Sony has finally updated the PlayStation web store to allow users to place content they have purchased into a download queue for either their PlayStation 3 or PS Vita. Moving items into the web-based queue will not automatically “wake up” either your PS3 or Vita to start the download, however, the feature will start to download queued up games/media the next time you turn your system on — or during a PlayStation Plus automatic sync.
To find the new feature on the PlayStation web store, simply hold your mouse over your PSN username in the upper right-hand corner and then select “Download Queue” from the pull down menu.
Reports are suggesting that media queued via the PlayStation web store can take as long as 10 minutes to start downloading once the system is turned on. In my own tests with the new download queue the PlayStation 3 started the download automatically in less than a minute. Based on my results, there appears to be no standard time before a download starts, so your experience may vary.
Even though the PlayStation web store queue is not officially designed to start downloads on PlayStation 3 consoles that are off, there is a work around for anyone who also happens to own a PS Vita. You can use the Vita’s Remote Play feature to turn on your PS3 while away from home, which in turn will allow the console to start downloading the from the web store queue. Not a perfect or cheap solution, as it requires you to also purchase a PS Vita, but it appears to work.
Despite the inability to automatically push content to devices that are turned off, the new download queue is definitely an improvement to the PlayStation web store — as is anything that allows me to bypass having to access the PlayStation Store directly from the PS3.
