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The New PlayStation Web Store is an Absolute Mess

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:
  • 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
Want to sort a list of games you're browsing by the least expensive first? Sorry. Want to see a list of all the DLC available for Tekken 7? Nope. Let's take a deep dive on a few of these issues and post a bunch of photos.

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.

ptcTsUd.png


With the new store, these options are no longer available.

nxHlTyK.png


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:
GG1KTFC.png


New store:
ZezILxc.png


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":
Z1ACe8s.png

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.

sYvqATF.png


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?
 

Fake

Member
IDK if they're really approunching the Apple Store/Google Play store design, but is pretty terrible visually IMO. The speed is also important, but I can't jugde without testing.

More importantly, need to be functional.
 
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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.
IDK if they're really approunching the Apple Store/Google Play store design, but is pretty terrible visually IMO. The speed is also important, but I can't jugde without testing.

More importantly, need to be functional.
A lot of people are going to be wishing for a dark mode, and I can't blame them. Visually it's super duper generic. But I expected the functionality to at least be equivalent to the old store.
 

Fake

Member
A lot of people are going to be wishing for a dark mode, and I can't blame them. Visually it's super duper generic. But I expected the functionality to at least be equivalent to the old store.

As much I hated the main problem of the current store is the speed. The lack of criativity from the designer of this generation is worrisome. Its like they want to pleasure more sites like IGN or Polygon with that design rather than the public.
 
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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.
They went full Microsoft. You never go full Microsoft.
I almost mentioned it in the OP, but maybe the reason they didn't add the names to stuff is because they thought it would look to close to the Microsoft store

(screenshot for comparison)

NuEF6C4.png
 
Looks like they are going the way of social media apps. Sony's algorithm will now dictate what they think you want to buy now.
This.

It's a move towards a more interactive mobile store for people to buy more readily on the go.

Still some bemusing design choices like wishlist functionality being gone. Makes zero sense.
 

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
Looks like web MS store. However there is not issue to find anything you want, so I would not take this as a bad thing. I did not browse it tho. I am done with Playstation for this gen (GoT was amazing) and I will buy PS5 in the future, so hopefully by that time everything is ironed out, because I hate stores on Console. I know that MS rolled out new store, but I still find it clunky and I am using exlusive web store...
 

Ar¢tos

Member
As long as it has a search option, I'm fine. I check prices of games and dlc on psprices.com. Why would anyone use the official store to browse even before the update?
 

kingpotato

Ask me about my Stream Deck
I’m still waiting for the new store.
Not live for me in the UK yet :lollipop_anguish::lollipop_tired::lollipop_frowning_mouth::lollipop_crying::lollipop_worried::lollipop_pensive::lollipop_unamused::lollipop_persevering::lollipop_sad_relieved::lollipop_sleeping:

I don't see it either and I'm in the US. Just checked and my wishlist is still accessable and the store looks the same.

I'm still waiting to use the wishlist function on the console instead of a browser...
Yes, this times 1000

All the consoles need to look at what steam does letting you buy content for others, track games better, see what your friends own and also what they are tracking on their wish lists.
 

xrnzaaas

Gold Member
The design is terrible, but removing past features is even worse, especially if there's no good explanation for that (other than maybe confuse people and attract them into making impulse purchases?).

I just hope that these changes won't cripple sites like psprices, I'm not familiar how they're copying the info from the web store.
 

IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
Seems evident to me there's some backend change they want to make to prepare for PS5 launch that meant changes to their store backend.

They at some point decided to replace the store rather than modify the last one.

Many of the missing features may have been planned to be there, but aren't ready in time for PS5 launch, so that's why they "removed features"; it's not really "removed" it's that they didn't have time to develop it before the web site has to launch (because the web site HAS to be there before PS5 for some reason.)

That's my theory at least.

Source: my ass, which has been working on software projects at various companies for over 20 years and seen this kinda shit lol
 

fersnake

Member
i really cant understand if you want to improve something why remove the best features? they had more time to put thing in there, well i really dont know how this developing thing work so it's my ignorant rage gamer is talking xD
 

Aranea

Member
Looks quite generic. I have no idea what's the obsession with all of that white background. The same thing happened with the Official PlayStation blog which also looks generic.
 

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.
Seems evident to me there's some backend change they want to make to prepare for PS5 launch that meant changes to their store backend.

They at some point decided to replace the store rather than modify the last one.

Many of the missing features may have been planned to be there, but aren't ready in time for PS5 launch, so that's why they "removed features"; it's not really "removed" it's that they didn't have time to develop it before the web site has to launch (because the web site HAS to be there before PS5 for some reason.)

That's my theory at least.

Source: my ass, which has been working on software projects at various companies for over 20 years and seen this kinda shit lol
I'm hoping that's the case and these removed features are planned for a future rollout. However, considering the PlayStation store went more or less unchanged for years (since the PS4 release, basically) I'm not holding my breath.
 
Hopefully the new store fixes the ridiculous layout and all the horizontal scrolling needed in the mobile app. It's always been hard to understand how such a major brand can have such a terrible app.
 

Hudo

Member
If filtering and sorting options are indeed not available then the store is fucking useless. Quite embarrassing as that digital-only stuff is what's actually locking (new) people into that ecosystem.
 

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.
Just realized something else, while looking at the first and second screenshot again in the OP. You used to be able to add games directly to your shopping cart from the list while browsing. Now in order to buy something, you have to browse to that item's dedicated page and press "add to cart". Not a huge issue but again I feel like it's a bit of a backwards step in the UI.

So if I'm browsing something like the Halloween sale and I see several games I want to purchase, the process before was simply "Click add to cart for each, then check out". Now it's "click item, click add to cart, click on deals, click halloween sale, click on next item..."
 

IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
Wishlists are still available on the console.. and they were separate before (meaning the website had it's own backend/db for them.)

Chances are they'll eventually connect the website to your same wishlist that is available on the console.

I'm telling you guys.. feature removal is rarely some conspiracy lol, it's what happens when you replace something from the "ground up" most times.

edit: The info above is wrong, sorry.. some article led me asttray.
 
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bender

What time is it?
Wishlists are still available on the console.. and they were separate before (meaning the website had it's own backend/db for them.)

Chances are they'll eventually connect the website to your same wishlist that is available on the console.

I'm telling you guys.. feature removal is rarely some conspiracy lol, it's what happens when you replace something from the "ground up" most times.

They are?
 

IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
They are?
I saw it reported that way.. and even googled before I posted and found an article making that claim.. but now I'm not so sure as they said the Sony email about the store claimed that, and it doesn't.

edit: So you don't think I'm crazy


None of the changes will affect the PS Store on console, however, where the same content and the Wishlist function will still be available.
 
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bender

What time is it?
I saw it reported that way.. and even googled before I posted and found an article making that claim.. but now I'm not so sure as they said the Sony email about the store claimed that, and it doesn't.

edit: So you don't think I'm crazy


Unless I'm stupid (possible), I don't think you can access a Wishlist on the PSN Store on PS4 (US).
 

IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
Unless I'm stupid (possible), I don't think you can access a Wishlist on the PSN Store on PS4 (US).
Yeah I think that article is just mixing up the "you can still buy PS3 games on PS3" thing with the wishlist thing.

I was going off of that article, will update my post.
 
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