It seems to be all the rage to point out what people think need to be done to improve the various consoles and who am I to call that a bad idea?  I’ll start out with the system I’ve spent the most time with over the last year, but don’t worry…  the 360 and Wii have their day coming (as do the DS and PSP).  These improvements are what I think they should do (and just a word to the wise “get more compelling exclusives” is an understood necessity here, so I didn’t put that one in the list).

In-game XMB: Yeah, everybody and their brother knows that’s needed (and coming), but let’s iron out exactly what I think that should encompass.  I want to be able to push the PS button on my controller in-game and have access to: Messaging functions, voice chat functions (which should over-ride any in-game voice chat), ability to send/receive game invites, access to change certain system settings (such as audio inputs/outputs, selected headsets/mics), etc.

Revamp the PS Store interface: I’m not sure the HTML interface is the best option for the PS Store.  There’s an awful lot of clicking involved.  If you want to keep it HTML, maybe spruce it up and add usability improvements via javascript or something.  There’s a fair amount of clicking on things that should be reducable.  Also, add automatic installing for queued items.  I know if you download an item and don’t opt for background downloading that it’ll auto-install, but why isn’t this happening for queued items?

Read about more improvements the PS3 needs after the jump…

Implement Samba support:  Sure, DLNA networking is a lot better than nothing, but let us access our data on PCs (and more importantly Linux-based fileservers) without having to screw with all that DLNA server stuff… our operating systems already support Samba, don’t make us have to install or use special (but often quite craptacular) software to manage media streaming.

Update CODEC support: Support Xvid like your main competition is.  You’ve crossed the “we don’t want to offer the codecs the pirates use” line, now fully support what everyone wants.  If we have media, your machine should play it.  I can’t stress the value of having a machine that will play nearly anything is.  XBMC on the original Xbox is an excellent example of a “can play nearly anything” product.

Get your Achievement/Gamerscore alternative finalized and into the hands of developers ASAP:  Think carefully about what you want to mandate developers to support.  Some things make sense, some don’t.  Please make sure that your offering is leveraged by, but not reliant on PS Home.  Regardless of how much time, effort, and money you throw into Home development, there will be a segment of users that won’t use it.  There needs to be a way via the XBM to see your accomplishments.

Spruce up things: When I put in an audio CD to rip (or just play), while you’re out grabbing all the info on it, why not replace its icon with a nice fancy cover art graphic?  When I put in a PS1/PS2 game, why not display the game’s title and cover?  You have access to all this data, use it.  Make things just a tiny bit slicker looking.  Give us a way to animate our XMB themes and wallpapers (whether it be video, Flash, or some new format — just make it something we can customize on our own).  Keep adding slideshow modules, music visualizers, etc.  Add an option for some (or parts of some) to be stored on the hard drive instead of flash RAM.  We could have some truly impressive apps if we didn’t have to cram everything into the flash RAM.

Video/Music services: Sony owns a ton of audio and video content, why is it taking so long to bring that content to market on the Playstation Network?  Hearing that something like this is “coming” a year in advance just makes me scratch my head.  With the resources and content at your disposal, I’d think you could knock out something like this in a month, test it for a couple months and be done with it.  I guess not.  Hopefully you’ve got something much more elaborate in the pipe that a “basic” service.

Implement “entirely software” PS3 BC: I think the PSP emulating the PSOne shows impressive things can be done.  You guys designed the PS2 yourselves, do you expect me to believe you _can’t_ emulate the PS2 entirely in software?  I’ll buy that the resources needed may not be justified in your opinion, but it _can_ be done and if the PS2 starts its downward spiral, it’d sure be nice to see it “magically” appear on the PS3 (if not sooner) along with downloadable games.

Release PSOne Classics: Japan’s PS Store puts the rest of the world to shame as far as PSOne content (poor Europe!)  Why don’t we have more PSOne games?  I would seriously buy more of these if you had titles I wanted.  You’re trickling too few titles, too infrequently.

Give Linux folks native GPU access: I realize this may be more of a “wait until we profit on hardware sales alone because we might end up selling a ton of these things with no games” issue, but really, the Linux guys could do wonderous things with the PS3 if they had GPU access.  I’d love this to happen sooner or later, but in a way I understand why you’re not in a hurry to do this one just yet.

Do you own a PS3?  Other than the (being worked on at this very moment) problem of “lack of great compelling exclusive games”, what are your biggest suggestions for what needs to be done?

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