While Sony's online service is free compared to MIcrosoft's Xbox LIVE, pundits are quick to point out that Sony's online store and user interface is nowhere near as easy to use as Microsoft's.
Lucky for us then that Sony seeks to remedy this with the PlayStation Store's redesign coming within the month. Courtesy of Eurogamer, we now know a few key features that were changed, along with the store's new look.
The new store's clean and elegant. The blue background has been replaced with a kind of smoked glass grey, and the font is bold and non-fancy and owned by Sony itself apparently, even if everyone had temporarily forgotten what it was called when I asked. Tiles are gone, and there are huge Microsoft Metro-styled pictures for the main content instead, and that stuff takes up roughly three quarters of the screen, I'd say. I'll get to that bit in a minute, though. The important part of the redesign is found running down the left hand side.
Click on Games – don't worry, no mouse pointer, you're just moving the highlight around – and you get an above-the-line and below-the-line set-up. The above-the-line stuff is all featured content: New, PS Plus, Top Sellers, and that kind of thing. Below the line you get the standard categories: PS3 Games, Demos, Add-Ons, Classics.
Drop into a category like PS3 Games, and you can finally sort and filter properly. Filtering allows you to pick between categories like Game Type, Price, Play Type – i.e. online multiplayer – and Release Dates, and even which accessories it uses. Sorting, meanwhile, allows you to order your results based on the alphabet, what's newest, and that manner of jazz. Within seconds of using the new system, you can find the newest multiplayer-only games released on PS3. You don't have to browse any horrible A-Z category tiles.
If you want to know more changes, head on over here. This redesign goes live in Europe on October 17, while the U.S. will see their PlayStation Store see the same revision on October 23 (thanks, Kotaku).
Are you liking the changes they've made so far? What's your main complaint when it comes to the PSN Store? For me, it would have to be the actual navigating and searching for specific content which results in a glop of menus and screens. Hopefully, that will be fixed soon, and if what we've seen is any indication, it will be one of the many changes that will be made.
