Sony is finally fixing the PlayStation Store’s search feature

The PlayStation Store search feature on PlayStation 4 is about to get much better, addressing a long-standing annoyance with Sony’s digital store, based on screenshots from a new beta release of the console’s firmware.

Here’s what the new PlayStation Store search feature looks like, according to screenshots of the latest in-development firmware (version 6.0 beta 3) from ResetEra forum poster Kyoufu.

Kyoufu/ResetEra

That’s a much more straightforward implementation than Sony’s current search feature, which asks users to scroll up and down the alphabet, letter by letter, in a series of columns. It’s slow, it’s clunky and the search results can sometimes be hard to parse. (Try searching for “pinball” on the PlayStation Store sometime for a fun experience.)

Here’s what a search for Anthem would look like right now on the PlayStation Store:

Sony Interactive Entertainment via Polygon

It gets the job done, but Sony’s updated implementation using an on-screen keyboard, like the rest of the PlayStation 4 UI’s text input, makes a lot more sense.

According to members of the ResetEra forums and the PlayStation subreddit who are already using the new firmware, the new PlayStation Store search is “snappy as fuck.” Search results update with each letter you type in, and you can even search the store based on publisher and genre.

We’ve reached out to Sony for details on when the new PlayStation Store search feature and PS4 firmware v6.0 will go live for all PS4 owners.