A photographic ride through the new PlayStation Store

Those of you who didn't stay up late last night and check out the new PlayStation Store on your own now have nowhere to go. Stuck inside your cube with no early lunch, no way to slip out at 3:00 -- nada. Thankfully, the crew over at PS3 Fanboy has the goods to satisfy your appetite until you get home. Tap the read link for a gallery of hands-on shots, and chime in below with your likes / dislikes once you've had a chance to meander around yourself.

[bob cobb @ Jul 16th 2008 10:46AM]

Wow, that interface looks awful. Looks like some crappy HTPC program from a few years ago or something.

[natels @ Jul 16th 2008 10:47AM]

I sadly agree.. What happened to the sleak black monochromatic look that Sony is keen on?! I am dissapointed.

[Nytrojen @ Jul 16th 2008 10:54AM]

It kinda reminds of those self-serve registers at supermarkets these days. They've just shotgunned it with clutter.... and why would I want to know about Sony and their privacy policy? *ducks to avoid incoming lawsuits and flames*

[SHoe @ Jul 16th 2008 11:16AM]

@Natels
The 'sleak black monochromatic look' is the XMB and it's still there. This is the store. Sheesh - its the same store they've had for the last 2 months that everybody agreed was better than the old web based store (though they have cluttered it with more options now), so I don't really understand what the big deal is now.

Also: it looks better when it's not a shitty photograph of what looks like a SD CRT screen.

[Evan @ Jul 16th 2008 1:45PM]

It's not a new interface, it's the same interface they use for selecting game trailers and game demos.

[Adam B @ Jul 16th 2008 10:53AM]

Marketplace > That piece of shit

[Dirttt @ Jul 16th 2008 12:52PM]

Sorry, but no.

The Sony Store is quite better than the Microsoft Marketplace. I've owned a 360 since release and just recently got the PS3 with the MGS4 bundle.

The store on the PS3 loads very quick, everything is laid out very well via letters, genre, media type, etc. You seriously can't find ANYTHING on Microsoft's store, while the Sony store is very easy.

That picture with the blog post doesn't do it justice, so why not watch the video. You can easily see how nice the store is. Very straight forward and easy to use.

[nab @ Jul 16th 2008 10:54AM]

Wow, it looks utterly shit!
Good work sony, another 2 steps back in the "Console war".

[Simon P @ Jul 16th 2008 11:03AM]

Just curious if you've used it yet? It's not half bad at all in reality. They might need to tweak a little of the organization in future as it gets bigger but there's a lot of very cool stuff there right now and it's easy to find and decide if you want to rent or buy. I like it. It's pretty slick and I'm guessing, based on the content that's there already that there's a lot more to come. Only 1 season of 24, Family Guy for example. No reason why they can't add the others when the time comes. As a Netflix customer who's been very disappointed with their streaming options, I can safely say this is 100x better than the XBox folk will be getting, even as a "free" option. My one gripe is price. A tad expensive for some things.

[Corey S. @ Jul 16th 2008 11:06AM]

I don't think I'd go that far. The PS3 is still primarily a gaming console and blu-ray player, which is what people are buying it for. The store graphics and usability are not a deal breaker. That being said, Sony could stand to try a little harder to compete with Xbox Live in the this department.

[Andir3.0 @ Jul 16th 2008 12:05PM]

I'm just more curious if people actually think that this is the new XMB...

[Vidikron (FU) @ Jul 16th 2008 12:05PM]

I'm really not sure why people are griping. Honestly, most of the gripes sound like they are coming from people who haven't even used the PSN store before. The PSN is store is fast and extremely easy to use and navigate. It's every bit as good as the Live Marketplace, IMO. Sometimes the Live market place can be too cluttered to find things efficiently. Of course, in Marketplace's defense, it does have a lot more stuff to sort through.

[xcrunk @ Jul 16th 2008 10:54AM]

OMG, that interface is awful.....what is this 1982? that looks like DOS 6.0. Jeeeeeeeezzzz...

