

A now-deleted article for an upcoming racing game gives us a bit more info by describing Activities, the PS5's instant load feature. Within the article is a brief explanation about how the PS5 can instantly load players into certain parts of a game without them needing to navigate the OS, wait for the game to open, and fiddle with menus. 

Activities will apparently let developers "deeplink" to specific parts of a game so players can instantly jump into the scene they want to play. You can think of this in the same way as a Google search. When you type in a specific query, Google will take you to the most appropriate webpage instead of bringing you to the homepage and making you do the rest.  

Twitter user Gematsu screenshot the article and tweeted it out on Tuesday. 

There is still a lot we don't know about the feature, like how will gamers choose the desired part of a game and what will the interface look like? We know via the article that you can select specific races within World Rally Championship directly from the main PS5 menu. 

Will you be able to launch directly into a Fortnite round with friends or into a field of talking strawberries in Bugsnax? We'll find out more as we get closer to the PS5's "holiday 2020" release. Until then, feel free to read our PS5 guide for the latest news, rumors and leaks.

Phillip Tracy
Phillip Tracy

Phillip Tracy is the assistant managing editor at Laptop Mag where he reviews laptops, phones and other gadgets while covering the latest industry news. After graduating with a journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin, Phillip became a tech reporter at the Daily Dot. There, he wrote reviews for a range of gadgets and covered everything from social media trends to cybersecurity. Prior to that, he wrote for RCR Wireless News covering 5G and IoT. When he's not tinkering with devices, you can find Phillip playing video games, reading, traveling or watching soccer.