Sony finally redesigning PSN?

[George]

If you shop on the PSN store, it has been obviously getting cluttered. With Playstation Plus, bundles, sales and tons of other content that .... doesn't have enough sections. Like, I have not found a place outside of 'Plus' section to find those PS3 downloads.

Sony is "quietly testing" a design upgrade for the PlayStation Network, according to a new report.

Sony is now market-testing a new design that de-clutters the screen using what sources familiar with the new look call "an aesthetic layout with logically marked sections and rolodex lists", Reg Hardware said today.

The revamped PSN also includes a new, live search method with results appearing as users enter characters rather than head off to a separate text-entry page, the report claimed.

Elsewhere, the movies section is apparently being rebuilt as an IMDB-style database.

"When you select a film, for example, key details appear on the right of the screen, such as leading actors. Clicking through will take you to the actor's page, where you can see all of their movies," the website said.

"The same exploration approach is taken with games, categorised by genre, publisher, developer and so on.

"Sony is readying a 'deals of the week' section too, making it easier to pick up bargains.

"It also appears the company is planning to throw out the blue colour of the current skin and opted for ultra bright colours on a black background."

Before the PSN hack in April, the online gaming service enjoyed 77 million registered accounts.

Last month Sony said 90 per cent of users had returned to PSN, representing around 70 million users.

Sony has told Eurogamer: "We don't comment on rumours and speculation."

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-07-05-sony-redesigning-psn-report

[Waffle]

They should try cutting down on needless subsections and awkward files. I really do not need 'babe themes' on my console, or anything like that. Nor do I need Themes, Dynamic Themes, Premium Themes, and Wall Papers - whatever the difference is between all of these.

PSN easily has the most potential, but it is very cluttered now, even worse than 360. At least it does not use 'play money', though! It is nice to know actual prices of items, and not paying fictional exchange rates (Jesus would not like Microsoft).

[Sega Uranus]

I purchase almost all of my PSN and XBLM money through cards in stores. None of these are taxed, but everything I buy on PSN is, so I need to always purchase more than I need. Like if I want two $10 games, each will come above that price to maybe $12 each, so the standard $20 PSN card is useless.

Plus, Microsoft gives out free MSP all the time, so even if it is annoying to have like 20msp left at any one time, it is constantly changing.

My biggest problem with the PlayStation Store is that I think things are way too hard to find, even if it has more searching options than Wii or Xbox 360. It all gets cluttered so fast. I would also like to use the XMB during it, but I guess it is not a major issue.

I love how you can get bundled stuff, but it seems fairly glitchy. I got the Sonic Birthday Pack and now Sonic the Hedgehog 2 will not show up on my purchased or download list, so I have no idea what to do with that.

Also hate how shitty the XMB is in general. Why can I not arrange my games/movies/photos the way I want, or at least alphabetically? You can make folders, but they all go by the date downloaded, so that quickly becomes useless. If they would at LEAST let me be able to edit the date I could fix this within minutes. Also, still no cross game chat? Really?

I plan to purchase way way way more on the PSN than XBLA moving forward, simply because I still have the 20gb HDD Xbox 360, and I seriously hate deleting, then redownloading stuff in the future.

[Barry the Nomad]

Yeah, MS points are always falling into my account thanks to the rewards program. It's not a lot, but it's enough to build up for DLC and themes. I think taking two 3 question surveys and creating a Bing account got me two Sonic Unleashed adventure packs. Another deal gave me a percentage of points back from my total monthly purchases. I bought some avatar items with that, as I hate using real money for Ryo's jacket and a black cat that looks like my cat.

[cube_b3]

Moving from the 360 to PS3 I have to say, I am looking forward to this as in the brief 2 years I've owned a 360. I have observed 2 overhauled and a much friendlier interface in contrast to the PS3.

[VyseLegend]

This sounds good, if its real.  The current PSN interface just feels way too uninviting.  But I think the bigger concern is the amount of worthy content on the service altogether, and the lack of demos for games.  I mean, 360 has demos for every game up pretty much forever.  But I guess that would require a fee to cover server costs or something.

[Snowcat]

I love how you can get bundled stuff, but it seems fairly glitchy. I got the Sonic Birthday Pack and now Sonic the Hedgehog 2 will not show up on my purchased or download list, so I have no idea what to do with that.

If you still don't have it try going to Account Management > Transaction List > Services List it should have some options on there and you should find it to download.

[Autosaver]

It's nice that they are redesigning it at the end of the consoles lifetime. I hate buying stuff on my PSP/PS3.

I'm guessing this new PSN will launch alongside with NGP.

[Sega Uranus]

If you still don't have it try going to Account Management > Transaction List > Services List it should have some options on there and you should find it to download.

No, it does not work. I contacted Sony about this and after eight days they finally got back to me saying they had no idea what was wrong, so they refunded me the entire bundle price.

It is funny how shitty this was, but holy Hell I got twenty free bucks.