Sony Adds User Feedback to Playstation Store

I notice that Sony have added a rating system to the Playstation Store:

Let everyone know what you think of the content that you’ve downloaded from PlayStation Store.

When you’re signed in to PlayStation Store on your PlayStation 3, you can rate any PS3 and PSP content that you’ve downloaded using a five star rating system, as long as your PS3 has system software version 3.40 or later installed.

One might be tempted to say this is very ‘iTunes’ as the ratings on an iPhone game are often really important to whether or not other users take a chance on a new title.  However such user feedback mechanisms are the life-blood of any true networked media system.  If the traffic is all one-way (especially top-down) then, IMHO, it will make users more isolated and less willing to experiment with unknown titles.  We’ve known this for a looong time – and it’s great to see it being added to the store. (And, ego-trip, I note that Savage Moon has a couple of thousand ratings and is currently just over 4 star!  woo!).

But the networking of the Playstation Network does not end there:

Firmware update 3.41 will add recommendations for games and videos on PlayStation Store. When you’re browsing through the details of a particular title, you’ll see a new “You May Like” section on the right-hand side. This section lists additional items based on the purchases of other PlayStation Network members who have purchased the item you’re currently looking at.

Again, adding another staple of a networked feedback system – seeing what others who like what you, like.  This is also important as finding something you might like is often hard; even more so when you are faced with loads of choice.  As a key-note speaker said at the Open Knowledge Foundation event – it’s getting noticed above the crowd that will become our main problem…