Sony Testing New PlayStation Store Layout

There can be no doubting that the PlayStation Store and PlayStation Network have had a fairly rough year, mainly due to some reasonably well publicised security issues that you might be aware of.

However, things might be about to turn around for beleaguered online store. RegHardware.com are reporting that the PSN is undergoing a full scale re-design that will not only give it a facelift but fundamentally alter the way consumers navigate and interact with Sony’s digital outlet.

Apparently inspired by the more image driven layouts of Steam and Xbox Live, the new PlayStation Store is going to move away from its current, more text-laden, design towards an “aesthetic layout with logically marked sections and rolodex lists”. Other inclusions are said to be a new live search feature, with results appearing immediately upon text entry rather than taking users away to another screen upon completion of the search.

It isn’t just the ‘Games’ section that is getting a snappy new look, ‘Movies’ will also being getting an “IMDB-style” update. It is believed that when a film is selected key details, like actor names, will be shown on screen as well. These details will be clickable, allowing for further exploration of different movie titles.

Other changes include the addition of a “Deals of the Week” section and a change to the colour scheme; gone is the existing blue background, to be replaced by vivid colours against an all black backdrop.

At a time when Microsoft’s Kinect is changing how people access and navigate the XBLA, it is good to see that Sony has not forgotten that a major security overhaul wasn’t the only thing that the good ol’ PSN needed.

Source: http://www.reghardware.com/