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[Verge] Sony’s new PlayStation PC overlay is a simple start

Topher

Gold Member
Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut is the first PC game with a PlayStation overlay.

Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut debuts on PC today, and it’s the first game to feature Sony’s new PlayStation PC overlay and shared Trophies system. I’ve had a chance to get a first look at this new overlay, and my initial impression is that it’s really unobtrusive, clean, and simple.
There are five main sections here: search, friends, Trophies, profile, and settings. Search lets you find other PlayStation players and add them as friends, whereas the friends section lists both your online and offline friends. You can see your friends’ Trophies, but you can’t message friends or party chat from this overlay, unfortunately. You’ll have to use in-game chat if you want to speak to a console friend, or just use Discord.

The PlayStation PC overlay in action.


The Trophies system works just as you’d expect, by syncing Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut trophies from the PS5 version of the game to PC, and vice versa. You just sign in to your PlayStation Network ID, and the overlay and Trophies are both available.
The profile section lets you view all your existing Trophies across all your PlayStation games, and the settings section is largely web links to account management, privacy settings, and PlayStation support. There are settings to enable or disable notifications for Trophies, and the ability to see who you’ve blocked on PSN.
Overall, the PlayStation PC overlay works much like Steam’s, in the sense that it’s only active within a game. Sony hasn’t created something that’s constantly running in the background like Nvidia’s GeForce Experience or Microsoft’s Xbox Game Bar.

A trio of notifications will greet you if you haven’t disabled GeForce Experience and the Steam overlay pop-ups.


I did notice that if you haven’t disabled notifications for the GeForce Experience and Steam overlays, then you’ll get a trio of pop-up notices when you start Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut because the PlayStation one also has its own notification. Unfortunately, there’s no way to disable the PlayStation notification, as the pop-up notifications toggle doesn’t affect this particular message.
Still, the overlay looks and feels lightweight, even if it’s a little basic right now. Nixxes Software, the in-house port developer that Sony acquired in 2021, helped create it, and I’m hoping this simple start will lead to even more features in the future. It sure would be great to have the option of using the voice chat features of the PlayStation Network instead of having to use in-game chat or Discord. Sony is increasingly investing in the PC space, so there’s a good chance this PlayStation overlay improves over time.




I agree. Sony did a good job with this overlay. Nice that it only exists in game rather than running constantly in the background on your PC. Great addition for fans of PlayStation games on PC.
 
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TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
Brother, let's be honest here. Sony would rather do day 1 PC before doing that. They are holding our boy hostage and won't free him.
At this rate it will be emulable before they even consider porting it. :lollipop_confounded:

In any case, man wtf, they are missing out on a lot of money with that one.
 
At this rate it will be emulable before they even consider porting it. :lollipop_confounded:

In any case, man wtf, they are missing out on a lot of money with that one.
I mean, if they really thought there was going to be a lot of money, they would have done it by now

The fact that they have been silent about it all this time is telling enough. They were willing to do an entire remake of Demon's Souls but won't touch Bloodborne with a 10 foot pole. The reality is both From Software and Sony have moved on, so it's time to let it go
 
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winjer

Gold Member
It is only enabled if you link your PSN account in the first place.

I know, but all these overlays are a problem.
First because of so much bloat. Second, because sometimes there are conflicts that cases bugs, performance loses or crashes.
I just disable everything. Even Steam's overlay.
I only run RTSS. But even this sometimes causes issues.
 

Topher

Gold Member
I know, but all these overlays are a problem.
First because of so much bloat. Second, because sometimes there are conflicts that cases bugs, performance loses or crashes.
I just disable everything. Even Steam's overlay.
I only run RTSS. But even this sometimes causes issues.

I follow. Thankfully, this one only runs in the game. It isn't some system tray program like the others. So far it hasn't caused any problems for me.
 

winjer

Gold Member
I follow. Thankfully, this one only runs in the game. It isn't some system tray program like the others. So far it hasn't caused any problems for me.

These issues are not caused by running in the system tray.
It's that they access similar draw functions. And that can cause conflicts.

I bet that a lot of people that have bad performance and/or crashes in some games, don't even know this can be a source of problems.
And if they use several launchers, each with their overlay, it can become an issue.
When there are problems with games, one good measure for troubleshooting is to disable all overlays.
 

Topher

Gold Member
These issues are not caused by running in the system tray.
It's that they access similar draw functions. And that can cause conflicts.

I bet that a lot of people that have bad performance and/or crashes in some games, don't even know this can be a source of problems.
And if they use several launchers, each with their overlay, it can become an issue.
When there are problems with games, one good measure for troubleshooting is to disable all overlays.

I get that, but what I'm saying is that this is not an overlay like those. It has more in common with an in-game store.
 

Larxia

Member
I know, but all these overlays are a problem.
First because of so much bloat. Second, because sometimes there are conflicts that cases bugs, performance loses or crashes.
I just disable everything. Even Steam's overlay.
I only run RTSS. But even this sometimes causes issues.
I never play anything without the Steam overlay. Any game that's not on steam, even emulated games etc, I add them as "non-steam shortcuts" to have the steam overlay on them lol. It feels weird to me playing without steam, kind of like being naked :pie_thinking:
 

winjer

Gold Member
I never play anything without the Steam overlay. Any game that's not on steam, even emulated games etc, I add them as "non-steam shortcuts" to have the steam overlay on them lol. It feels weird to me playing without steam, kind of like being naked :pie_thinking:

But you are using only one overlay? right?
The problem is when there are several running in tandem.
 

Larxia

Member
But you are using only one overlay? right?
The problem is when there are several running in tandem.
I guess, I only use the steam overlay (and RTSS, if we count that as overlay). I sometimes do have the Origin overlay running if I'm playing a EA game, but it's awful, I don't think the issue is related to the two overlays being combined though, it's just the EA launcher being an absolute mess that's not working correctly half of the time.
Oh and there is that nvidia shadowplay thing too, I don't disable it either, so I guess I have more than steam if we count that one too. In general for me it's steam + RTSS + nvidia capture thingy.
 
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