Sony has gone live with the second major overhaul to PlayStation 3‘s PlayStation Store in Europe. The same update will go live in the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Mexico on Tuesday, October 23.
In a nutshell, the new PlayStation Store includes:
- Hero Concept – as you scroll through the “What’s New” carousel, or any of the store’s new “Feature” categories, you’ll see a “Hero” on every page.
- Feature Categories – whenever an item is “featured,” you’ll see it “above the line.” Anything above said line will have some sort of featured presentation style like a carousel. Anythng below the line will be a much more familiar experience to regular users of the PlayStation Store.
- Unmixed Content – separate sections have been created under the “Games” category for PlayStation 3, PS Vita, and PSP, making finding content for each platform easier.
- Sorting and Filtering – in any category, you can now filter the products being displayed in a number of different ways, including name, price range, game feature, accessory compatibility, release date, etc.
- Smart Search – the store’s search functionality has been overhauled to “llow users to get to the content they were looking for without having to enter more than three or four characters.” As you enter each letter on the search screen, search results will begin to be listed, and your available letter choices will begin to eliminate depending on the content available on the store. To find LittleBigPlanet 2, for example, you’ll only need to enter “L-I-T.”
- Top Rated – your star ratings will now drive a “Top Rated” chart.
- Game Pages – brings together all of a games content in one page. On a LittleBigPlanet 2 page, for example, you’ll find the game’s platform, file size, release date, rating, as well as sections for its add-ons, playable demo, etc.
The new PlayStation Store is a 26mb download. Get it now.