25 Things You DIDN'T Know About the PS4

25 Things You Didn’t Know About The PS4

Welcome to MojoPlays, and who cares about the PS5? The previous generation had an absolute beast, the PS4!! Ugh, the hours I put into this console, the console that defined my 20s... How could I not? Still, even with a million hours there’s always gonna be stuff we miss. These are 25 things you didn’t know about the PS4. Let’s go.

Rare Physical Games

Released in 2018 by Diggidy, "Poop Slinger" is basically what happens if you take classic lightgun games and replace bullets with… yeah, poop. It’s not great. In fact, almost nobody played it, which is usually not a glowing review. But then in 2019, things got weird. A company called Limited Rare Games stepped in to make a physical version, immediately raising eyebrows by copying logos from other companies like it was a school assignment due in five minutes. Then they went bankrupt. Of the 1000 copies made (Sony’s minimum), only 84 were actually sold. Now those copies go for thousands. That’s an expensive poop.

Brick Code

In 2018, the PS4 had a meltdown trigger hiding in plain sight, and all it took was a message. Players started warning each other about a weird combo: the word “Juegas” paired with a glitched-out symbol the console couldn’t even read. Open it, and your system would spiral into a nonstop crash loop like it was having a midlife crisis. Not fully bricked, but close enough to ruin your day. The real kicker? This wasn’t some hacker-only trick. Anyone could send it. So one salty opponent in an online match could go from losing to straight-up sabotaging your console. The kind of toxic energy I aspire to have.

Cooking Up a Lawsuit

If you’re not deep into "Cooking Mama" lore (don’t worry, most of us have lives), the series originally built its reputation on those super popular Nintendo DS games from way back in 2006. Fast forward to "Cooking Mama Cookstar", and things get a little overdone, please appreciate my cooking humour. It popped up on Switch in 2020, then randomly showed up on PS4 in 2021, which already felt cursed since the series basically lived on Nintendo consoles. But here’s the kicker, it probably shouldn’t have existed at all. The actual rights holders, Office Create, came out and said the publisher dropped the game after losing the license. Yep, just went for it anyway. Legal chaos followed, and it’s kinda why you can’t buy it anymore.

It’s Okay to Be Dim

Here’s a fun fact that I never discovered in my 10 years playing this console: your PS4 controller’s light bar isn’t just there to look pretty, it’s also secretly draining your battery like a tiny, glowing vampire. Thankfully, you can tone it down without performing tech wizardry. With your console and controller on, just hold the PlayStation button and bring up the quick menu. From there, head into the device settings and find the option to mess with the light bar brightness on your DualShock 4. Drop that thing down to “Dim” and call it a day. Or, a night?

Until Dawn

For a brief moment in the PS3 era, Sony looked at the Wii and said, “yeah… we’re doing that,” and out came the Move, motion controls, glowing sticks, the whole shebang. It had a couple of fans and some decent games, but let’s be real, nobody was lining up to defend it like it was the PS2. The wild part? "Until Dawn" actually started life as a Move-exclusive horror game. Early versions had you waving the controller around like a budget ghost hunter, pointing flashlights and solving puzzles in first person. Thankfully, someone stepped in and said “absolutely not,” ditched the motion controls, and turned it into the cinematic horror game we got on PS4 in 2015. Thank you, ‘that person’.

PS4 Saved My Life

Every now and then people say games help them through tough times, but this is one of those stories where gaming straight-up helped someone escape a nightmare. In 2020, a teenage girl in Japan travelled to meet an older pen pal who turned out to be exactly the kind of person you’d think on the other side of a teenage penpal relationship. He took her back to his place and kept her there for weeks. The turning point came when she got access to his PS4 while he was out. Using the console’s internet features, she managed to contact police and share enough info for them to find her. Thankfully, she got out safely. The weird twist? If he’d managed to upgrade to a PS5 later that year, this escape might have been way harder. Sony actually ditched the dedicated web browser app on the PS5, hiding internet access behind a weird messaging workaround. And let’s be real, when you’re literally trying to escape a kidnapper, you don't exactly have the time to figure out secret UI tricks. Thank you, Suez Canal, or whatever made PS5s impossible to find back then. I can’t remember that far back.

You Go First

Alright, this one lives in the “take it with a grain of salt” category, but it’s way too juicy to ignore. When "Xbox One" had that absolute disaster of a reveal, "Sony" came in swinging with a cheaper price and that iconic “How to Share Used Games” video like they were dunking in slow motion, seriously, watch the video it’s hilarious. It looked like a master plan… but apparently, it wasn’t. Industry chatter over the years suggests Sony might’ve originally been heading in a similar direction with restrictions, then saw Microsoft getting absolutely roasted and went, “yeah, never mind.”

