Having one central place where gamers go to download content is still a relatively young concept on consoles.
Xbox Live Marketplace started it all and, having been around since 2005, has had plenty of time to mature. It's well organised, intuitive and has a wide range of content. And MS' major Dashboard update improved the system even further.
Sony's PlayStation Store has some catching up to do. By 'catching up' we mean how the whole PS Store works; it's structure, updates and all. This isn't about the lack of content against other consoles, by the way. We clear on that?
Overhauled tab system
At the moment the PS Store has four main tabs that separates all of its content - Latest, Games, Demos and Video. This, put simply, is not enough. It needs more.
Less is more but there's nothing complicated about adding a few more tabs to better separate and define the different content categories.
The 'Games' tab is too general. PSone games should have their own tab. PSone games for £3.49 is and incredible feature - it deserves its own tab. The Games tab should only contain the new games released on PSN.
We think add-ons or download content for games should have its own tab, and all the content arranged by game title.
Streamlined list browsing
At the moment there's (unfortunately) not a great deal of content on the PS Store, which means that locating specific items isn't too difficult. But this will become more of a trawl when content mounts up.
All of those big icons look nice, but when we're eventually scrolling through dozens of PSone titles or download packs considering a purchase, a faster more practical list would be better.
Demos for all new games
No-one likes to buy a game blindly anymore. It's always good to know something about a game before you shed out the cash.
The great thing about Xbox Live Arcade is that every game on the service can be played in demo form as standard, so you always know what you're getting. On PSN, demos are intermittent, so if a game turns up that you know nothing about, you're forced to look it up elsewhere (hopefully here - Ed).
Sony should enforce a policy of a demo to be prepared for every new game that goes onto the PSN, so you're never left to make blind purchases.
Better PSone game profiles
We all know what Metal Gear Solid, WipEout, or Crash Bandicoot is, right? But what about when a game like, for example, Kula World appears on PSN. It's a great game but some might not have heard of it.
Two or three screenshots would be ideal - a selection of good screens will pretty much tell you everything you need to know. But we need better info pages, with a brief of the game's genre, number of players, plot and general gameplay description. Maybe a link to a web page with more info would be nice.
PSN Content update lists via info board
You can always rely on CVG to keep you posted with all the latest content that's uploaded to the PSN Store. But your PS3 should to that for you, too.
When you log onto the PS Store you're greeted by the tab with all the latest content, but it's not always comprehensive. Sony added the Info Board feature in the 2.0 firmware update, but it's proved largely useless so far.
Why doesn't Sony use it as a ticker that feeds every PS3 user a list of new content the moment it goes live?
Comments
23 comments so far...
DAEDALUS79 on 2 Feb '08 said:
My biggest gripes with the ps store at the moment are:
1. Lack of demos for all full and arcade games. This is vital and something that the 360 service has down to a tee.
2. The store in my experience is very slow to load. Its frustratingly slow at times, often leading to me not bothering with it.
3. The lack of content is poor as well, especially when compared to the US and Japan stores, the European version is pretty empty.
4. I feel the navigation could be improved, the Xbox service is very easy to navigate, with specific sections for Demos, XBLA, videos and movies etc and then sub categories, its easy to navigate. The Playstation store does feel like its been thrown together somewhat.
Overall i dont think the store can compete with the 360 one for a while yet, but it could be improved a lot.
whoelse on 2 Feb '08 said:
The store is designed on the basis that theres not that much content. But now its over a year old, there is a lot more content, therefore the store needs to be updated to cater for this. I wish we could also PAUSE our downloads if we have to turn off our system in the middle of downloading a demo.
The store layout looks rushed. I want a proper menu system, more integrated into the XMB. maybe, by pressing a button on the controller, the store would hover onto the screen like the triangle menus do, but fill the whole or partially the whole screen.
Anyhow, im sure Sony has something planned, hopefully when Home comes out!
chunkyboymania on 2 Feb '08 said:
A simple search tab would be handy.
CrippledHooba on 2 Feb '08 said:
Sony you should really look at this and if you have do something about it.
