Revamped PS3 Store "will no longer use the PS3 browser"

By Tom Bramwell Published 31 March, 2008

Will require 2.30 firmware, too.

The revamped PlayStation 3 Store "will no longer use the PS3 web browser", a Sony source has told Eurogamer.

Due to launch in mid-April, the Store features a slick new front-end and our source says it's an improvement in other areas too.

"It will cache all images properly and is much faster than the old one," he says.

We were also told that the Store "will require everyone to upgrade to 2.30 [firmware]," which Sony has yet to talk about publicly.

The new Store, officially confirmed earlier today, was drawn up in response to feedback from the PAL PS3 community.

Sony plans to launch it in mid-April and will not be updating the Store with new content until it has done so.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (36) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • JediMasterMalik #1 4 years ago

    Come on now everyone, JOIN ME!

    /chants "in game XMB"
    /repeats

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #2 4 years ago

    Its not gonna happen

  • NickDude #3 4 years ago

    why do we need the entire xmb in game -surely just having the option to select music, view freinds, messages, etc and download lists, that would be enough? 360 doesn't have the whole dashboard pop up. and yay for faster store.

  • Salvia #4 4 years ago

    In-game XMB? Isn't that due in the summer?

  • Beano #5 4 years ago

    Yes, and promised for firmware 2.40

  • neilka #6 4 years ago

    "in response to feedback from the PAL PS3 community"

    My sides!

  • flaming.carrot #7 4 years ago

    Why Sony did not use Mozilla or Opera's browsers instead of NetFront is beyond me. They have probably ditched rendering the store in-browser because the javascript support is so goddamn bad.
    On the plus side, the last system update did provide a newer version of the browser so at least they are still improving it over time. Maybe by 2010 it will be quite useable.

  • Apostle #8 4 years ago

    God damn it, it's took them well over a year just to come up with this?! Longer still if you go back to the US/Japan launch of PS3. Still moaning aside, it looks nice and I hope it is the tip of the iceberg for the new improved PS3, along with Home and, dare I say it, in-t-shir....GAME-XMB :)

  • Chrono-Kun #9 4 years ago

    HEY, I USED THE WEB BROWSER FOR A LITTLE PEEK.

    Now how I'm going to search on the net without the use of the computer. Interested in the new Revamped PS3 store though

  • Benno #10 4 years ago

    good

  • Pedrolot #11 4 years ago

    Blimey..2.30 already!?

    Things are looking up for 2.40!

  • penhalion #12 4 years ago

    "The new Store, officially confirmed earlier today, was drawn up in response to feedback from the PAL PS3 community."

    Why does that statement make me feel even more like Europe is being treated as the test lab rats for Sony....

  • Miths #13 4 years ago

    "Why does that statement make me feel even more like Europe is being treated as the test lab rats for Sony...."

    Some (masochistic) part of me sort of prefer that to being ignored entirely :).

  • Pooley #14 4 years ago

    Sheesh! Another update, which takes aaaaages to download. Every time I turn on my PS3 it seems to want to update something or other. It's good to update the console, just wish they'd reduce the frequency a bit.

  • Mr_Dodger #15 4 years ago

    I wonder if the PAL community feedback also said "we don't want to be able to access superior overseas stores either", cos I'll bet that region locking is tied into the firmware update.

    Fine if the stores were on an equal footing, but we all know where that stands...

  • VMerken #16 4 years ago

    Nahh, just keep'em coming I say. Signs of life is good, and by the time the MGS4 combo pack is out =D we'll have a nice firmware to use.

  • Darren #17 4 years ago

    IMO the browser needs improving further even though they apparently did so with the v2.20 firmware. I was scrolling down a page that listed the 50+ Deathmatch maps for the PS3 on UT3Mods.com and the browser returned an out of memory error. I wouldn't mind if I had ten pages open but this was the only one open with a few small pictures on it!!! I cleared the cache and tried numerous times to view the whole page but it still kept returning a memory error. Are you telling me that 256 MB of system memory isn't enough to view a webpage on the PS3? Why doesn't it page data to the HDD? :?

  • Carlo #18 4 years ago

    Looks really really nice!

