Playstation Network Store senior manager, Grace Chen, gives us a video demo of the newly redesigned PSN store on the Playstation 3, set to debut this Thursday, April 17th.
The fact that the new store is a native PS3 application is news to me and a welcome tidbit at that. It looks like it’ll run very fast and have a slick presentation. The instant trailer watching is a nice touch as well.
While the existing PSN store web-interface wasn’t unworkable, it wasn’t winning any awards. This much-needed update looks to bring the PSN store at least on par with Xbox Live Marketplace. It might actually surpass XBLA in performance, as I’ve noticed some very annoying load times there when scrolling down long lists.
With each update, Sony is slowly and quietly making the PS3 experience equal to Xbox Live. We’ll see if and when they surpass Microsoft’s online platform.