AmhrannabhFiann on 2 Feb '08 said:
I agree it's just too hard to find content, you're constantly scrolling through 10 pages of crap for one thing. Also it should adapt correctly to tv size, I didn't even know about the sidebar until i took my PS3 downstairs. Great ideas guys, keep it up.
sgib1967 on 2 Feb '08 said:
all mgs games all TR games all resi games more varied dlc for ps3 games(Theres tons of dlc for GH and RB but none for creed uncharted cod4 r&c
Anonymous on 2 Feb '08 said:
Just more PS1 games would be nice.
PuNkRoCkEr on 2 Feb '08 said:
i think cvg coverd all the reasons tbh, i would like to have just more accesibility, content on par with the US store at the SAME time aswell..
schmeg on 3 Feb '08 said:
You CAN pause downloads. Just go to the download list, highlight the download you want, press triangle, select pause (or pause all downloads).
Zepf on 3 Feb '08 said:
It would be handy if it told you the file size before you buy something.
Rez HD would be awesome, too!
What about the Saturn Nights re-make? Make it happen Sony!!
desolationw on 3 Feb '08 said:
I'd just be happy if we(eu) got the same content as america and japan at the same time.
Anonymous on 3 Feb '08 said:
im a fan of both consoles, but playstation online will NEVER match that of the xbox, sorry ps3 but thats one thing they will never match, xbox are years ahead on the ps3. ad not to mention the lag, I find for online play im using the xbox more due to there been sooo much less lag online.
duncanskuse on 3 Feb '08 said:
i'd be happy to download ps2 exclusives like god of war 2 for a tenner, and if you got a downscaled version for psp for free with it that would be great. downloadable movies and tv shows would also be nice
mfnick on 4 Feb '08 said:
I want that the most!
Having to buy PSN games without trials is ridiculous
ensabahnur on 4 Feb '08 said:
you just know when home comes out the psn store will disappear and they'll be in home stores where your character or avatar or whatever s**te they're gonna call it can go into and probably pick up the stuff off a virtual shelf. whatever happens you know the store will be intergrated into home. this may work or may not. the psn store just needs to copy the US one as it seems to be easier to navigate.
hollywood111 on 4 Feb '08 said:
The PSN compaired to LIVE is a joke, its really static looking & boring, its like looking at a DOS window or an access spread sheet?, it really, really needs some work.
cian84 on 4 Feb '08 said:
This is a very good article, it pretty much sums up everything that's lacking on PSN.
Domin666 on 5 Feb '08 said:
What lag i use 3 ps3 online at home no lag u sound like u love xbox more?
hollywood111 on 5 Feb '08 said:
the fact that the PSN has more film trailers than game, says it all about Sony....
roger4000 on 6 Feb '08 said:
i have to say as a free service it's great. i dont find it slow and 4 tabs are fine. when on the yank site i dont like it when games are split into 2 or 3 tabs. remember people this is free and not a rip like bill gates live service. now stop moaning and think that any updates sony are doing it all for nowt. i love em
PS3_fannyboy on 6 Feb '08 said:
Having owned both consoles I can say I found equally as much lag on the 360 - GoW was terrible at times! If anything I find less lag on psn probably because of the larger percentage of mature gamers - presumably running a decent connection rather than using their parents 1 meg line.
TiMiX on 9 Feb '08 said:
I own my own house and can only get 1.5 meg max as most of my friends, UK is just years behind when it comes to ADSL.
Live a rip off??! what you on about. Anyone in the world could buy a 360 connect it to Live and play games on it for months and it wouldn’t cost them a penny using a silver account and its only £40 a year for gold, bleeding bargain more like!
I have both consoles and agree Live is miles ahead of PSN for all the reasons said. I'm quite disappointed with my PS3 so far, installing demos is annoying, having it keep locking up when trying to install demos is even more annoying. I’m just hoping an update will sort alot of things. But knowing Sony, Europe will proberley have to wait as it seems we're not worth the trouble. That’s is the feeling I get from the Sony Corporation lately. I feel Microsoft are bringing the gaming nationalities together but Sony are just splitting us up with all the favouritism, not nice
Moxyz1 on 27 Feb '08 said:
i agree that it could do with more content like demos for all games ,also the browser which is a nice feature could really do with more support with diferent file types so tou can watch all the videos and trailers available online i find it really annoying that you cant watch reviews etc.whilst it is great for free, it needs to be more like xboxlive.