PS Vita - PS Store preview

[garyopa]

Another Maxconsole 'preview' by 'Ahmed_p800'



A quick preview for PSVita Store

Hello everyone,

I felt like making a preview for the PSVita PS store, so here we go!

Please note I have a US account, so im accessing the US store.
Also, I used a PSN store prepaid card to buy games.

The store opened few days ago, after the 1.6 SW upgrade, before that it was offline.

1- Lets start from PSVita main menu:



PS Store card view:



2- When you start the app, the vita will connect to the internet automatically and the store main page will appear ("ALL" section):



3- Top Downloads section:



4- New Releases section:



5- Featured section:



6- Search:



7- Games Categories:



8- Sub-Categories (there is not way to view ALL games in a category):



9- Media section, nothing much for now:



10- Available PSVita games:



11- You can search by genre:



12- Game details:



13- Sub-menus:





14- If you were downloading or downloaded a game/media, you can view it in your download list:



Or in notifications (in main PSVita menu):



15- After downloading, the PSVita will start installing the app, and then you will find the icon in the homescreen:



In general, it is really simple to buy/download a game from the Vita PS store, you just add funds, buy then wait for it to download and install!

But some things I did not like, for example:

1- When viewing any game details, there is no way to preview it, like screenshots or videos, this made it hard for me to figure out what that game was, I had to either google it or youtube it on my PC, this is a really bad user experience!

2- Another thing, is the sub-categories, you have to view games in specific distribution, like A-D, E-H...etc, and there was no way to view ALL games in one list, which I would've preferred especially I was not looking for a specific game in particular, it would be nice if they added it later on.

3- No Demos at ALL, nothing related to games is free, except maybe the 3 trailers available in Media section.

About games pricing, I guess by now, you know about it for PSVita game.

The cheapest game is StarDust, which is AMAZING, short but worth the 10$ price tag!
Wipeout was 35$ and I think it is overpriced.
Some PSP games are expensive too, like upto 34$!

But in general, the store is really simple and clear, everything is in front of you, it is hard to get lost in menus, and downloading games is even simpler!

Another thing...

I noticed that the only way to back-up your downloaded games is by backing-up the whole Vita in content manager.

Only PSVita games were backed up, while minis were not (don't know about PSP games as I did not buy any).

Backed up games are saved in "C:\Users\Ahmed360\Documents\PS Vita\SYSTEM" in sub folder each.

Each game is saved as 2 files, one is (*.psvimg) which is the whole thing (big file) and another one (*.psvmd) which is 1KByte.

Thats all for now, hope you liked the preview of PS Vita store

Best Regards

Our thanks to 'Ahmed_p800' for taking the time to produce this 'preview' for us Maxconsole readers

[Xenogears V]

Nice, but more thn graphic, need good "things" in store.

[beterweter]

i really hope the european store gets online soon...
not making a us account for this as i already have a jap account .

the demos schould be in there by the release i hope,the japanese ps store has quite some demo's and i wouldnt see why us and eu won't have them.

and yeah stardust is amazing!you schould also buy the psp version,its also very good! (dunno if its up on the us store but got it of the jap store)

[billysastard]

Wipeout 2048 Online Pass

so, an online pass has to be purchased for a downloaded game that is locked to the memory card and system that it was purchased on but the retail games dont need an online pass.

so retail game $39.99
downloaded version of game $34.99
online pass for downloaded game $????
memory card for storage of downloaded game and online pass $far too much

looks like the retail version is cheaper and has actual value to be lent, swapped, traded or sold once you've finished with it.


also, if it forces you to back up the whole system rather than the title does that mean that you cant move a downloaded title and its updates / saves onto a new card when you have to buy a bigger one?

[Ahmed_p800]

Nice, but more thn graphic, need good "things" in store.

Yeah, the store needs time, I think when its officially released more stuff would be available.

i really hope the european store gets online soon...
not making a us account for this as i already have a jap account .

the demos schould be in there by the release i hope,the japanese ps store has quite some demo's and i wouldnt see why us and eu won't have them.

and yeah stardust is amazing!you schould also buy the psp version,its also very good! (dunno if its up on the us store but got it of the jap store)

Yes, maybe by release demos would be there, but they HAVE to be there, because as of now, the store is lacking!

SatrDust is SO amazing, for 10$ its a steal really, the GFX, the sound track, the gameplay, it feels perfect for what you pay!
I will check out the PSP version, lets see.

On the other hand, Wipeout feels overpriced! :/
Shouldve been around 20-25$

[Ahmed_p800]

so, an online pass has to be purchased for a downloaded game that is locked to the memory card and system that it was purchased on but the retail games dont need an online pass.

so retail game $39.99
downloaded version of game $34.99
online pass for downloaded game $????
memory card for storage of downloaded game and online pass $far too much

looks like the retail version is cheaper and has actual value to be lent, swapped, traded or sold once you've finished with it.

also, if it forces you to back up the whole system rather than the title does that mean that you cant move a downloaded title and its updates / saves onto a new card when you have to buy a bigger one?

The online pass is downloaded automatically when you get the game, no need to purchase it.

As I said, Wipeout is overpriced, it is somewhat a port I guess, even 39 retail is way too much.
I advice anyone whos planning to get Wipeout to wait for price drop, like 20$, that would be good.

About the back up, not sure about moving games to another memory, but seems like you have to Backup the whole thing on PC, then restore it on another memory card...

This is the folder structure for the PSVita back-up files:


The icon inside sce_sys folder is for uncharted, and not sure savedata is for which game exactly!

PGAME and PSAVEDATA folders are empty!

This reminds me, the OS lack this very important feature, managing Saves!! thats stupid...what if I want to delete a save game? I can't.

[billysastard]

The online pass is downloaded automatically when you get the game, no need to purchase it.

As I said, Wipeout is overpriced, it is somewhat a port I guess, even 39 retail is way too much.
I advice anyone whos planning to get Wipeout to wait for price drop, like 20$, that would be good.

About the back up, not sure about moving games to another memory, but seems like you have to Backup the whole thing on PC, then restore it on another memory card...

This is the folder structure for the PSVita back-up files:


The icon inside sce_sys folder is for uncharted, and not sure savedata is for which game exactly!

PGAME and PSAVEDATA folders are empty!

This reminds me, the OS lack this very important feature, managing Saves!! thats stupid...what if I want to delete a save game? I can't.

thank you for clearing that up, i still dont understand why it needs an online pass at all when the retail version doesnt, and are all the online passes free in the us store? i ask because the digital golf 6 needed one to be purchased for online play where again the retail didnt on the jap store.

very strange about the situation with save games, maybe they will fix it in a future firmware update.