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There’s still so much we don’t know about the PlayStation 5, and the user experience remains a huge question mark. There have been rumblings about how Sony plans to integrate game menus into the system software itself, and we’ve also reported on rumours regarding an Alexa-esque PlayStation Assistant – but now Oddworld creator Lorne Lanning has teased a few more details, courtesy of an interview with Official PlayStation Magazine via Cultured Vultures.

Speaking with the publication, he hinted that the next-gen console will be much more social than its predecessors, with fans remaining on the system to share their experiences – rather than visiting other websites and discussion boards. “Before we’d say, ‘Okay, I’m playing my console game…’ And there’s connectivity and there’s friends, sharing of stats and stuff like this, but a lot of it, you’re still going to the web to engage in the discussion,” he said.

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He continued: “I think we’re going to see in this generation a lot more of that interlaced, where you’re not leaving the console as much to go get the other data. It’ll be really interesting to see how much the audience takes to it and what they do with it, and what developers do with it.” So it sounds like there may be an evolution of the PlayStation 4’s existing Communities hub, where fanbases can come together to share their experiences and progress.

Lanning also alluded to ways in which the console will help players who are stuck. “They’re doing a lot more things that are like, enabling you to sort of open your experience a little wider to your human network of people that you’re connected with,” Lanning continued. “There are some really clever things going on there that involve this sort of extension into other networks, other people, other points of feedback, and giving people information on how to play the game better, how other people might play or solve these problems.”

The comments are fairly vague, but we’ve seen patents and trademarks from PlayStation in the past that allude to Siri-style commands, where you could hypothetically ask, say, Horizon Forbidden West which resources are required to craft a particular item, and they’d then be highlighted on the in-game map. Such a feature could potentially kill guides on a website such as this, but there’s no question it would dramatically improve the experience for those who don’t want to stare at a mobile phone screen looking at a list of collectibles.

[source gamesradar.com, via culturedvultures.com]