PS5 The PlayStation Store

[Regular Waterfall]

The PlayStation store has been around for a long time now, and it’s still shit. I feel like a cracked out meth head scouring the deal pages for the same old deals, looking for a feeling that just isn't there anymore. This feeling has got me thinking about the relationship between gamers, digital storefronts and physical game stores.

Game stores (and rental stores) felt so exciting when I was younger. I loved to browse, pick up games and read blurbs that felt like they were actually trying, and it felt great to be around people who were all there for the same thing. But there's just something so hollow about the experience of the PS store. It feels like I'm walking into a cold, empty gallery run by a faceless curator who doesn't care about my experience and just wants me to empty my wallet.

At least we moved away from that awful vertical alphabet search.

What do you as a user think of the current Playstation store, how it serves its games to you, and I suppose more broadly, how it feels to browse?

 

[Tsukishima]

You kind of captured how I feel browsing the Playstation Store. It captures the same feeling as doom scrolling on websites like Twitter.

Nintendo storefronts at least had some sort of magic with wonderful themes for the Eshop. They stopped that now, which incidentally says a lot about how even running a thought about customers is all but knocking on the door of a vacant lot for them.

 

[JellyjamLu]

I don't have a massive problem with it, but some menu's are unnecessarily hidden, Like demos for example.... this should be more immediate to find, it's silly how I have to type out the game, navigate and click on it, then click on the three vertical lines for a drop down menu THEN you can grab the demo.

 

[Regular Waterfall]

I don't have a massive problem with it, but some menu's are unnecessarily hidden, Like demos for example.... this should be more immediate to find, it's silly how I have to type out the game, navigate and click on it, then click on the three vertical lines for a drop down menu THEN you can grab the demo.

I agree, it shouldn’t be a mission to trial a game

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 2:19 PM

You kind of captured how I feel browsing the Playstation Store. It captures the same feeling as doom scrolling on websites like Twitter.

Nintendo storefronts at least had some sort of magic with wonderful themes for the Eshop. They stopped that now, which incidentally says a lot about how even running a thought about customers is all but knocking on the door of a vacant lot for them.

It certainly does feel like doom scrolling. I think Steam has managed to address this feeling as it feels fun to browse games, though I just wish their categorization was good and there was less crap to wade through

 

[Nebulon_Galaxy]

Its crazy the original bubble ui for PS Store is still in the code and still accessible via the in-game option. and yet they rather redesign it with that god awful ui that is slow as a glacier. the bubble ui they had at the beginning of the ps3 era is so fast and fluid.

 

[Advil Lavs]

I don't browse the built-in stores of consoles usually because I've given up on them. I usually use third-party sites.

 

[Vexicrypt]

Can't really comment on PS5's store, but I hated the PS4's store since very beginning. Its unintuitive, cluttered, slow and made my console's menu lag after I close the store. They changed some things throughout the years but never fixed it.

 

[Kovlak]

I don't browse the built-in stores of consoles usually because I've given up on them. I usually use third-party sites.

I did that too, but since the dynamic pricing scandal I stopped buying digital games in the store.

It's an awful experience scrolling the store. There's far too many games and store begins to lag after a while.

 

[pang]

agreed with how bloated they all are, the sales are so massive and the discoverability so poor that it feels pointless to actually find new things on it

 

[Regular Waterfall]

I did that too, but since the dynamic pricing scandal I stopped buying digital games in the store.

It's an awful experience scrolling the store. There's far too many games and store begins to lag after a while.

Plus when you’re scrolling through it’s like you’re scrolling through a bunch of pngs, it feels like a waste of time haha

Can't really comment on PS5's store, but I hated the PS4's store since very beginning. It’s unintuitive, cluttered, slow and made my console's menu lag after I close the store. They changed some things throughout the years but never fixed it.