Wahhhhh, wahhhhhh, wahhhhhh....

(sarcasm off)

[HuGo @ Jul 16th 2008 10:57AM]

Wow that looks really cool, I can wait to get home and start renting movies off my PS3...oh wait I LIVE IN A COUNTRY THAT'S NOT AMERICA...

[Brian @ Jul 16th 2008 11:04AM]

ME 2

[Josh L @ Jul 16th 2008 11:11AM]

I'd think not having to deal with this bloody mess of an interface would be a plus for you.

[HuGo @ Jul 16th 2008 11:17AM]

What type of interface were you expecting? God at least it doesn't look like Windows 95...and at least its (somewhat) user friendly unlike the website for the Playstation Store.

[hugoliva @ Jul 16th 2008 12:51PM]

Last time I checked, America was a continent, not a country. I'm in another America's country, and I can't use it eithe because I'm not in the US.

[Kevin @ Jul 16th 2008 3:23PM]

@hugoliva

And last time I checked, North & South America were continents, there technically is no "America." The "United States of America", however, is a country. That being said, America more often refers to the USA, so country would still be appropriate.

[Uchiha Sasuke @ Jul 16th 2008 10:59AM]

I was browsing the PSN last night and sadly it's still a pain to navigate and look for specific download. How about adding a search function Sony?

[Mikey @ Jul 16th 2008 11:26AM]

There is.

[cduran01 @ Jul 16th 2008 12:18PM]

I was using the search function all night, its the first thing I noticed

[tyler @ Jul 16th 2008 11:00AM]

People bitched about the first PlayStation Store.

Then everyone said 'hooray' when they updated to the new Store design.

Sony adds movie/tv downloads and people start to bitch again.

--

Can't please em all Sony.

[natels @ Jul 16th 2008 11:03AM]

replace 'all' with 'any' here. If you think this looks like a good design you've got another thing coming for you.

[Nytrojen @ Jul 16th 2008 11:05AM]

Can't seem to learn from past mistakes either, it seems.

[Uchiha Sasuke @ Jul 16th 2008 11:06AM]

FYI, it's always been a pain in the @ss to navigate PSN except in the beginning when they didn't have a lot of contents. You have to atleast click four times to find what you're looking for. True, they change the look but the interface still feels clutter.

[tyler @ Jul 16th 2008 11:29AM]

I never said it was a 'good' design. But it's not terrible either. If someone says Marketplace is so much better, I want to know why because they look very similar.

My point is, it works fine. And they just added movie and tv downloads. I'll agree with dstop in that the content is more important than the interface because I don't spend all my time in the store saying 'Gee, this button really should have been over there.'

So, stop moaning and groaning and start downloading. Ask two different people what the store should be like, and they'll give you two completely different models -- can't please 'em all.

[John @ Jul 16th 2008 1:24PM]

@natels

"replace 'all' with 'any' here."

so... "Can't please em any Sony?"

i don't see how that works.

[holycow @ Jul 16th 2008 11:03AM]

It's really nice to see something else getting covered this thoroughly on Engadget other than the 'fruity' products.

Good Job!

[Gaz @ Jul 16th 2008 11:05AM]

wah wah wah ...my toys better than your toy....my dad can beat your dad...wah wah wah

[dstop @ Jul 16th 2008 11:07AM]

eh, i could care less about the interface and more about the content. pretty dissappointed that there's no HD rentals currently. also would like to see more competitive pricing on purchases. why would anyone want to pay $10 for The Princess Bride when you could buy the DVD in the $3 bin at walmart, then rip it and copy to your PS3 hdd?

[Michael @ Jul 16th 2008 11:16AM]

There are HD rentals now... There's an entire category labeled "Available in HD."

Also, I've got no gripes on the interface. Nothing fantastic, but at no point did I think it was bad. Perhaps you all haven't actually tried it? I think "Marketplace > That piece of shit" helps confirm that.

