Home to be “Essential”
Sony's virtual world is getting more populace and more lucrative.Published 29/06/2009 at 11:00 by colossalblue
GAME Moonbase Announced For Home [38]
Home Reaches 12 Million Users [17]
Uncharted 2 Wins More Awards [17]
SCEE’s Peter Edward has predicted that the virtual space will become an essential part of the PlayStation experience, integral to future games.
Gamasutra are reporting the numbers associated with Home and they certainly do give companies a compelling reason to investigate the value of the service. With seven million users, six million downloads of virtual objects and massive attention for the marketing campaigns run recently around movie releases of Watchmen, Star Trek and Transformers the service is starting to show its worth as a method of getting your product “out there”. Recent initiatives such as the Xi alternate reality game and the step-up in introductions of new spaces have seen the service become more popular amongst originally sceptical consumers.
Add to that the recent rumours of deeper integration of Home with the XMB and it seems that Sony are putting more faith in the virtual world. The coming months will see the introduction of the currency system within Home and Pay2Play features seeing the light of day but Peter Edward is adament that it isn’t just about revenue for Sony, stating
“For Sony, revenue isn’t the main driver for Home. We’re in this for the longterm… Home is the starting point for PlayStation 3 online, and that’s something that gamers are going to expect as more games support Game Launch from within Home.”
So what direction would you like to see Home take? Do you love the marketing campaigns and spaces (such as the Red bull Air Race) or are you more interested in the possibilities of Game Launching and strategising (like the US Warhawk space)?
Source: Gamasutra
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
mpb1955 | 29/06/2009 11:20
Member
738 TSA Points | Member since: Mar 2009
I really don’t get Home. It takes too much time to load so why would you want to launch games from it. Even moving around the loading is annoying.
I followed the TSA guide to Xi to get to the end and thought what was that all about.
Sorry but not for me.
BioEye | 29/06/2009 11:20
Team TSA: Writer
900 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
I can see games in the future where, only if you own the game will you be able to access that game’s space. There’ll be a Home icon somewhere on the box, and installing the game will also activate the space.
That would make things like the Everybody’s Golf space more full of those who actually own the game, and it could even encourage people to buy the game.
YOURMUMANDME | 29/06/2009 11:26
Member
1154 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
* sigh *
Home , it’s something I haven’t even used since it’s first month of release , to the point where I deleted the install to get back a few Gig . I don’t really want it to be ‘ essential ‘ as it means having to faff around with it again .
What can I even do there now ?
Flightx | 29/06/2009 11:38
Member
279 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
you can do just about the same and thats it. its sort of facebook for the faceless. its where you can be whoever you want at anygiven time. home is one of those things that you either love or hate. i myself havent used it in along time but with 7 million people using it sony must be doing something right.
Timesh1993 | 29/06/2009 15:43
Member
1179 TSA Points | Member since: Apr 2009
Home is one of the most annoying things i have ever used on the PS3
I personally don’t want it to become essential and don’t want to be losing anymore memory, only just got enough spare as it is.
I think i’ve only ever used home a couple of times and that was when it first came out as it was new, but apart from that i’ve never used.
YOURMUMANDME | 29/06/2009 21:58
Member
1154 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
It’s the same for me I need every last byte I have and I think they’re putting all their eggs in one basket with home . Clearly it’s not just me that thinks this way .
Bilbo_bobbins | 29/06/2009 11:30
Member
1406 TSA Points | Member since: Jun 2009
it takes too long to load. You end up walking around doing nothing, taking way to long to chat to people who think you are hitting on them most of the time (except men) lol
The whole thing in my eyes is a waste of time. I want to turn on my PS3, and play a game. Not find friends in a virtual world and probably play a few times online with them before never doing it after that.
Rob92 | 29/06/2009 11:37
Member
1450 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
If the whole thing ran as soon as you clicked the icon on your XMB, so click and then your avatar is there in your home space walking around, I could see it as beneficial. Tiny load screens (couple of seconds max) to get around to different areas and again, it could be really good. Same with game launching (which I still haven’t seen used yet!). If you could quickly launch a game, couple of seconds to get to the start of a race then couple of seconds to be back to Home, it’d be brilliant.
Yet all we’re faced with is minute long loading screens, having to download the same space you’ve already downloaded once before because of some meaningless update, no game launching and a pretty boring experience.
So Sony IMO have two choices. Improve it, massively, or just drop it. I wont be going back ‘home’ unless it does improve.
Hodgi92 | 29/06/2009 11:40
The Thumb
1058 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
I think what Home really needs is some kind of integration for trophies.
It doesn’t have to be a trophy cabinet (but it would be nice)
It doesn’t have to be trophies-for-cash (Would also be nice)
but just, something!
Boomshanks | 29/06/2009 11:52
Member
1302 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
Amen to that. That Hall of Fame looked wonderful. Now where is it?
DarthSharkey | 29/06/2009 13:32
Member
1044 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
Agreed, the use of trophies as points or other aspect to unlock new items would be a great feature to get people using home and playing more games.
