I never really realised whilst using it, but going back to the PS4 version of the PlayStation store really just shows how good the PS5 PlayStation Store is. In comparison to the PS4 version, it’s miles faster, and doesn’t feel like a chore to check out games, watch trailers and compare digital versions.
It’s now integrated into your home screen, meaning that hovering over the icon highlights the latest and greatest in all things PlayStation. You can head straight down from your home screen, meaning that you don’t have to load into an external application, and you can leave and come back to it from your game seamlessly.
Whilst it does feel a little barebones at the moment, and does only showcase a handful of the PS5 games available, it’s definitely promising. I’ve love to see more curation from developers, and games split into categories that allow for more discoverability.
Another thing worth noting is that PlayStation Plus now has it’s very own app (it’s still within the store too). This shows off your monthly games and gives them the spotlight they deserve and if you’re wanting to access any of the 20 PlayStation Plus Collection games on day one, they’re right there in their own app to download or on the PlayStation Store. This alone will mean that you have a bunch of stuff to play on day one. I highly recommend going back to Days Gone and God of War as they have both received 60FPS updates and both look glorious.
A big part of the PS5 UI is tips, which essentially play out when you get stuck at certain parts of the game. There’s a whole section of the PlayStation Store dedicated to these too, so if you’re someone that wants to purchase games based on help being available (it’s there for the majority of first-party games), that’s there for you too.
Another thing worth mentioning is that I’m yet to really see how the PS4/PS5 upgrade process works for games that I have installed that are getting day one updates, so it’ll be interesting to see how that works out as well.
All-in-all, the new PlayStation Store and PlayStation Plus Collection do feel a little bit like works in progress, but what is there is so much better than what was available on PS4.
