It’s no secret that PlayStation’s surprise 30th Anniversary treat for PS5 owners, in which console users could select from four distinct home menu themes based on the first four generations of PlayStation, was a hit when it dropped late last year. Each of the themes comes with bespoke visual elements based on the iconic aesthetics of the PS1, PS2, PS3 and PS4, even updating UI sound effects to match the older console menus, and they’re accompanied by a retro-inspired boot screen that harks all the way back to the original PlayStation.
Thing is, these were always intended to be a temporary inclusion, and the day has finally come that we must spend our final few hours with them. Taking to social media, PlayStation has reminded everyone that these themes are no more as of February, and we’ll all be forced to go back to living in the current-gen.
There is a shiny blue LED light at the end of this tunnel though, as PlayStation has also revealed that—due to the incredibly positive response—it’s doing some work “behind the scenes” to bring the themes back again in the future. The message specifically says that they’re due back “in the months ahead,” though it’s unclear why the company is unable to simply keep the fun going as it is already. Whatever kill switch it originally baked into the 30th Anniversary stuff must be running on the same circuitry that Nintendo used when it released Super Mario 3D-All Stars.
While there aren’t plans to create additional themes in the future, we're excited to keep celebrating legacy PlayStation hardware with you all.
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) January 30, 2025
In a follow-up post, PlayStation also added that it has no plans to introduce any new themes after these ones, but in what seems to me like a bit of a cryptic tease, states that it’s “excited to keep celebrating legacy PlayStation hardware with you all.”
What does it mean??
What do you think of this news? Are you excited to see the 30th Anniversary PlayStation 5 themes come back or were you happy to love them just for the moment? Let us know in the comments below or over on social media.
Kieron's been gaming ever since he could first speak the words "Blast Processing" and hasn't lost his love for platformers and JRPGs since. A connoisseur of avant-garde indie experiences and underground cult classics, Kieron is a devout worshipper at the churches of Double Fine and Annapurna Interactive, to drop just a couple of names.
