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[angrod14]

One thing I noticed this gen using my PS5 is how much the PSN experience has improve, and it's something that I don't see getting enough recognition. I've had a PSN account since 2009 when I got a PS3, to this day, and remembering what the plataform was those days made realize how far it has come.

Remember the constant "mainteinance" routines that Sony had to do very often? Sometimes they had to take online functionality down for days. Then there was the infamous massive "hack", the impossibility for changing your PSN ID, the incredibly slow navigation, etc. All of those are a thing of the past now.

And one of the things that catches my attention the most, is how amazing the PS Store is now. I'm a sucker for UI design (confessed Apple fanboy) and damn, the store is so pretty, so snappy, the shopping experience itself is really playful and joyful to me. I know, it's not perfect, the search funcionality can be improved for example, but man, it has come a long mfing way. I recently purchased Mario Wonder from the eShop and it felt like navigating through the net in a 2005 cellphone. Hideous. But well, Nintendo and "online" never got along very well.

And last but not least, I find it incredible that Sony is still supporting the ability to redownload software going back to the opening of the store (2006). You can still redownload your frigging PSP games, an absolute dinosaur that probably not even 100 people in the world actively use, and doesn't even support current wifi standards. And of course, I hope it keeps going for as long as possible.

Anyways. Just a personal remark about the state of PSN. What do you guys think?

 

[consoul]

Well, this was the day one PSN Store on my 4:3 CRT, so yeah, I'd say it has come a long way.

 

[TheInfamousKira]

Oh yeah, the good old days of massive blue windows

 

[LakeOf9]

Still garbage. I can't even change the region on my account, something Steam, Xbox, and even fucking Nintendo have been allowing me to do for the better part of a decade now, if not longer.

Needs a full overhaul.

 

[R6Rider]

My favorite pastime is loading up the store on my PS3.

 

[Aenima]

PS3 was the experimental days, it worked but was not build right from the start.
PS4 days was massively improved, the store was just plagued with wallpapers and avatars during promos from non devs so it was a flood of cats, skulls and anime waifus.
PS5 got rid of those and now is just games and DLC, the problem now is in some games thers so many versions of the same game (Standard, Gold, Deluxe, just give me money edition) that sometimes is confusing what u should purchase as sometimes the standard version is hidden in the 3 dots menu.

 

[Dacvak]

Well, this was the day one PSN Store on my 4:3 CRT, so yeah, I'd say it has come a long way.

I’m rather astonished you just had that picture on the ready.

 

[March Climber]

Someone is going to enter the thread and praise the xmb, not realizing this is about the store and not the OS.

 

[Skifi28]

My favorite pastime is loading up the store on my PS3.

Sounds great but I don't have that much free time, maybe if I leave it overnight.

 

[Sushi_Combo]

The 2nd iteration of the Ps3's online store was actually my favourite. But the one on Ps5 is pretty good too.

 

[diffusionx]

I remember when I got my PS3, a year after I got my 360, and was like "that's it?" Warhawk was fun though.

I remember Grace Chen Time, the slow loading, and the dude here who made schizo posts talking about how Sony was designing a new PSN store for years, then it came out and he was vindicated.

 

[March Climber]

My ranking of best to worst PS stores:

PS5
PS3 ver. 1
PSP
PS Vita
PS4
PS3 ver. 2

My ranking is based on which felt the fastest. PS4 and PS3 became more awful to navigate as time passed.

 

[rofif]

Idk maybe it did but I still loathe it.
Confusing mess of nesting and "view details" inside view details inside view details.
Connections and relevancies between games, your library, + titles and so on can be a mess.

 

[FinalBossWithTheMostPower]

PSN has always been garbage, especially when compared to Xbox Live (is that even the name of the service anymore?).

 

[Fbh]

Sure, but I'd rather go back to the ocasional "maitinante" downtime if it meant free multiplayer.

 

[cormack12]

Well, this was the day one PSN Store on my 4:3 CRT, so yeah, I'd say it has come a long way.

We need to go back.

But yeah agree. There's a lot of small things that add up to what is a solid and generally pleasing store to use. From the console and the app. The snappiness is really good.

Wishlist functionality is there now, deffo was a WiP when the gen started but it does what it needs to do. Not sure about how well it is for suggesting or curating stuff. I generally know what I want and just search.

