Sony Says PlayStation Store is “Noticeably Perkier”, Users Say it Still Sags

The PlayStation Store has consistently been an area of complaint for consumers. It’s early iterations lacked functionality and aesthetics. Updates soon made the store more functional, but it was not pretty to look at. The most recent update turned that all around. The storefront is now pretty to look at, but the functionality, efficiency, and speed are very questionable.

[doctorstrange]

I preferred it when it was younger

[Foolsjoker]

I always thought it ran better during winter..

[BiggCMan]

The store was glorious right before this newest update to make it look more like Xbox Live with this stupid Metro UI. It was super fast, and looked fine to me, it was simple as hell to find everything. Now it's slow, looks like everything else with the new trend, and is difficult to find things on occasion.

[ApolloTheBoss]

I see what you did there.

[zeee]

Well, I have been using PS Store since 2009 and all I can say is that Sony NEEDS to get this thing sorted. Below is my 100% honest opinion that I have derived only from my experience with the PS Store.

I was super excited about the new PS Store but when they launched it, I immediately noticed how slow and confusing it was.

The original PS Store used to fire up quickly. The new one does take some time loading.

The old one had an extremely crappy search system. The new one isn't that incredible either. This is one of the most important features and one that needs to be solved ASAP.

The old version was super quick once it fired up but the new one makes my PS3 progressively slower. To the extent that I have to wait a good 20-30 seconds just to "go back" or for the "QUIT" menu to appear. It keeps eating memory if you stay there for too long. I haven't used it for the last 20 days as I have been travelling so maybe Sony changed it during this time but I doubt that.

The new store lags when loading the next slide/area. That makes the store feel "HEAVY" and not smooth. I want to be able to move across screens quickly to get to the content that I want. Sony could also provide us with some tips instead of having us figure it out. I mean, I have no problem understanding how it works but for a new guy, it's definitely not going to be easy and there is a learning curve there.

Really SONY, why not get some professional help? How about hmmm... the giants of search - GOOGLE? And maybe while we are at it, lets get Google Chrome going on PS3 and hopefully, PS4! I can't stand this stock browser :s

[joab777]

Its OK Sony...it doesn't bother me. I just stay off it.

[Blackdeath_663]

the service is fine, the way it's presented will always divide people. as long as its functional it doesn't bother me either.

[GribbleGrunger]

I'd say it was slower than the old PSN but not by that much. Clearly the reason for the changes is to have compatibility with PCs and THAT change outweighs the slight slow down in my opinion. PS4 will be slick and 'instant' (it better be)

[Conzul]

with a Gb dedicated to the OS, you better believe it'll be slick and fast.

[HarryMasonHerpderp]

The EU store is dreadful.
I find myself having to wait for every screen to load for about 3 minutes sometimes.
All of the contents are jumbled up everywhere, the layout is very poor. Soul Sacrifice demo was right at the bottom of the Vita demos section when it was first released and that was supposed to be a big game for the Vita, they just hide it away anyway though.

Screenshots for games are low res and even mixed up (Infamous collection has GOW3 in the screenshots) Pricing gets mixed up sometimes, the search engine is utter poop and hard to find specific items.
People have problems downloading digital games all the time (just look at the EU PS Blog).
The list goes on and on....

Thing is I put up with this crap because I'm a big Playstation fan, what about the casuals though? I doubt they're going to sit through all of this crap and Sony, developers and publishers must be losing money because of these problems.
Then there is the whole SCEE thing where games never even get released.

Terarria should of been released a month ago but due to unexplained circumstances (SCEE messing things up) we just don't have it on the EU store, much like Counterstrike and many other games people really want to purchase. Hype dies down and Sony lose money.
It's just so dumb I don't understand why they are so incompetent, what the heck is happening at SCEE?
Rant over lol

[dantesparda]

@HarryMasonHerpderp

3 minutes to load a page!? you must have something seriously wrong going on, cuz i have a 10mbps dsl connection and it takes seconds to load a page, sure it can be jerky at times and can get jerkier as you browse it more, but even then, it still just takes secs to load a page. And I have a EU account, so im able to go on the EU store and its the same thing

And to answer the title, no its not (perkier, that is), its the same to me. And what the hell are they talking about when they say it wasnt "pretty to look at, at the beginning", its looks exactly the same. And was considered pretty. Although i never thought it was that pretty.

[HarryMasonHerpderp]

To be honest I have wondered if it has something to do with my PS3 but yes it does take that long sometimes. It just decides to freeze and you can't navigate at all.

[SaturnTo]

I hate the new PlayStation store design, who ever approved this store change should be fired! Sony WTF! Change it back to the way it was before, god lets add loading screens to just get into the PlayStation store! So stupid.

