Just this morning Sony confirmed that their updated PlayStation Store would be hitting Europe this April. Now they've made the same news (with the same timeline) equally official for the United States market as well. We'll crack a few brewskies to celebrate, as the 1996 website that Sony called a proper store is finally dying a horrible death to rise as a phoenix from its ashes in about 2 weeks. A firmware update will make this happen. DO NOT stick your PS3 into open flame.

Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) today announced that it will revamp the PLAYSTATION®Store for PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) in mid-April with a new, more dynamic look and improved navigation. Currently an integrated online storefront, the PLAYSTATION Store will live natively on PS3, enabling customers to more easily and quickly locate and purchase games, and download demos, game videos, Blu-ray movie trailers and other game-related content for PS3.

To enable enhancements to be made to the store, no additional downloadable content will be posted prior to the revamp, starting April 3. However, customers will be able to access, browse, shop and download from the PLAYSTATION Store during this period. Regularly scheduled PLAYSTATION Store content updates will resume with additional games and game-related items, including the downloadable version of the highly-anticipated exclusive PS3 title Gran Turismo™ 5 Prologue, the next installment of the billion dollar selling racing franchise and intense precursor to Gran Turismo™5.

In the PLAYSTATION Store, customers can use their PLAYSTATION Network accounts and "virtual wallets" to seamlessly purchase and download content for PS3. The PLAYSTATION Store revamp will not affect PLAYSTATION Network accounts or the virtual wallet system. There are currently more than 3.5 million registered PLAYSTATION®Network accounts in North America

The PLAYSTATION Store can be accessed via XMB™ (XrossMediaBar). Customers accessing PLAYSTATION Store starting in mid April will be prompted to download a free firmware update, which will automatically enable access to the new PLAYSTATION Store.

Send an email to Mark Wilson, the author of this post, at mark@gizmodo.com.