Sony reveals new PlayStation Store

**GaryOPA** · 10-12-2012, 09:25 PM

Also, because of this, an important PSN maintenance will take place on October 15.

Sony has unveiled its redesigned PlayStation Store, which will launch in Europe on October 17 and in America on October 23.

Sony Computer Entertainment revealed a new look for its PlayStation Store during a press event in London.

The complete redesign will go live next week in Europe and the week after in America, and aims to be one consistent experience, bringing games and videos together in a smoother way than the current version does.

Here are the details:

The overhaul will add increased functionality, a redesigned UI, and sectiions for games, movies and TV content on the main page. The new look revolves around a “Hero” concept, which places high-profile characters, such as Connor from Assassin’s Creed III or Lionel Messi from FIFA 13, on each page alongside windows of new titles and highlighted content.

The store’s search function has also been improved. Similar to Google Instant, it now begins providing a list of options as each letter is typed. Common misspellings and abbreviations, such as “MW3″ or “Mas Efect,” will also be covered.

“What will be refreshing to customers is that this will represent a new agile program that will enable us to add new content every month or so, rather than dumping the new content and saying we’re done,” said PlayStation Store product development manager Elliot Dumville.

Games are now grouped with their content. For example, a Call of Duty: Black Ops page will show all of its demos, full games, download content, and themes, alongside screenshots and recommendations for other Call of Duty content. Movie content also works in this fashion.

(See below a few pics attached of the 'New Look')

Additionally, and because of this, a PlayStation Network maintenance has been scheduled for next Monday, October 15, from 1pm BST until 2am BST on Tuesday October 16.

During this period the following services will be unavailable:

Store
Account Management
Account Registration
Transactions via consoles
sonyentertainment.com website

A site maintenance notification page will appear if anyone tries to access these sections and sites.

Online play shouldn’t be affected.

So, there you go. Do you like the new look?

NEWS SOURCE #1: Sony reveals new Playstation Store (via) Gematsu
NEWS SOURCE #2: Important PSN maintenance next Monday (via) TheSixthAxis

Our thanks to 'Gauss' for this news item!