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PSN is the worst major digital store

What is the worst mainline digital store?

  • Total voters
    251
bender said:
You could but I had to go through support.
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This is not true, unless you downloaded or played the game and you need ask to support, you can get a refund directly from your account. You can do in your transaction history on PS5
 
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To be honest, I think all three console digital stores (Nintendo, PlayStation and Xbox) are all terrible. Steam's is pretty good.

But of the 4, yeah, the PlayStation store is the worst to navigate.
 
i only have reference to psn but compared to ps4 and even ps3 the search and filter options are dogshit on ps5 , for the love of anything good put all games that haven't been released yet into it's own section . When I filter (new to oldest) I gotta scroll like 100 games that are (coming soon) and when I filter it to( just released ) I only get for the past month . I just wanna infinite scroll newest to oldest without seeing shit that hasn't been released yet !!
 
LakeOf9 said:
Short of sharing your account outright, you cannot share games on PSN
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If anything, Steam makes it too easy. I see people talking about joining "families" all the time. If Sony wanted to be cool but still Sony, you could at least do household sharing if not the full-on self-governed family sharing that steam provides to any account you tag as family. Some third-party games opt-out, but they make that really clear on the store page. Typically it's stuff that makes sense like GaaS games with a persistent account.
 
vkbest said:
This is not true, unless you downloaded or played the game and you need ask to support, you can get a refund directly from your account
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What exactly is untrue? To cancel a pre-order in the past you had to go through support either by phone or chat (AI at first, then transferred to a human). You can now cancel pre-orders without engaging support via your order history on the store website.
 
LakeOf9 said:
I wonder if this is a region specific thing? Where do you live, if you don't mind sharing?
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I'm from Europe, I remember cancel the preorder from Anthem for example when I played the beta/demo.

The difference is PS4 era, they didn't charge the pre orders until the game release.
 
bender said:
What exactly is untrue? To cancel a pre-order in the past you had to go through support either by phone or chat (AI at first, then transferred to a human). You can now cancel pre-orders without engaging support via your order history on the store website.
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False, you could cancel via transaction history. In fact in PS4 era they didn't charge the pre orders until the game release
 
No doubt Steam has the best store, but its far from perfect. I had more problems with my Steam account in 1 year than my PSN account in 15 years.

My Steam store stopped accepting my credit card out of nowhere, now i have to purchase stuff using a different method that does not allow refunds in money, just refunds to the steam wallet. Only on my Steam account i lost access to 2 games i bought ( Max Payne 3 and RDR2 thanks to Rockstar Social Club DRM) Steam denied my any refund even if i only have 1 hour clocked on RDR2 that was spent looking at the stupid social club login screen.
 
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vkbest said:
I'm from Europe, I remember cancel the preorder from Anthem for example when I played the beta/demo.

The difference is PS4 era, they didn't charge the pre orders until the game release.
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Okay I think that might be it, Europe has actual consumer protections so maybe the mechanism was different there compared to how it is in NA

StueyDuck said:
oh well if you made a list then i guess its objective :messenger_tears_of_joy:
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How about you argue against the point, then?
 
Also people forget fast, how 3DS digital games were tied to the hardware, so if you sold your console or buy a new one you couldn't download your purchases.
 
LakeOf9 said:
How about you argue against the point, then?
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what argument do you want?

I use all the shops daily and i can tell you for the act of simply purchasing a game, downloading it and playing it (the fundamental thing you want an online store to do) the Eshop is easily the worst.

incessant barriers to doing anything, the store slows down after a few pages, navigation is terrible, download speeds are pretty awful. Now with the switch 2 it's constantly trying to get me to get my phone and scan QR codes anytime i wanna do anything.

But hey, you have a list though, what does every day usage have against a list.

Again they are all equally terrible to me. but for doing the basic thing i want it to do, the Eshop is far and away the most cumbersome
 
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vkbest said:
Also people forget fast, how 3DS digital games were tied to the hardware, so if you sold your console or buy a new one you couldn't download your purchases.
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People don't forget anything, talking about a 3DS digital store in 2026 is just even more irrelevant than bringing up the Epic Store might be
 
You've never tried to use the Nintendo Store it seems. They finally gave it an upgrade last month, but it's still almost useless.

Steam has gotten really bad recently too, as you can't get to list view and it shows you an endless stream of slop you aren't interested in.

PSN is a mixed bag but miles better than Nintendo. It could use features like links to the dev/publisher, or recommendations based on the games you have put the most hours in.

I haven't used Xbox since the 360, but they made it worse with every update so I can't imagine what it's like now.

I also check GOG and Epic once a month. Gog has some quirks but mostly works. Epic is almost unusable. At least it finally shows whether the game has controller support or not.

