PS5: 10 Features It MUST Have

7. In-Game Messaging & Trophy Tracking

Another one that's lingered since the PS4's launch, until Sony made it so you could check trophy data in-game whatsoever (done by bringing up the Home screen, highlighting the game you're playing and then heading into the Trophy section), we had to quit out, hop across the allocated Trophy menu, wait for a synchronisation to finish, then button back out again.

In short it was cumbersome as hell, and though the reworked approach is fine, there absolutely needs to be a way to allocate a double tap of the Home button (or another custom assignment) to bring up an instant Trophy list.

Where trophies and achievements were formerly one of the biggest incentives to explore every nook and cranny of any game last generation, this gen they've been buried, popping up at the close of a story campaign or occasionally tricky multiplayer kill, but nothing more.

Speaking of UI issues, Sony's approach to instant messaging is atrocious. Resulting in you leaving your game to go into the dedicated Messaging app, even trying to bring up the PS4's keyboard always results in a prolonged pause as it struggles to satisfy what should be a basic request. A custom tactic in Rocket League? Chances are the team has got the ball and scored before you can say "We should...".

Seriously, the Xbox 360 had this stuff down and that was 10 years ago. If social media shares, console-to-console messaging and a general infrastructure of "Look at this, can you do it too?"-style interactions are any part of the appeal, the execution needs considerable work.