  • seasidebaz #19 4 years ago

    in-game xmb was not promised for 2.40, the guy just said they were both coming in summer. not necessarily at the same time.

    and about the lack of content for 2 weeks, what's new there? we get so little content anyway that 2 weeks of nothing will not really be noticed by me, and i for one will be too busy playing gt5p to care anyway ;)

  • RustyBullet #20 4 years ago

    No PSN updates untill then. Lets face it the PSN offerings are tripe. This is probably so Sony can use it as an excuse to build up some content so they actualy have something decent to offer when it comes back all shiny and new.

  • Hobo #21 4 years ago

    "Sony plans to launch it in mid-April and will not be updating the Store with new content until it has done so."

    They've been working on this for a long time then!

    (admittedly, this would've worked a lot better pre-GT5 download release)

  • urban #22 4 years ago

    nice.

  • Vandrius #23 4 years ago

    RustyBullet: Ah, the fiery sounds of a hater. Here's a rock, go back under it.

    PSN has some damned good offerings. Pain, monsters, gt5p, super stardust.
    Those 4 games have given me more enjoyment than many full 360 or ps3 games, and their total price is less than one.

  • 3william56 #24 4 years ago

    Darren - have you upgraded to 2.20? I was getting those out of memory errors all over the place with 2.17, but it seems to have stopped with 2.20. That said, the number of lockups is still way above pre 2.17, so there's still something borked in the latest browser version.

    New Store application sounds fine. The content has been good, but the store itself is boer war. Stroll on 2.3.

  • Beano #25 4 years ago

    The PS3 web browser was improved with firmware 2.20 - noticeable faster and I haven't experienced any "out of memory" errors yet. But the "run plugin ?" pop-up prompt is still there and very annoying. Can't that be turned off ?

  • Darren #26 4 years ago

    @3william56 - Yes, I'm gettng the out of memory errors with the v2.20 firmware. If you want to duplicate the problem go to http://www.UT3Mod.com and click on the Deathmatch link to list them all and then scroll down the page using the bar or the analogue stick. When you get near the bottom you'll get an "out of memory" error and the page will go blank. Normally I'd assume it was a problem with the webpage itself but it loads and displays fine in the Wii's Opera browser and that console has no HDD and 8X less memory!!!

  • Dizzy #27 4 years ago

    I read that as:

    "Revamped PS3 Store "will no longer use the PS3"

    Oops :)

  • Quint2020 #28 4 years ago

    Looks nice.

    Hopefully this will be the first step to Sony getting the PS3's online features up to scratch.

    As soon as they've got that sorted i might consider one, really want to play Uncharted.

  • kangarootoo #29 4 years ago

    @penhalion

    "Why does that statement make me feel even more like Europe is being treated as the test lab rats for Sony...."

    Because you are mad?

    Customer feedback is customer feedback. If the mental fanboy in you wants to think of yourself as a rat, you knock yourself out.

  • THEGREATMADMAN #30 4 years ago

    Its a complete rip off of XBL MarketPlace. Then again, would we expect any less from Sony?

  • Beano #31 4 years ago

    Why is that a marketplace rip-off?

  • kangarootoo #32 4 years ago

    I bought some apples at the weekend. I was outraged. The fruit stall was a total rip off of the shoe shop I was in the day before.

    They had all the apples out where I could see them. I looked at them, chose one, gave them money and took the apple away. The bastards. Apple LIES make us bend over in Europe, etc.

  • Darren #33 4 years ago

    Looks a lot nicer than the 360's functional but bland Marketplace to me from the screenshots but time will prove whether the new PS Store is better to actually use.

  • Darren #34 4 years ago

    /sarcasm mode on

    @irnchriz - I guess Sony were far busier designing a more reliable and quieter console! ;)

    /sarcasm mode off

    LOL

  • mgspsone #35 4 years ago

    Thanks god now maybe they can get some more
    ps1 games on the PSN......but why wait when you can get some bargins like this http://cg i.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?V...

  • RustyBullet #36 4 years ago

    @Vandrius

    Who the fuck are you. Am i not allowed to comment. i find the PSN tripe that is why i said that, i live in a free world where i can say what the fuck i want to.
    Now you go find a big pile of shit and burry youreself in it.