April PSN overhaul confirmed

via Computer and Video Games


Previous rumour reports of the PlayStation Network getting a huge overhaul in April would appear true as SCEA's director of product development confirms: "you will see a pretty big change in the PlayStation Network in the early part of April.

The rumour emerged from a retailer-only presentation, in which Sony was said to have unveiled plans to give the PlayStation Network a makeover, as well as demonstrating a new Video Store.

Sony has since remained cagey on the subject, however SCEA's John Hight has told Gamasutra: "We give [Sony's PSN team] a lot of feedback based on how our customers are reacting to things, and I think you will see a pretty big change in the PlayStation Network in the early part of April, where we roll out some new interface stuff largely based on customer feedback."

Hight held back on exactly what these changes would entail, but did tease: "Simplification, cutting down on the number of mouse clicks, making it easier to find stuff that you want to find... that's kind of an outgrowth of us having more content now, so we have to make sure that you can get at it easily."

We can't wait.

if by "cutting down on the number of mouse clicks" means no mouse clicks then it should be good, i think the main complaint on the store is that it is a crippled web page that navigates with a mouse pointer.

It needs to be very much like the XMB in order to succeed. Having Photo, Music, Video and Game columns with sub folders like the XMB would be very intuitive.
Having the option to alter the organization into genre, release date, or format would be great.
A "Whats New" column as well as support for music playback would also be very welcome.

we'll see