 

[R6Rider]

Let us gift games Sony.

 

[Mr Hyde]

It has come a long way indeed, but there is still improvements to be made, especially when it comes to separating PS4/PS5 content, which is sometimes confusing when there are several different versions of the game. I also like the PS App much more than navigating the store or the UI on the PS5, especially when looking at trophies and browsing the store. I wish Sony could somehow integrate your software library so you can manage it via the app, but I reckon that's impossible.

 

[Meicyn]

A lot of the improvements were a consequence of Microsoft seriously challenging Sony’s dominance in the early Xbox 360 era. Xbox Live ate PSN’s lunch during that period, it wasn’t even close.

 

[consoul]

I’m rather astonished you just had that picture on the ready.

I recalled writing a blog post on the day the Store went live, so I knew I had that picture of it.

There were a grand total of 5 games you could buy. Hahaha.

 

[Bond007]

I sort of prefer PS4 compared to now.
I just personally find it harder to find things.


I do appreciate how things are organized and easier to manage however. Then again, i may just be crazy.

 

[FUBARx89]

The PS3 store redesign where it was essentially opening a browser was fucking awful. It was so slow.

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

I found PSP games I own that I didn't even know I owned. DId they come to PS+ at some point?

 

[Hero of Spielberg]

I find the PS+ section(s) very annoying. It’s broken up into 3 (or more) different libraries. Why not just have me be easily able to click on a library of all games included in my tier instead of clicking through different layers

 

[aclar00]

I must say, its still pretty garbage, at least loading wise. Shit plays videos at like 480i and picture failed to load, often result in this purple Sony Vaio like stand-in image. Give the price increase you would think shit would load nicely l...lets also not forget the often horrible download times.

 

[LordCBH]

My favorite pastime is loading up the store on my PS3.

The current iteration of the store on PS3 is hot garbage. Ever since they updated to it, it crashes pretty consistently.

 

[cormack12]

I recalled writing a blog post on the day the Store went live, so I knew I had that picture of it.

There were a grand total of 5 games you could buy. Hahaha.

Dude, strap your underpants on. That blog is about to catch fire with 12 or maybe even 15 views today!!!!

 

[Justin9mm]

Let us gift games Sony.

 

[March Climber]

I found PSP games I own that I didn't even know I owned. DId they come to PS+ at some point?

PS Plus Premium Game List - All PlayStation Plus Premium PS5, PS4, PS3, PS2, PS1 Games - PlayStation Universe

What are the PS Plus Premium PS5, PS4, PS3, PS2, PS1 games? Read our guide for all the latest titles coming to PlayStation Plus Premium!

www.psu.com

Scroll down to PS1/PSP. 95% of the titles listed are purchasable without needing PS Plus Premium.

 

[Bloobs]

PStriple XMB ftw

 

[ShadyAcshuns]

 

[onnextflix5]

Yeh, they just need to improve a few things and it’s almost perfect , it’s vastly better then the Xbox store, got a steam deck, its web based store is a pain in the ass.

 

[TGO]

Well, this was the day one PSN Store on my 4:3 CRT, so yeah, I'd say it has come a long way.

You had 4:3 CRT in 2006?
You made it look older then it does

 

[simpatico]

Are they finally at feature parity with 2010 Xbox Live?

 

[Icymanipulator]

Still weird to me you can’t search games by developer.

 

[Rockman33]

Kind of a weird post. I would hope that in 18 years it has improved. Shit, back then people were still using wi-fi 2/3 routers.

 

[CamHostage]

Hmm, I guess so. It's tough to just look now and see a difference, although when you intentionally look back, there are undeniable changes.

For PSN gaming, improvements are tempered by the sad changes in gaming culture in that time. Maybe Warhawk and PS Home and SOCOM PSP and Soul Sacrifice Delta could be clunky and at times unreliable online experiences compared to today, but that was back when players were all about being with people and finding friends and chatting and gaming online for the fun of it; that's harder to find today.

...The one thing that has "come a long way" in the opposite direction is sadly the PSN Web Store. I freaking hate it now! They pulled classic platforms off, they made it incredibly hard to find PS+ games, they don't show screenshots or videos of games to sell, everything is big and bunchy and tough to see any hierarchy as far as which version is which or which DLC is little or big, they took out a lot of the filters and tools of finding games, they seem to have changed "Favorites" to "Wishlist" and cleared out anything you may have been following to wait for a price drop, etc. I just don't get why they gutted the Store, it's significantly less useful these days and I visit it and buy stuff from it less frequently.

