PS3 launch: All about PlayStation Store

Thursday 22 March 2007
Shopping on PS3? Yes, with PlayStation Store you can. Simply get your console online and you'll be able to indulge in some retail therapy from the comfort of your own pants. Games, demos, trailers and extra content can all be downloaded straight to your PS3 (expect to add music and movies to that list in the future).

Like any high street shop, you have to purchase goods from PlayStation Store with real money. To make things super easy - and unlike Microsoft and Nintendo - Sony has opted to represent money in PlayStation Store as money, not points. So, you'll know exactly how much stuff costs and how much you're spending without needing to juggle numbers in your brain. Hurrah.

Above: This is the PlayStation Store icon that appears in PS3's XMB

To make purchases, you first need to slip some money into a PlayStation 'Wallet' using a credit card or PlayStation gift voucher. Desired items are placed in a shopping cart, paid for and downloaded. Easy. Brilliantly, after the initial purchase, any items you've bought can be re-downloaded up to five times for free.

And if something-for-nothing is your bag (and who doesn't like that money free bag?), PlayStation Store offers game demos, trailers and other bits and bobs for absolutely nowt.

It's also worth mentioning that the spending frivolities of credit card 'borrowing' kids can be curtailed by concerned parents. Whoever controls PS3's master account can set up sub accounts with capped spending limits.

Grab your basket and shuffle to the next page for a browse of PlayStation Store.