Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. Evergreens

PS5 themes: Can you customize your homescreen?

Add as a preferred source on Google

The PlayStation  launched without many features that we loved from the PS4 . Over the years, a few have come back, but what about themes? These could be earned, downloaded, or purchased, and some even came included with certain games that gave your home screen a new look and background soundtrack related to different games or concepts. This made customizing your home screen that much more fun and personal. However, is this feature on the PS5? Here’s whether or not you can put custom themes on your new console or change the background.

Does the PS5 have themes?

Ratchet and Clank on the PS5 home screen.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

No, the PS5 does not have any themes. Instead, whenever you highlight a game or app on your home screen, the background will change to art related to that game, as well as show more information on it. While far from ideal, it is the closest we are likely to get to the themes we had on our PS4.

Recommended Videos

Can you change the background on a PS5?

Again, due to the PS5 dynamically changing the background depending on what you’re currently looking at, there’s no way to alter your background at this time. Since the background is constantly changing, even if you had a custom image, it would always be changing as you cycled through games. There are a few other ways you can customize your PS5, however, unless Sony gives us the option with an update, there’s no way to set a theme on your PS5.

Browsing through and uncovering the hidden PS5 features will give you other ways to make the console your own, though. From setting custom button assignments to booting up your console from your phone or tablet, and even controlling it using your voice, there’s a lot of different ways you can interact with the console that aren’t enabled out of the box. We’ve created a list of the best PS5 tips and tricks to help you get started on your personalization journey.

Meanwhile, Sony just launched its second-generation virtual reality headset, called the PlayStation VR2, or PSVR2 for short. It’s shaping to be a promising device, though not one without its share of shortfalls (it costs more than the PS5 itself, for one, and doesn’t have the best suite of launch titles). The reason we’re talking about it now, though, is because like the PS5, you can’t change the background or use themes on the PSVR2 — but you probably could have guessed that.

Jesse Lennox
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Jesse Lennox covers all things gaming but has a specific interest in all things PlayStation, JRPGs, and experimental indies…
This gaming mouse has a Noctua fan inside, and it finally has a launch date
Pulsar’s Noctua-cooled gaming mouse finally launches on July 21
Pulsar Feinmann F01 Noctua Edition mouse in hand

More than a year after its Computex 2025 debut, the Pulsar Feinmann F01 Noctua Edition gaming mouse is finally ready to launch. Sales begin through Pulsar’s online store on July 21 at 4 p.m. KST, although pricing has not yet been announced.

We also saw the mouse at Computex 2026, where it appeared much closer to a finished retail product. Its defining feature remains the tiny Noctua fan built into the shell, designed to push air toward your palm during long gaming sessions.

Read more
Gaming against AI could make you more confident with real teammates
Turns out getting beaten by bots wasn't the worst thing after all
Representative image of mobile gaming

Artificial intelligence is often blamed for making people less social. Whether it's AI replacing conversations, reducing teamwork, or making gaming feel less human, the narrative has largely remained the same. But a new study suggests the opposite could also be true. In fact, AI might be quietly encouraging people to spend more time with their friends.

Researchers studying PUBG: Battlegrounds have found that introducing AI-controlled opponents into multiplayer matches didn't isolate players. Instead, it made them more confident, kept them playing longer, and even encouraged them to squad up with friends more often. The findings, which will appear in the journal Information Systems Research, offer an interesting perspective on how AI can improve user experiences rather than simply automating them.

Read more
As Sony closes the door on PS3 games, RPCS3 has preserved thousands on PC
The open-source emulator now considers 2,681 PS3 titles fully playable before Sony stops selling games through the console
A stack of PS3 games.

Sony is preparing to close the PlayStation Store on PS3, ending new purchases globally by July 2027. Less than two weeks after that announcement, the team behind RPCS3 revealed a very different milestone.

The open-source PS3 emulator now lists 75% of the console’s tracked library as playable on PC. That covers 2,681 of 3,559 games, and the rating means they can be completed with acceptable performance and no game-breaking glitches.

Read more