Spring Cleaning

If your PS4 has started acting like it’s running through mud, menus lagging, cutscenes stuttering, load times taking a coffee break, it’s probably not dying, it’s just messy. Over time, all the installing, deleting, reinstalling, screenshots, clips, and random downloads basically turn your system database into a junk drawer. Eventually, that clutter slows everything down. The fix is surprisingly easy: boot into safe mode by holding the power button until you hear the second beep. From there, pick the option to rebuild the database. It won’t delete your stuff, it just reorganises everything so your console can think straight again. It might take a bit depending on how packed your drive is, but honestly, it’s like giving your PS4 a much-needed clean-up.

Easy Screenshots

Taking screenshots on PS4 should feel slick, but by default it’s like the console wants you to earn it. You hit an insane moment in "Assassin’s Creed", go to capture it, and suddenly you’re holding the Share button like you’re charging a special attack. By the time it snaps, the moment’s gone. Luckily, you can fix that. Tap the Share button once to open the menu, hit Options, then jump into Share Settings. From there, look for the Share Button Control Type and swap it to the setup where a single tap grabs a screenshot instantly. Way better.

Can’t Read CDs

The PS4 could handle a bunch of different formats, USB drives, DVDs, Blu-rays, no problem. It felt like it could read anything you threw at it … until you tried a CD. Yep, your old-school “Compact Disc” just gets ignored like it doesn’t exist. The reason is surprisingly simple: the PS4 wasn’t built with the right kind of laser to read CDs in the first place. So it’s not broken, it’s just picky. Like me.

Throw Back Use The Damn App

If you kept an eye on Sony during the PS4 era, you probably saw a bunch of wild special editions tied to different games. But one of the coolest wasn’t about a game at all, it was about the console. For PlayStation’s 20th anniversary in 2014, Sony dropped a limited "PS4" that looked like it had time-travelled straight out of the PS1 era. Grey colour, classic vibes, even the controller got the retro treatment. And they didn’t just make a random number either, only 12,300 units were produced, matching how many original PlayStations were made for launch back in 1994. Mojo can you buy me one please? You don’t even have to be near your PS4 to start buying games anymore, which feels slightly dangerous for your wallet. Using the PlayStation app, you can grab a game straight from the store and kick off the download while you’re out having coffee with friends, or alone while staring at some ducks … I like ducks. If you time it right, it’ll be sitting there ready to go when you get home like a loyal dog.

Trophy Hunting

Digital stores across consoles have quietly turned into absolute chaos. Somewhere along the way, actual curation vanished and everything started looking like the deepest, weirdest pages of Steam. You’ve got AI-generated nonsense, copycat games, and just endless ANNOYING filler, it’s honestly exhausting to scroll through. One of the earliest warning signs of the store going to sh*t was "1000 Top Rated" on PS4 back in 2017. Its whole gimmick? You could earn a Platinum trophy in under an hour. No effort, no gameplay, just vibes. This was basically a paid trophy. Sony pulled it fast, but it came back as "Slyde", offering a Platinum in under a minute. Incredible… and not in a good way.

Gyro Type

Typing with a controller is usually a special kind of pain. You’re slowly nudging an analog stick across a keyboard like you’ve got all the time in the world, just trying to spell one word without losing your sanity. I've actually gotten quite good at it, but I watch my girlfriend and good lord. But the PS4 actually has a sneaky trick most people never use. When the on-screen keyboard is up, click the right stick and you’ll get this little floating cursor. Instead of dragging it around normally, you can tilt the controller and use motion controls to aim it way faster. It feels weird at first, like you’re trying to land a plane, but once it clicks, it’s superior in every way.

Quick Switch

The "Xbox One" absolutely nailed quick app switching, while the PS4 kind of just stood there like, “yeah… we tried.” But to be fair, it’s not completely useless when it comes to multitasking, it just hides its good ideas like a secret bonus level. There’s actually a super handy trick most people never notice. If you’ve got a game open and something else like the browser running (maybe you’re half-paying attention to a conversation while grinding in "Destiny"), you can quickly bounce between them by double-tapping the Home button. That’s it. No complicated menus, no nonsense. It’s weird that Sony never really shouted about this feature, leaving me to do it now... AHH! FEATURE!!

PS4 Games on Your Vita

One of the PS4’s big “look at this!” features was letting you play your console games on a PlayStation Vita, and yet somehow loads of people just never tried it. If you’ve got both systems, you can stream your entire library to the Vita, which sounds way cooler than it actually ends up being in real life. Setting it up is pretty straightforward, and once done you could play "Infamous: Second Son" on top of a mountain? Technically, sure. Realistically, it’s way more useful for those lazy mornings where you want a few matches of "FIFA" without physically leaving your bed.

Voice Control

The PS4 quietly borrowed a few tricks from Kinect, and one of the weirder ones is that you can actually talk to it like it’s your assistant. Not in a “life-changing AI companion” way, more like “please open this before I lose patience.” To turn it on, head into settings, go to system options, and enable voice control. After that, you can start tossing basic commands at your console. The best part? You don’t even need the official camera setup. Any microphone works, including your headset, so you can boss your PS4 around without buying extra gear. It’s pretty intense, and AI will definitely come back with a vengeance in 50 years, but worth it for now!