[TrendyGamers]

I didn't notice much difference when looking through it a couple hours back.

[MariaHelFutura]

Many will come for the picture. :P

[-Mika-]

And that really sad...

[Ken22]

Stop being butthurt.We're all gamers here.Life is boring if do everything by the rules.

OT:I always thought it ran smooth.

[MariaHelFutura]

I swear to you.... When I saw this I thought of you. I knew you would be here.

[WildArmed]

Indeed, though it also says something about gaming journalism... let's make everything into a sexual innuendo.

Seems like the author just wanted an excuse to put up the thumbnail. I didn't see any reply in the tweet sayings that it still sags.

[knifefight]

Booby is in the eye of the beholder.

...Wait I may have messed that up.

[Bathyj]

Sounded right to me

[sherimae2413]

mine is a little bit bigger than that.. :p
anyways i dont have a problem with psn though i admit its a bit slow but the interface is fine for me, but i like japan psn more ^_^

[LOL_WUT]

Wut? ;)

[GameCents]

I believe you

[nick309]

Still same thing.. The pc store is so fast compared. I guess its ram limitations... They made the store take too much ram or something.. But i dunno 100% y its like that.

[jcnba28]

Sony has been trying to fix the PSN store since 2006.

[BitbyDeath]

Not sure why people complain about it going slow in the store?

Found this video the other day and while they complain about it being slow aside from the hideous initial load time the actual instore movement looks almost instant to me.

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Not sure what you had it like in America before but it was much slower for me with the previous store. (Loading icons and such)

[DangerouslyJack]

"*I'm* not sure why people..."

"*I'm* not sure what you..."

You need to work on your sentence structure.

Though seeing that you are a contributor, makes me realize the problem with this site.

[BitbyDeath]

I'm* DangerouslyJack

[MysticStrummer]

Your post isn't exactly perfect either, but don't let that stop you from pretending to be superior.

: )

OT - The store is worse, not better.

[DangerouslyJack]

I feel sorry for you....

:/

[Brian1rr]

I noticed a big difference since the last update everything is just faster

[theEx1Le]

The store is awful. The menu is laggy and the interface is stupid. The search function is atrocious. Friend gave LBP for vita, couldn't even search for the online pass. The update was a waste of time. Should of held it back until ps4 and just optimized the one we had first that actually worked.

[LOL_WUT]

I agree with this ;)

[Rhaigun]

Initial start up is slow, but everything else is smooth.

[MrBeatdown]

That's pretty much my experience.

The old store was getting bad. Decent layout, but after starting a download and backing out, you had to wait for that little loading icon in the corner to go away before you could do anything. Organization was terrible too, and there was no sorting.

Now I just go in every week, go to new releases, choose the past seven days, and sort by price to find all the free stuff.

[Tundra]

The original PS Store was fine. I'm not sure why it warranted any sort of change. It was the easiest store to navigate compared to 360 and Wii in my opinion.

[KillrateOmega]

[Insert boob joke]

[Inception]

I always open PSstore from my PC for search / buying. And the store from my PS3 only to download so i don't have to use that stupid search interface. But i heard that sony gave new features so we can download games / dlc from PC and transfer it to PS3.

[Mr Marvel]

I just saw nice boobs and clicked.

Anyway, I think the PS Store won't get much better until the PS4.

[yokokoroma]

There isn't an increase in speed of the new PSN store at all, and I have high speed internet. The fact is, this new PSN store iteration isn't better than the previous. This version has to load before you get to the actual store, as opposed to instantaneous access like the previous version. The previous PSN store was more structurally organized, now it's a cluttered mess. You have to go through a series of menus and more menus, just to find what you're looking for. The fact that SONY made the PSN store like xbox's game marketplace is quite disturbing. I mean, they essentially conformed to their competitions online store setup. Thus, making a once easy and enjoyable experience, a tedious and unenjoyable one.

[SaffronCurse]

I use the web store. Problem solved.

[g-nome]

They should have the option of a text based store also , with no fancy graphics.

[Yui_Suzumiya]

It's definitely BIGGER now.. like it had a really nice LIFT.. ^_^

[Haules]

It's still slow for me. Why the hell did they change the store in the first place? The original was better and faster. Also, the fact that you have to go through 5 menus just to download something (6 if you're buying something) is an absolute joke.

[MuhammadJA]

The new web store is so much better!

[despair]

last update helped a bit but its still so slow. But the fact that I have to update the store like a game is annoying as hell. Hopefully next few months fixes it much more.

[PirateThom]

The new PS Store annoys me so much, I do all PS Shopping online through the web store.