3. Online Store Functionality And Frequency Of Discounts
Since 2006 and right across the last generation, Xbox Live was the straight kick to the PlayStation Store's vulnerable chin, positively dominating the notion of digital sales thanks to Xbox Live Arcade and a consistent rollout of demos, all whilst the PS3 Store struggled to maintain a menu transition without crashing or waiting a few minutes. In the new generation, that's flipped considerably. Now the PlayStation Store is a streamlined rollout of menus you can hop between with ease, always knowing how 'deep' you've gotten through what's showing on the left side. Everything from full games to demos, themes, add-ons and more are easily linked, with each title having it's own social media page (a Facebook profile for games, basically), launching you into the store from various places on the initial dashboard. On the other hand, the Xbox One's new screens actually work worse than before, thanks to them having only the barest of sorting options, resulting in an endless list of every game on the store in a massive list. The new dashboard does incorporate the PS4's 'game hub' for each title, but it's still a confusing mess of links that take you into other apps (like trying to watch a trailer and ending up in the Upload Studio), or simply don't provide enough information on what you're purchasing. Point goes to... PS4 Although Microsoft have done better with their Xbox Live Gold service (more on that in a bit), the new dash still has some odd issues when it comes to backing out into previous pages, resulting in a cut-to-black stutter that's very off-putting. There are simple things like it not remembering where you were in a custom search's results, and all-round it's not very helpful if you're looking for anything other than the newest, full-priced titles.