Also, a search would be nice (especially when the library gets bigger), but I think the A-Z listing compensates.

[Mikey @ Jul 16th 2008 11:27AM]

There is a search and it works as expected.

[dstop @ Jul 16th 2008 12:01PM]

oops, i meant to say no HD purchases.

[cduran01 @ Jul 16th 2008 12:23PM]

Actually the SD videos look awesome. Downloaded Ghostbusters (an old movie I expected not to look to good) and it looked great. Much better than an iTunes, almost like an upscaled DVD. I couldn't justify the extra price and storage space required for HD when the SD look that good.

[JDGATX @ Jul 16th 2008 12:29PM]

i downloaded an HD rental last night . . . it was perfect

[brandonjmckane @ Jul 16th 2008 11:07AM]

The store was very easy to use, very clear to decide whether to rent or buy. There is in fact a search function. Please don't judge it before you use it.

[--Ed @ Jul 16th 2008 11:10AM]

Initial response is that the interface looks really bad. It looks like they went into a time warp back to 1998. It just looks very dated. It is probably because they threw it together so fast because of the rumors of the xbox Netflix deal that they had to cut corners on graphics and design and just focus on the core functionality of renting/buying a movies.

I'm sure it works just fine but it is not visually stimulating at all.

[Michael @ Jul 16th 2008 11:19AM]

This is the same interface the game store uses. An interface which was created months ago (i.e., not thrown together because of a Netflix deal).

[cduran01 @ Jul 16th 2008 12:25PM]

Shows you have never even seen a PS3 in operation until now. Like others have said, the video store is the same game store look and feel only with videos instead of games......oh yeah, they also added a search function.

[Brownie @ Jul 16th 2008 11:10AM]

Anyone know what format the PSN store uses? DivX, Xvid, WMA?

[Nickerson @ Jul 16th 2008 11:38AM]

AVC and AAC for video and audio respectively.

[gary7seven @ Jul 16th 2008 11:13AM]

The store seems much quicker now. The previous version was pretty slow to render the thumbnails.

[dcoaster @ Jul 16th 2008 11:18AM]

Congrats Sony. A lot of content for the first day. Pricing could be a little more competitive though.

[misha @ Jul 16th 2008 11:22AM]

i love you all members of engadget you all made my day ☻

[DoubleV @ Jul 16th 2008 11:27AM]

You guys who are complaining about the interface looks like crap are the same people who judge a book by its cover. This interface has been out for a while & I must say it is much better than the current Xbox live interface (until the fall release, we shall see).

[Julian @ Jul 16th 2008 11:38AM]

i dont really mind the interface. the picture makes it look brighter than it is (though not by too much). since the last update for the PSN it works extremely fast. i checked out the video service yesterday. its opening with a pretty wide selection of movies. its cool that there are a lot of HD quality movies (though i guess hoping for 1080p quality is out of the the question.) i suppose this works as an incentive to upgrade the HDD. . . though i doubt i will do it.

[Dave @ Jul 16th 2008 11:57AM]

This is just a temp interface until Home is released?

[Vidikron (FU) @ Jul 16th 2008 12:12PM]

I don't think so. Home itself is supposed to be an optional interface. After Home is released I think the XMB and PSN store interfaces will remain, but you'll have the option to also use Home as your interface.

[Antelix @ Jul 16th 2008 12:15PM]

Anything is better than the first Interface Sony put out. I think this is kind of nice. Not sure I care for the 360 interface that is coming. I kind of like it the way it is now. We shall see how it plays out. On the pricing note. I am curious how many people actually purchase digital content vs. rent. I agree that paying 10 bucks for a purchase of a movie thats been out for a few years and can be found in a bargain bin is a little overpriced. On the renting side of things, the prices are pretty comparable to Pay-per view movies or renting a video at the local video store. I wish Netflix streaming selection was a lot better, but I realize that this is more to do with the royalities that the studio's want to make. This makes selections of new movies somewhat spotty and people watch them other ways.