The PlayStation Store, part of the PlayStation Network, is getting a facelift in April. While rumors have been flying around since February, Sony has now made it official after the latest update to the Store was released late on Friday.

The new redesigned look of the store will offer "better interface and easier navigation," which Sony says that its users really want, at least in the PAL region which was surveyed by the company for these changes. It also seems that the new Sony PlayStation Store will no longer require the PlayStation Web browser to be used. Instead the store will be seamlessly integrated in the core console software, allowing for easier and quicker access to all the merchandise for the PlayStation game console you will ever need. But there will be a catch. To use the new store Sony "will require everyone to upgrade to 2.30 [firmware]." This isn't a bad thing, considering all the improvements that the upgrade contains, especially the new support for advanced linking within Blu-ray disks and the remote possibilities for the PSP.

The other downside to the major facelift announced is that no store updates will happen till mid-April, which is about two weeks till you get new content in the store.

Until then, PlayStation users will have to make do with such products like the recently released and much praised Gran Turismo 5, the UEFA 2008 demo that's already available and the other games Sony has recently put up. Even if there will be no content updates until mid-April, PSN accounts and wallets won't be affected by the big upgrade that's going on behind the scenes.

Some would say that the new look of the PlayStation Store mimics that of the Xbox Marketplace, but although there are some clear influences I wouldn't go so far as to call it a rip-off. What do you think?