Timesh1993 | 29/06/2009 15:45
Member
1179 TSA Points | Member since: Apr 2009
If home start using something like that, then it could possibly encourage me to re-download it again, i’d still very rarely use it but i would be using it again.
Gastos84 | 29/06/2009 11:54
Team TSA: Writer
3888 TSA Points | Member since: Apr 2009
I have only ever spent literally about 2 minutes in Home eons ago so I can’t really comment on whether or not it works but I can’t see Home ever being considered ‘essential’.
If it becomes a tool for marketing then that’s a reason for me to steer clear even more
marvzilla | 29/06/2009 11:55
Member
136 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
Its incredibly boring at the moment, the mini-games are woeful and you have to queue for them. They need to make it more fun, I was under the impression people had PS3’s for cutting-edge gaming (and the odd retro classic of course
) though it seems there are alot of people who got their PS3’s to ‘Cabbage’ to the bubbles and be micro taxed for virtual t-shirts, I blame these people for Home being the boring ad-fest it is. Stop buying virtual t-shirts and then maybe Sony would have some interest in making Home more entertaining instead of selling it to companies as a 3D marketing playgroung.
kevatron400 | 29/06/2009 11:59
Don't call him Kevatron400.
1756 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
Would it make a good marketing idea to make trophies the currency in home? That way people buy more games to get more trophies to unlock better stuff in home, right?
BryOnRye | 29/06/2009 12:05
Member
814 TSA Points | Member since: Jan 2009
I spent a bit of time in Home when the Xi thing first kicked off, but since it finished I haven’t been back. It would be nice if we started getting anywhere near the content of the american version.
Tuffcub | 29/06/2009 12:11
Team TSA: Writer
4070 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
I’m meeting some new friends in Home tonight from a club I joined. Will be interesting to see how it goes.
rht992 | 29/06/2009 12:13
Member
2860 TSA Points | Member since: Apr 2009
i some how got addicted to home on the first day then i waisted 10 squid in the shops and realized it was going to eat up my money so i deleted it ages ago and anyway after a whole day there only one person actually talked to me.
samba987 | 29/06/2009 13:42
Member
60 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
I played on home on the first day of the open beta for 10 mins and have never been back on it, the fact tht you have to download every zone you go on and the loading times just make it a chore to play and I had no enjoyment of playing on it.
Out of around 50 people on my friends list 1 plays on Home once a week and the rest only have played it once. I just hope I don’t have to go on home to play my games or you will never be able to have a quick 10 minute game without having to wait 20mins for Home to load.
johngrat100 | 29/06/2009 13:51
Member
79 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
I’d like to see the demographics behind that statement. I’m thinking that Home has to be a childish/teeanage thing.
I personally can’t understatnd the attraction for Home. I’ve been in there numerous times and it just seems to be people standing around doing the robot surrounded by bubble machines.
Maybe it’s because I’m thirty and not hip with the kids, but I can’t work out why I would want to wait 5 mins for the cinema that i’ve just entered to load. Once I get in there I have to wait another 5 mins for selected trailer to load. I have to deal with this on other interactive spaces that I use on the Web and they stream the content as and when I want it.
Why would I pay for a virtual item I can’t own? I want to go bowling but I have to stand in a line and wait for it to work. I can’t play any arcade machines because I have to wait for someone to finish. (It reflects real life but you don’t want that kind of reality in a virtual world)
Game launching is seemingly pointless application. I have my game ready on the XMB and 30 secs later I’m playing. I log into Home wait for that to load, then I have to select what game I want – watch Home reset PS3 and load game.
Speaking to people is pointless. By the time your’ve completed typing hello on the joypad the person has wondered off and started sexually and racially abusing someone else. The avatars are horrible and frankly scary looking. It reminds me of the film Westworld and the weird androids/humanoids in that.
The best thing that I used in this application was watching the E3 speech. Even that was flawed. I had to join halfway through and it took me ages to get in a space on the podium where I could even watch the screen
I could go on and on about the defincies of this service and i think it has a long way to go before the addtion of features like trophy cabinets or twisted alternate reality games make this worthwhile.
I’d delete it if I didn’t have a large hard drive but I like to go in from time to time when I feeling a little maschochistic. If Sony were to make this the defining element of the PS3 and make me use this over the XMB then I think that might be the day I seel up and move to the Xbox.
Michael | 29/06/2009 16:48
Team TSA: Development
2215 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Thanks for saving me a load of typing
johngrat100 | 29/06/2009 16:55
Member
79 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
Pleased to be of service. If only I had more time and could spell
yogh_wayne | 30/06/2009 03:31
Member
2851 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
Totally agree with all of this!
But then I didn’t care enough about Home to spend this much time with the avatar creator. I fear the day when Sony decide that the Home avatars should also be the PSN avatars!
Funny that you mentioned Westworld, I actually wanted to make my avatar look like Yul Brynner in that movie
Ross_K91 | 29/06/2009 14:22
Member
197 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
Ilike everything about home and I’m glad its expanding all the time.