I distinctly remember feeling like I wanted them to just go back to the ps3 store when I got a PS4

 

[Blamhammer]

When Sony updated the PS3's storefront to that of the PS4's it was so over. Can't even understand how it even got signed off for public use.

 

[Regular Waterfall]

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When Sony updated the PS3's storefront to that of the PS4's it was so over. Can't even understand how it even got signed off for public use.

That’s brilliant haha the real AC Shadows right there

 

[Lena CE]

It is a storefront that has only gotten worse with time. The original one on PS3 and PSP was really good and only got better over the first few years they were available. Then the PS4 update was forced onto the PS3 for no damn reason and the store became buggy, slow and unbelievably clunky. Ironically, I think the vertical alphabet search was the only good change they made in the launch PS4/updated PS3 store when that update dropped. Sure it had plenty of issues in terms of a lack of filters and they really needed to let people use a keypad/keyboard if they wanted, but I liked the concept and the handful of times where I've vaguely remembered the title of something it was a great help since it narrows down the letters it lets you type in to stop you from searching for something that isn't there.

Anyways, the PS4 stayed shit and then the PS5 became the absolute worst of it. It is the most unintuitive and bafflingly laid out storefront I have ever seen and it does a terrible job at feeling fun or interesting to browse.

Vita's is worth mentioning as another total dud. There are so little ways to filter/segment what content you're searching for and the way it doesn't segment individual DLCs behind a game's main page made so many of the add-on pages feel super padded out and unusable. It is probably the worst of the bunch since at least PS5's runs well despite having my least favorite layout and user experience, but the fact that it has a cute song tied to it as well as just having a layout I didn't /totally/ hate makes it at least a bit cozy. Even if it is difficult to use at least it is fun enough that I would spend time just browsing around "window shopping". I have not once ever wanted to window shop on PS5 and even if I did I would barely know how.

 

[Regular Waterfall]

It is a storefront that has only gotten worse with time. The original one on PS3 and PSP was really good and only got better over the first few years they were available. Then the PS4 update was forced onto the PS3 for no damn reason and the store became buggy, slow and unbelievably clunky. Ironically, I think the vertical alphabet search was the only good change they made in the launch PS4/updated PS3 store when that update dropped. Sure it had plenty of issues in terms of a lack of filters and they really needed to let people use a keypad/keyboard if they wanted, but I liked the concept and the handful of times where I've vaguely remembered the title of something it was a great help since it narrows down the letters it lets you type in to stop you from searching for something that isn't there.

Anyways, the PS4 stayed shit and then the PS5 became the absolute worst of it. It is the most unintuitive and bafflingly laid out storefront I have ever seen and it does a terrible job at feeling fun or interesting to browse.

Vita's is worth mentioning as another total dud. There are so little ways to filter/segment what content you're searching for and the way it doesn't segment individual DLCs behind a game's main page made so many of the add-on pages feel super padded out and unusable. It is probably the worst of the bunch since at least PS5's runs well despite having my least favorite layout and user experience, but the fact that it has a cute song tied to it as well as just having a layout I didn't /totally/ hate makes it at least a bit cozy. Even if it is difficult to use at least it is fun enough that I would spend time just browsing around "window shopping". I have not once ever wanted to window shop on PS5 and even if I did I would barely know how.

I had a few problems with the PS3 store, but I enjoyed browsing it a lot more than PS4 onward. I think I used the PSP store maybe a few times only to download themes and those free games from the PSN outage so I don't have a very strong impression. I do remember hearing complaints about both PS3/P back then as well though.

It sounds like we have a good idea of what's kinda rough about the store. How do you guys think digital storefronts can adapt aspects of physical store browsing to a digital space?

I think steam having user reviews, trailers and livestreams is a pretty good attempt at making the store feel less empty and a little more communal. Sadly PS feels totally adverse to allowing people to review, and I do think there is a negative aspect to reviews even on steam with how they're used

Playstation does have that video sharing feature, why not tie it in someway to the store front via a community hub-like space?