IsThereAnyDeal actually has the best online storefront for video games.
 
Dorago said:
You've never tried to use the Nintendo Store it seems. They finally gave it an upgrade last month, but it's still almost useless.

Steam has gotten really bad recently too, as you can't get to list view and it shows you an endless stream of slop you aren't interested in.

PSN is a mixed bag but miles better than Nintendo. It could use features like links to the dev/publisher, or recommendations based on the games you have put the most hours in.

I haven't used Xbox since the 360, but they made it worse with every update so I can't imagine what it's like now.

I also check GOG and Epic once a month. Gog has some quirks but mostly works. Epic is almost unusable. At least it finally shows whether the game has controller support or not.

IsThereAnyDeal actually has the best online storefront for video games.
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for me Steam struggles when there's events and sales which seem to be all the time now. They try get Cute with their home page and it just becomes a bit of a mess.

I find the best way to deal with steam is scroll down, hit Top sellers and see more then just filter by games.

Yeah you miss out on indie gems but at least you seeing the bulk of what people are buying.

as for the rest of your post i absolutely agree
 
lifa-cobex said:
Sony still doesn't have gifting?

Fuckin ell.
That even works for their favour.
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Nope, and if you even begin downloading a game, let alone spend a single second in it, you lose the right to request a refund.

Even if you are able to, the refund approval process and ratio is draconian at best.
 
BennyBlanco said:
Xbox PC app takes the cake from what I've seen. It would sometimes refuse to even install gamepass games. And you have to update it through the windows app client. Just an absolutely dreadful piece of software.

EGS, Ubisoft, EA, Rockstar clients are at least functional just barebones.

But I haven't had gamepass in like 2 or 3 years so maybe it's changed.
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I forgot about the Xbox app on PC. Yeah, that is the absolute worst. A true, miserable successor to Games for Windows Live.
 
Zathalus said:
When you compare it to Steam it is shockingly bad. And somehow still the only store where you can't change regions. Even Nintendo of all companies have that.
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Sony doesnt want you to live in a different country.

just be a peasant and buy their overpriced games.

Now you can't buy them used too, because you are a peasant.
 
I've had the worst support experience with the PlayStation store, but as a storefront on the purchasing side it's about as mediocre as the others.
 
PSN is pretty bad. Like even finding recent releases is weirdly difficult in the interface. They would benefit so much from a "new and Trending" page.

That being said, the Eshop... omg. so bad.
 
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I just want to be able to filter out \ hide entire vendors from the PSN store. So many AI bloat "Simulator" and $3 trophy farm games.
 
I've never had an issue with the PSN store in terms of usability on the PS5.

But yeah, the features and policies Sony has are absolutely terrible. From not being able to change regions, to no refunds, no regional pricing, no gifting, etc.

In my region they also have by far the highest prices. Games are consistently cheaper on every other console /store. (It's why I've always used a USA account)

It's insane that in 2026 and with them heavily pushing for an all digital future their solution for people moving to another country is still "idk, just make another account".
 
Epic is tied or slightly better than Sony for the worst.

Edit: Wow, I am giving Tim some credit here. Epic does atleast give out free games for real free. So yeah, Sony is the worst.
 
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The fuckery PSN allowed with the recently played porn games with 1000's of hours completely broke the illusion. PSN has terrible security and slow to fix issues. Shouldn't be allowed to run the network in it's current state.
 
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The moment I realized Physical had no future on Playstation 2 years ago, I started migrating to steam.
If I am to go Digital, I might as well pick the good store...
 
simpatico said:
If anything, Steam makes it too easy. I see people talking about joining "families" all the time. If Sony wanted to be cool but still Sony, you could at least do household sharing if not the full-on self-governed family sharing that steam provides to any account you tag as family. Some third-party games opt-out, but they make that really clear on the store page. Typically it's stuff that makes sense like GaaS games with a persistent account.
Click to expand...

PlayStation lets you share games on your "primary PS5." Anyone else logged into your primary PS5 can play that copy, even if at the same time you are logged in playing the same game on another PS5.

It's actually better in some ways than what Steam has. I can play multiplayer games with my wife for instance this way, with one copy Can't play the same game w/ Steam's setup.
 
Why in fuck are you guys just discovering that Playstation Store is trash only now?

Have been since ages.
 
LakeOf9 said:
Only store with per-user dynamic pricing (Steam, Xbox, eShop all lack this)
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That should be a strong point, it should be similar to regional pricing but within the same area, like an $80 game being $45 for someone in Bronx with lower income compared to someone in California. As long as they don't charge you more than MSRP it should be fine personally.
 
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