jshackles
Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
The new PlayStation web store is an absolute mess. We knew about a few downgrades before it rolled out, but it turns out there were a lot of features from the old site that got scrapped in the new design. Here are a few of the downgrades I've found so far:
Filtering and sorting options are all completely gone
You used to be able to sort lists and filter them based on your preferences. While this did add a bit of clutter to the interface, it was very handy for filtering out stuff you weren't interested in or sorting lists to your liking.
With the new store, these options are no longer available.
You get the list they give you, in the order they give you and there is no way to sort or filter it any more.
DLC is no longer browsable on a per game basis
Old store:
New store:
With the old store page, I could see that characters were $5.99 each and if I wanted to browse them all there is a convenient button right there to do it. With the new store I get two options: the game, or the ultimate edition. If I want to just buy the Leroy Smith character, I need to do a search (remember, no autocomplete) to find him. This isn't just an issue with Tekken 7, all games are like this now.
Item names aren't visible while browsing
This gets to be an issue especially with things that aren't labeled well in their thumbnails. While I imagine it's easy for Sony to point fingers and say it's the publisher's job to make better thumbnails. This might not be as big of any issue going forward (since publishers will obviously have to overcome Sony's shortcomings here) it's a pretty big issue right now.
For example, let's say I do a search for "Rock Band":
A few of these items, I can identify based on their thumbnail image, but a lot of them can't be. You would think that instinctually I would at least get a hover tooltip with the item's name, but that's not the case. If I want to see what the second and third items are in the top row that look identical to each other are, I need to click on each of them and load the store page for those items. Turns out, they're "20 free track pack (Unavailable)" and "Rock Band 2 Export (Unavailable)". Yikes.
I hear you saying "well, maybe it's just Rock Band" that's got issues. Let's get a bit more generic.
So there are several problems here, all of which could probably be solved by putting the name of these things below the icon. Like - what is the difference between the first and last items on the top row? One is on sale for $9.59, but the other is free. There are two icons for Dragon Ball Z Kakarot but only one of them has a price tag. There are a total of three icons for Dragon Age Inquisition, but at least they have different banners at the top? It looks like there are two versions of Dragon Quest XI available - why is one $20 cheaper?
Conclusion
Sony essentially discontinued a huge number of older games from their web store, but also felt the need to discontinue a lot of functionality too. There are a few features of the new store I really like, such as curated collections, but overall I feel like the new store is a massive step backwards. What do you think GAF?
- Wishlist functionality is completely gone (we knew about this in advance, at least)
- The store no longer has PSP, Vita, or PS3 games (we also knew this)
- Filtering and sorting options are all completely gone
- DLC is no longer browsable on a per game basis
- Search box no longer has any form of autocomplete
- Item names aren't visible while browsing
Filtering and sorting options are all completely gone
You used to be able to sort lists and filter them based on your preferences. While this did add a bit of clutter to the interface, it was very handy for filtering out stuff you weren't interested in or sorting lists to your liking.
With the new store, these options are no longer available.
You get the list they give you, in the order they give you and there is no way to sort or filter it any more.
DLC is no longer browsable on a per game basis
Old store:
New store:
With the old store page, I could see that characters were $5.99 each and if I wanted to browse them all there is a convenient button right there to do it. With the new store I get two options: the game, or the ultimate edition. If I want to just buy the Leroy Smith character, I need to do a search (remember, no autocomplete) to find him. This isn't just an issue with Tekken 7, all games are like this now.
Item names aren't visible while browsing
This gets to be an issue especially with things that aren't labeled well in their thumbnails. While I imagine it's easy for Sony to point fingers and say it's the publisher's job to make better thumbnails. This might not be as big of any issue going forward (since publishers will obviously have to overcome Sony's shortcomings here) it's a pretty big issue right now.
For example, let's say I do a search for "Rock Band":
A few of these items, I can identify based on their thumbnail image, but a lot of them can't be. You would think that instinctually I would at least get a hover tooltip with the item's name, but that's not the case. If I want to see what the second and third items are in the top row that look identical to each other are, I need to click on each of them and load the store page for those items. Turns out, they're "20 free track pack (Unavailable)" and "Rock Band 2 Export (Unavailable)". Yikes.
I hear you saying "well, maybe it's just Rock Band" that's got issues. Let's get a bit more generic.
So there are several problems here, all of which could probably be solved by putting the name of these things below the icon. Like - what is the difference between the first and last items on the top row? One is on sale for $9.59, but the other is free. There are two icons for Dragon Ball Z Kakarot but only one of them has a price tag. There are a total of three icons for Dragon Age Inquisition, but at least they have different banners at the top? It looks like there are two versions of Dragon Quest XI available - why is one $20 cheaper?
Conclusion
Sony essentially discontinued a huge number of older games from their web store, but also felt the need to discontinue a lot of functionality too. There are a few features of the new store I really like, such as curated collections, but overall I feel like the new store is a massive step backwards. What do you think GAF?