 

[bender]

...they seem to have changed "Favorites" to "Wishlist" and cleared out anything you may have been following to wait for a price drop, etc. I just don't get why they gutted the Store, it's significantly less useful these days and I visit it and buy stuff from it less frequently.

Not a defense of the PS5 Store as I think it's a considerably worse experience than PS4, but PSN does a good job of alerting you for when things on your wishlist go on sale. I get notifications on my console and phone when this happens.

One thing I have noticed of late is how slow data is loading to the store (icons, pricing information, wait times when selecting a game, etc.).

 

[ReBurn]

Some of the most challenging things still exist. One of the most frustrating is glitchiness with trying to buy games that I previously added to my library via PS+ monthly games or Extra. As recently as last month I had to contact support to be able to buy games.

 

[BennyBlanco]

Still no refunds

 

[bender]

Still no refunds

I don't see that ever happening. Hell, you have to go through an automated bot script that asks you like 10 questions only to have to repeat the answers to an agent when trying to cancel a pre-order.

 

[TGO]

Still no refunds

A refund is when a customer returns a product and receives their money back.
Can't refund you for something you never owned.

 

[BennyBlanco]

I don't see that ever happening. Hell, you have to go through an automated bot script that asks you like 10 questions only to have to repeat the answers to an agent when trying to cancel a pre-order.

Only way I see it happening is if they’re forced through legislation, which definitely could happen.

 

[CamHostage]

Not a defense of the PS5 Store as I think it's a considerably worse experience than PS4, but PSN does a good job of alerting you for when things on your wishlist go on sale. I get notifications on my console and phone when this happens.

One thing I have noticed of late is how slow data is loading to the store (icons, pricing information, wait times when selecting a game, etc.).

OK, good to know. (I think I disabled or filtered my PSN emails, so that's on me for not noticing.) And I'm not 100% sure what happened to "Favorites", I just noticed that mine is completely blank aside from Matrix Awakens (which is marked "Announced" but will never be available because it was pulled and I didn't have a PS5 at the time) and that seems very unlikely... my Nintendo Shop Favorites has all kinds of stuff, some of which I have eventually bought.

 

[bender]

OK, good to know. (I think I disabled or filtered my PSN emails, so that's on me for not noticing.) And I'm not 100% sure what happened to "Favorites", I just noticed that mine is completely blank aside from Matrix Awakens (which is marked "Announced" but will never be available because it was pulled and I didn't have a PS5 at the time) and that seems very unlikely... my Nintendo Shop Favorites has all kinds of stuff, some of which I have eventually bought.

Just a slight corrections but I don't get emails either. When something on my wishlist goes on sale, I get a message in "notifications" on the console and then sometime later from the PSApp on my iPhone.

 

[Aenima]

You had 4:3 CRT in 2006?
You made it look older then it does

Some trivia, that game on the top right, Blast Factor, was an original IP created by Bluepoint. While most ppl know them for just making remasters and remakes, they did made an original game for PS3 before.

 

[EverydayBeast]

Not to take anything away from today's PSN but PSN multiplayer on the PS3 is free, I think taking fees off multiplayer games this gen would take some pressure off middle class houses.

 

[Xion_Stellar]

You had 4:3 CRT in 2006?
You made it look older then it does

It's not that uncommon I had a CRT until 2011 because I was being stubborn about "HD" TVs having significant merits and the only reason I finally upgraded was because Skyrim would not properly display on a CRT TV.

 

[digital_ghost]

PSN has always been garbage, especially when compared to Xbox Live (is that even the name of the service anymore?).

So wait your telling me a software and operating system development company knows how to create better networks than Sony?

 

[March Climber]

The PS3 store redesign where it was essentially opening a browser was fucking awful. It was so slow.

The current iteration of the store on PS3 is hot garbage. Ever since they updated to it, it crashes pretty consistently.

Here’s a tip/trick for anyone who still buys games from the PS3 store:

Download a game that was known for having an in-game menu for accessing DLC(Japanese games are better for this because some of them didn’t even give you an option to exit back into the game). Click on that button in-game, and you will get the older, much faster PS3 store interface that you can freely navigate.