PlayStation5 complete with Netflix, Spotify, YouTube, Disney+ at launch
By: Kostas Farkonas
Tags: Disney Plus, Sony, Playstation 5, YouTube, Netflix

Road to NextGen 2020

PlayStation5 complete with Netflix, Spotify, YouTube, Disney+ at launch

Will Sony provide their new PlayStation with real media player functionality this time around?

Not only will the PlayStation5 support the streaming world’s rising star, the Disney+ service, it will offer direct access to it via its Media Remote. (Image credit: Disney)

The PlayStation5 and Xbox Series S|X are just a few weeks away from stores so new information about both is coming to light daily now. Most of it has to do with games as they are, well, promoted as gaming systems first and foremost. It’s easy to forget, though, that many consumers will be using them as media players as well. Almost half of the people owning a PS4 or an Xbox One have watched Netflix content, for instance, with around one out of five subscribers to the service in total using consoles to access it. YouTube is also seeing use on consoles despite its app being present in almost every smart TV.

Sony did work with partners over the years in order to offer support for streaming services on the PS4 but seemed to do so almost reluctantly, as the respective apps were not of the highest possible quality. It also took some time to get there: when the PS4 launched in 2013 there were hardly any other non-gaming apps available for the system.

The Media Remote Sony will have available for the PS5 offers dedicated buttons for Disney+, Netflix, YouTube and Spotify — so apps for those will naturally be available at launch. (Image credit: Sony)

Well, if the PS5 Media Remote is any indication — and it is — the new PlayStation will offer better support for streaming services than the PS4 did on day one. Sony made fresh photos of its accessory available on their website and one can easily see on the Media Remote’s surface dedicated buttons for Netflix, YouTube, Spotify and Disney+ direct access. This means that on November 12, when this remote will be available to buy, there will also be apps in the PlayStation Store corresponding to those buttons. It may be easy to claim that, in 2020, these four services would have to be considered the absolute minimum a home entertainment system should offer access to, but still: progress. It’s more than welcome.

Now that we know about these four apps, of course, there are… questions. Will they be supporting the most advanced features of these services, such as Dolby Vision/Atmos on the Netflix app or 4K/HDR/8K on the YouTube app? Will there be apps for other popular streaming services, such as Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, HBO Max, Twitch or Tidal? It comes down to companies owning the services to offer those apps, of course, rather down to Sony (the platform holder would only have to provide documentation and test kits), but given the fact that the PS5 is fully compatible with the PS4 one cannot imagine that a lot of work would be involved in adapting even current apps like the ones mentioned above.

Sony’s Media Player app for the PS4 offers basic functionality and its file format compatibility leaves a lot to be desired. A proper, fully 4K/8K compatible one would be most welcome. (Image credit: Sony)

The real question is whether Sony and its partners will put in the work and actually take advantage of the powerful PS5 hardware in order to offer top quality apps for media consumption in general. The new PlayStation will be one of only a handful of devices with HDMI 2.1 output for several months (if not more than a year), meaning that it really could become the first mainstream 8K media player out there. YouTube only displays 8K content on top Samsung TVs at the moment, for instance, so it would be a nice bonus the PS5 could offer to owners of TVs from other brands. 8K media files could also be playable through the PS5 if the dear people at Plex go to town with the system’s decoding capabilities.

There are quite a few things Sony themselves can do to help the PS5 excel as a media player… if they wish to do that (their track record on the matter not being encouraging). The UltraHD Blu-ray disc playback app, for instance, could be more capable than the basic one the PS4 offered for Blu-ray discs: the PS5 can offer much better decoding and processing than any standalone device of this category. Sony could also vastly improve the PS4 Media Player app in order to offer quality multimedia file playback up to 8K/60 for video and 32/384 for audio (since the PS5 will not play audio CDs anyway).

Regardless of the PS5 model consumers choose come November it could be the first 8K multimedia player on the market… if Sony and partners put in the work. (Image credit: Sony)

Once more: the Japanese company traditionally focused on the gaming aspect of past PlayStations, with media playback taking a backseat at best. Chances are they will do the same with the PS5 as it is games, relevant content and services that provide the actual profits for the company. But it certainly would not hurt to offer their new system true media player credentials and just not focus on them marketing-wise: early adopters interested in high quality players would be informed about those credentials anyway and they would probably buy a PS5 based on those even if they were not interested in any launch games. That would still help the new PlayStation build a solid userbase fast, though.

So how about it, Sony? Sounds like a win-win to us!