PlayStation 30th Anniversary Kicks Off With Nostalgic PS5 Themes And The Cranberries

This week marks the 30th anniversary of PlayStation, and to celebrate, Sony is rolling out some nostalgic PS5 console features and a short retrospective trailer that’s all about the feels.–specifically, the feelings generated by the biggest first- and third-party games that have appeared on Sony consoles over the years. There are a lot of themes mentioned here–from justice to fantasy–and the trailer ends with a shot of Bloodborne and the word “persistence”.

The video is mostly focused on newer PlayStation games like Horizon, Marvel’s Spider-Man, and Gran Turismo 7, but there are brief snippets of other influential games like Batman: Arkham Knight and Crash Bandicoot. You can see the trailer below, and in case you’re curious, the video uses Dreams by The Cranberries as the backing track.

PS5 console-owners can also dress the user interface of the console up with several retro themes. You can switch between colored themes that reference the PS1, PS2, PS3, and PS4 consoles, and some of the changes here include the UI being updated with elements from the classic hardware. For example, the PS1 theme has a portion of the original gray box positioned at the top of the screen as part of the background, while the PS2 theme references the console’s menu screen with 3D blocks.

The best part about all of this is that after you update your PS5 console, it’ll boot up with a modified animation that pays homage to the first PlayStation console, right down to the iconic sound effects from its start-up screen.

Sony has several other promotions planned for its PlayStation anniversary, including discounts on games and a sweepstakes competition where lucky winners will be rewarded with 30 months of PS Plus. The company also released a line of limited-edition PS5, PS5 Pro, and PlayStation accessories to mark the occasion, and in case you missed it, this month’s PS Plus games are It Takes Two, Temtem, and Aliens: Dark Descent.