PlayStation Vue Make Some Content

Remember PlayStation Vue and PlayStation TV? No? Good, that’s the point of this list. PlayStation Vue and PlayStation TV were two products Sony developed in an effort to break into the video-on-demand and television streaming markets respectively. If their obscurity wasn’t evident already, neither lasted long enough to catch wind. Sony would close down PlayStation Vue in 2020, five years after its launch, citing the slow growth in the market. As for PlayStation TV, the service died as quickly as it launched, only surviving a couple of years before its plug was pulled in 2015. Recording gameplay is great, but let’s be honest, half the fun is hearing you panic in real time when everything goes wrong. The PS4 actually lets you add commentary super easily. When you open the Share menu, jump into the options and turn on your mic, whether that’s your headset, a plugged-in mic, or the camera setup. Boom, now your reactions are baked straight into the footage, which feels way more natural than pretending you’re surprised later. Also, if you’re brave enough, you can throw your facecam in there too and fully become a YouTuber.

Bungie Controller

Before "Bungie" officially joined the PlayStation family, they were already helping out behind the scenes in a pretty unexpected way. While Sony was working on the DualShock 4, they brought Bungie in to give feedback, mainly so shooters wouldn’t feel like you were aiming with a wet noodle like on the old controller. Bungie helped shape how the new pad handled, and even had input on features like the Share button, which is kind of wild when you think about it. That early teamwork naturally led into "Destiny" getting heaps of PS4-focused content, and years later it all came full circle with Sony straight-up acquiring them in 2022. Mine.

Dark Help

Here’s a surprisingly cool behind-the-scenes detail: the PS4’s messaging system actually owes a bit to "Dark Souls". Yeah, that game where communication is basically caveman notes on the floor somehow helped fix real console messaging. Back on the PS3, typing messages felt like a punishment, so Sony went looking for a smarter approach. Turns out, the preset phrase system in "Dark Souls", you know, those iconic “try finger but hole” style messages, was the inspiration. Shuhei Yoshida even confirmed it influenced how the PS4 handled quick communication.

Button Remapping

Every now and then you boot up a game and realise the controls are locked in like they were set in stone, and suddenly you’re stuck playing in a way that feels completely wrong. Back in the day, that was just your life now, good luck. But in 2015, Sony added system-wide button remapping to the PS4, and it quietly fixed that problem. You can head into accessibility settings and swap buttons around however you want, turning your controller into whatever layout makes sense for you. Nice. Thanks Sony.

Face Off

Having a camera track your every move feels very “Xbox energy,” but the PS4 quietly dipped its toes into that territory too. If you’ve got the PlayStation Camera hooked up, you can actually turn your console into something a little bit creepy. Head into your settings, find the login options, and switch on facial recognition. After that, your PS4 can recognise your face and sign you in automatically, no controller needed. It’s one of those features most people never bother setting up, but once it’s on, it feels weirdly futuristic.

PS4 Era Baby Names

People naming their kids after pop culture isn’t new, but the PS4 era definitely added some… interesting options. According to baby name stats, Kratos has been slowly climbing since "God of War", with noticeable spikes when the newer games dropped, though it’s still pretty rare overall. Weirdly, Atreus is way more popular, breaking into the top 500 names, which means there are a lot of kids out there unknowingly carrying emotional baggage already. Aloy from "Horizon Zero Dawn" also saw a boost, especially after "Forbidden West", though it’s still niche. Meanwhile, names like Joel, Ellie, and Nathan didn’t change much since they were already common. And yes, sadly, no confirmed cases of babies named "The Last of Us Part II Remastered”.

Most Expensive PS4

Fancy dropping $54K on a PS4? Yeah… didn’t think so, but this thing exists anyway. A special "PS4 Pro" was made to promote "Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice", and it looks f***ing sick. We’re talking a bamboo shell, blood-splattered paper design, and even a matching controller. The text on it translates to “Wolf,” which is the main character’s nickname, and if you managed to get one, you earned the nickname yourself. Only about 40 of these were made and handed out through promos in places like Europe and Australia, so good luck ever seeing one in person. It was never properly sold either, which explains the insane value.

Fruit Ninja

Yeah, the PS4 was great, but dropping $400 on launch still hurt a bit. Most people waited patiently for a price drop… then there’s this guy in France who decided patience was overrated. In 2019, a 19-year-old somehow walked out of a supermarket with a PS4 after paying about nine euros. His genius plan? He weighed the console like it was a bag of fruit at the self-checkout and slapped a produce label on it. Honestly, it’s both impressive and incredibly dumb. The story gets better, he went back to try it again, and was arrested.

Rhombus with a purpose

Compared to Sony’s earlier consoles, the PS4 kind of looks like it was designed by someone who discovered angles for the first time and got excited. But the slanted, rhombus-style shape isn’t just there to look fancy, it actually has a purpose. All the important stuff on the front, like USB ports and the power buttons, are pushed to one side so you’re not blindly poking around trying to find them. And that tilted back? That’s not random either. It helps hide your cables so your setup doesn’t look like a spaghetti disaster behind your TV. So yeah, it’s stylish—but also surprisingly practical.