Yesterday morning, NeoGAF user MMaRsu turned on his PlayStation 4 and saw an icon for Destiny expansion "The Taken King" sitting in the menu . That wouldn't be all that noteworthy, except for the fact that MMaRsu says he never actually purchased "The Taken King."

That icon wasn't a surprise gift from the Destiny fairy (or Sony, Activision, or Bungie, for that matter). It was more of an advertisement that, when selected, provided MMaRsu the opportunity to buy and play the game from the PlayStation store. And MMaRsu wasn't alone; Twitter users and other message board posters began complaining about the same unwanted icon appearing on their systems yesterday.

This kind of marketing intrusion into the home menu is new to most PS4 users, but it's not actually a novel thing for the system. In fact, the groundwork was laid over a year ago, when PS4 System Update version 1.75 added the capability for "featured content from the PlayStation Store [to be] automatically downloaded while the PS4 system is either powered on or in standby mode."

Sony Community Manager Chris Owen said at the time that feature was intended to automatically download "items such as demos/timed trials," free content players might want to try. That seems fundamentally different from these unbidden "Taken King" icons, which instead are pushing a game players may like to buy.

Sony hasn't exactly been hiding this auto-download plan from users. Back in February 2013, months before the PS4 came out, Sony was touting the system's ability to "automatically download content that it knows you’ll like" and "download games for you before you even think about it." Even now, Sony's PS4 Features page promotes the system's ability to deliver "personalized, curated content" by "learn[ing] your likes and dislikes, allowing you to discover content preloaded and ready to go on your console in your favorite game genres or by your favorite creators."

Still, despite covering the system closely for years now, we weren't aware that the PS4 could add games onto the home menu screen like this without a direct request from the user. A lot of other PS4 users seemed pretty surprised too, judging by online reaction.

It's unclear whether the "featured content" download option was activated by default after the 1.75 update. Even if it wasn't, those same surprised reactions suggest many users weren't expecting this kind of thing if and when they turned it on. The kinds of automatic downloads Sony is advertising could also lead to some unexpected data fees for users on metered broadband plans (though it's unclear if any of "The Taken King" was actually preloaded before purchase in this particular case. Sony representatives weren't immediately available to respond to a request for comment from Ars Technica ).

[Update: A Sony representative tells Ars that "the Taken King icon that was recently added does not download the full game automatically. It simply opens up the PS Store page where you can purchase and download the content."]

In any case, at least Sony provides the option to turn off these somewhat intrusive "features." You can turn off the system's ability to automatically download content in "rest" mode by going through Settings > System > Automatic Downloads. You can turn off those curated "featured content" promotions in the Settings > System > Automatic Downloads > Featured Content.

We suppose if you were somehow unaware of the existence of "The Taken King," the surprise appearance of a link to buy the expansion through your PS4 home menu could be seen as a positive. As it stands, though, we feel we're exposed to enough marketing for new games without seeing it every time we turn on the PS4.