PlayStation Hires Former Apple Exec Ben King to Lead Digital Business
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A guy hired to provide ideas on how to increase profit margins, not on the user experience. Since he's an Apple guy, I would be very lukewarm to the value proposition for the PS consumer.
Considering this guy is largely responsible for Apple's online storefronts, this is a MASSIVE get for Sony. The clarity and usability of Apple's online services is so far ahead of everyone else that it is absurd.
Apple has the most vetted storefront in terms of apps that just work.
This would mean possibly a better store with less garbage on it like we've seen. To much shovel ware.
Apple yes, but asking Nintendo DNA is like asking for Romanoff DNA.
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You could be right but I don't think he's there to improve the vetting process which has more to do with the way certs are done, where developer expertise, and not necessarily business expertise is preferable. If the cert process needed a touch up and improvement, Cerny and a host of others are a call away. Literally just adding more bureaucracy weeds sholveware to a large degree by default (although obviously some do find the hole). If the cert process is the issue allowing too much trash from filtering through then there is no need to hire this guy who's probably exposed to little of premium gaming. In double speak he stated what he was there for. Maybe they improve the search engine, the algorithm for suggestions according to your "tastes" - aka consumption habits aka fuck your privacy and the layout of product listings and their appendages (DLC, avatars etc) - but that's is user experience oriented - aka QOL improvement. Maybe as a side effect you get non-gaming product offerings tied to game listings - the "discover" part (which I wouldn't necessarily see as a positive). We will see I guess.
"more personalized experiences, helping each and every customer to discover the perfect entertainment for them" aka more targeted product suggestions to induce a sale, with perhaps an improved algorithm/store redesign to achieve it....ultimate goal is to generate more sales/transactions within the store and avoid that disposable income being spent elsewhere, aka improve profit margin per customer. 100 million divided by profit of PSN per year, then divide by month, week, day - track any changes. Any percentage increase in that aspect as a result of his ideas will be his raison d'etre.
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Dunno, not a big fan of these two overpricing and nickeling and diming their users, these last two years Sony have taken that road
The PS store is pretty bad. With a few tweaks they'd sell a ton of games more.
They should have a genres section in the main page that would include many genres and subgenres insted of only a few generic super broad genres, to help the fans of a niche easily find games they'll like. I want to see ALL the beat'em ups or shmups listed together somewhere. Not only a few ones listed in a rare featuring.
Same goes with themes and settings: they should have a section in the main page where they have listed inside 'cyberpunk', 'zombies', 'pirates', etc to find there all the games of that type.
They should have to add multiple sections like that, to easily filter and find any group of games because most titles don't get visibility in the current store. I mean, imagine you're a fan of pixel art games and you'd like to search what pixel art games are there. You can't right now.
Same goes with companies. You should be able to have another section in the main page where you could have there publishers and developers listed to see there all the games made by a publisher like Capcom or a developer like Platinum Games in case you're fan of them.
And well, in each one of these sections you should sort the games by price, alphabetically, by user ratings, by release date, etc.
And also have a Steam/Apple App Store like user reviews very visible score, plus a demos tab also in the main page.
The navigation should be also smart: many sections in the main page instead of having them nested in different levels, right now some of them are nested in multiple levels making harder to find some of them.
Plus even more important: the store must load instantly, blazing fast. The speed of the PS Store and PS Plus page in PS4 are insulting, they lost millions of sales and downloads because to browse there was an awful experience.
They should have a genres section in the main page that would include many genres and subgenres insted of only a few generic super broad genres, to help the fans of a niche easily find games they'll like. I want to see ALL the beat'em ups or shmups listed together somewhere. Not only a few ones listed in a rare featuring.
Same goes with themes and settings: they should have a section in the main page where they have listed inside 'cyberpunk', 'zombies', 'pirates', etc to find there all the games of that type.
They should have to add multiple sections like that, to easily filter and find any group of games because most titles don't get visibility in the current store. I mean, imagine you're a fan of pixel art games and you'd like to search what pixel art games are there. You can't right now.
Same goes with companies. You should be able to have another section in the main page where you could have there publishers and developers listed to see there all the games made by a publisher like Capcom or a developer like Platinum Games in case you're fan of them.
And well, in each one of these sections you should sort the games by price, alphabetically, by user ratings, by release date, etc.
And also have a Steam/Apple App Store like user reviews very visible score, plus a demos tab also in the main page.
The navigation should be also smart: many sections in the main page instead of having them nested in different levels, right now some of them are nested in multiple levels making harder to find some of them.
Plus even more important: the store must load instantly, blazing fast. The speed of the PS Store and PS Plus page in PS4 are insulting, they lost millions of sales and downloads because to browse there was an awful experience.
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I think the ps store is already pretty good. Could use more search features and filters though.
That’s where Apple has Sony beat. Their online storefronts have much better search and discoverability, and some really cool curation and featuring of apps that give more info than a publisher blurb on the PS Store does.
I mean... Their PS App's store layout is better than the Store on PS5 (where it's gross!).
Is it too much to ask for a PS1-2-3-4-5-PSP-PSV menu & search box banner cross the top? The sub-division of what I want to do with the game can be handled on it's store landing page (stream, download, buy, check info, visit DLC etc).
Yeah, that can be improved for sure. Still PS1/PS2 and even many PS3 games never got digital versions, so the available content there, (the first two) is very limited. I was thinking that maybe Sony will release an emulator for these before expanding on their serach fronts.