PlayStation fans are demanding that Sony make some big improvements to the PlayStation Store before it makes the shift to an all-digital ecosystem with the arrival of the PS6. Despite having been around since the PS3 era, the PlayStation Store still lacks a number of prominent features that are seen on competing digital marketplaces. And while these missing features have been a point of contention for years, many fans are now demanding more than ever that action be taken before the PS6 hits the scene.
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In an extensive thread on Reddit, PlayStation users commiserated about the number of issues that the PS Store still has. The author of the thread kicked off this series of complaints by sharing their own experience when purchasing a game that they didn’t end up enjoying on the PS Store recently. Despite having played the game for only about an hour, PlayStation wouldn’t allow the user to get a refund for the title upon request. The user complained that such a refund would be commonplace on Steam, but PlayStation still hasn’t implemented anything similar.
Others in the thread went on to mention that the PlayStation Store still doesn’t even have a gifting feature, which would allow users to more easily buy games for friends or family members. Cart limits, wallet limits, and the inability to change regions were all cited as lingering problems on the marketplace as well.
Naturally, this led to some talking about how these missing features are made all the worse when considering that PlayStation is about to put a larger emphasis than ever on the PS Store beginning in 2028. With physical games on PlayStation platforms poised to be done away with at the start of this year, it will lead to the PS Store being the primary way in which games are downloaded and purchased moving forward. As such, if PlayStation is going to move its business in this direction, many argued that it needs to improve its protections for customers.
“This is why I’m against all digital on PlayStation,” said one reply on Reddit. “We need better consumer rights on par with Steam rights at least.”
Compared to PC, however, PlayStation has the market entirely cornered on PS5 and, in the future, PS6. Steam is merely one PC platform, with others like the Epic Games Store, Xbox App, and countless others also being on the hardware. Because of this, PlayStation may not see as much of a need to improve the PS Store, as it’s not in competition with any other companies.
“Well, what are you gonna do? Buy your games elsewhere?” said another user on this topic. “You can’t, which is precisely why they don’t give a s**t.”
Even if PlayStation doesn’t have to worry about competitors in the same way that Valve does, it would behoove the company to bring about these long-requested features to the PS Store with the release of the PS6, if not sooner. Assuming that it doesn’t, it could result in PlayStation continuing to push fans away who have been dedicated to the platform for years, if not decades.
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