PlayStation Home “Not A Priority”
Pete Edwards no longer concerned about development.Published 29/10/2009 at 12:45 by nofi
GAME Moonbase Announced For Home [38]
Home Reaches 12 Million Users [17]
Uncharted 2 Wins More Awards [17]
Speaking to Edge at the London Games Conference, Sony’s Pete Edwards has admitted that PlayStation Home no longer has “priority” status, saying that the firm has proved that there is a market for the online community and no longer sees its development as its first concern. “It’s been a long road,” he said. “We’ve proved there is a market out there and we’ve got a lot of people that spend a lot of time in [Home].”
“It’s not a priority right now but there is a business model there.”
I’m not really sure what he means by those statements, and with the Edge website currently down for maintenance it’s tricky to get more from the quotes saved. I’m presuming he means that actually developing for Home isn’t a priority anymore for SCEE, but courting publishers and developers to create their own content will still be up there on the to-do list. We’ll try and clarify.
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
nouveller | 29/10/2009 13:00
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66 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2009
I’ve never been on it since the beta and no one in my contact list is ever on it. So… They might as well leave it in the background.
nickerton | 29/10/2009 13:22
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223 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2009
It still is in beta status I believe, I could be wrong though.
shields_t | 29/10/2009 13:22
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1634 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
I think it’s still in beta!
I’ve been on a few times since the rather disasterous launch week, once to play the red bull air race and another time to have a go at the buzz area.
Both good fun, but I don’t see myself using it to do anything other than play the odd minigame here and there. Like you absolutely noone on my contact list is on it, ever.
bajere | 29/10/2009 13:54
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1058 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
same here…im glad they are not Sony are not spending any more time and money with HOME…id rather see money being put towards funding for developers to build more games like Uncharted, LBP, Modnation, MAG, Heavy Rain etc. The 1st party stuff should get backed and pushed even more by Sony, because the stuff that comes out of these studios are brilliant…
teflon | 29/10/2009 13:04
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1989 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
I’d take it to mean that too.
As of 1.3 the underlying tech and main areas are 99.9% finished and they won’t be changing any time soon.
All the developers and publishers that have already brought stuff to Home will hopefully carry on doing so. New clothes and areas will continue to come along too.
So it’s still going to be ticking over until the next logical step of integrating it better with the XMB happens. If it ever happens, that is..
Personally I’d like to see them put an official freeze on current areas, let us download them all in one go and aim to make new area loads as instant as is feasibly possible.
Bilbo_bobbins | 29/10/2009 13:20
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1406 TSA Points | Member since: Jun 2009
Been on it once, I personally thought it was a waste of time. I think most of my mates haven’t even tried it. Pointless spending time on it if not many people use it.
chall5 | 29/10/2009 13:35
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46 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2009
Tried it when it came out and a few times afterwards but didn’t enjoy it much, recently uninstalled but you can’t get rid of the icon
Bilbo_bobbins | 29/10/2009 14:40
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1406 TSA Points | Member since: Jun 2009
how do you uninstall it, I wouldn’t mind doing that
Vandix | 29/10/2009 14:42
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1197 TSA Points | Member since: Mar 2009
Go to Gama data and delete
Vandix | 29/10/2009 14:44
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1197 TSA Points | Member since: Mar 2009
*game
double-o-dave | 29/10/2009 13:48
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995 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
Nor me or anyone on my friends list is ever in Home. Do people really use it or are they just drones walking around?
skibadee | 29/10/2009 13:51
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3899 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2009
BETA
Radboud | 29/10/2009 13:55
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973 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
I played a few chess-games on Home once, some very nice ones I might say. Did a little arcade-gaming and bowling, but that was pretty much it, haven’t been on it for quite a well tbh.
It could have been a good thing if it starts up faster and doesn’t take downloading all area’s everytime you get on it (thats what it feels like anyways)
cc_star | 29/10/2009 14:00
Team TSA: Writer
7815 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
“PlayStation Home “Not A Priority””
Good
Severn2j | 29/10/2009 14:01
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1548 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
Good, I think efforts could be better spent elsewhere than on Home, such as improvements to the XMB and making online more of a competitor to what 360 owners have.. I dont know anyone who spends any real amount of time in Home, in my opinion it was a worthy experiment, but ultimately a failed venture.
cheekyMcB | 29/10/2009 14:51
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727 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
I don’t think the demographics for Home fit with those that consider themselves “dedicated” gamers. Home tends to be occupied by more casual gamers. There are plenty of people on Home, it’s just that they tend not to be on the friends lists of those that are very into their hobby and would rather be playing an intense session of something like Killzone 2 than chilling,chatting and playing simplistic games.
I’d bet that if you look at the friends list of those users who use Home the most they’d proportionately be filled with other people who regularly use Home.
There are lots of PS3 users out there and it only needs a small percentage of this total to mean a lot of people are using the service and therefore justifying it’s existence. Check out the official PS Home forums and you’ll find a fairly busy and dedicated community. I’ve heard numerous stories of some users spending several hundred £’s on virtual clothes/objects for it so Sony obviously don’t have do a lot to get the returns. So it doesn’t have to be a top of their list to make them money.
Personally I am fairly partial to a free game of Texas Hold’Em once a week though I never intend spending any money on anything.
guinan | 29/10/2009 15:15
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126 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2009
I hope that it’s not their priority !! There’s still lot of thing more interesting for the players to develop (do I heard cross-voice-chat and personalized interface ?)
kevatron400 | 29/10/2009 15:31
Don't call him Kevatron400.
1740 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
I enjoyed the whole XI shenanigans, but the program’s too big for my bulging-at-the-seams 40gb hard drive!
gurglesletch | 29/10/2009 16:42
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450 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
This article makes it sound like they are abandoning home.
nofi | 29/10/2009 16:46
Wants a custom tag.
4292 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
No it doesn’t, it’s quite the opposite.
bunimomike | 29/10/2009 17:13
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4735 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
I feel like it’s pigeon-holing Home into the “we’ll get around to it when we can” category. Only because I didn’t realise Home was ever a priority as the development time on it was pitiful if we look at what they had planned and how long it took to come out with something that disappointed most people.
I still think it could be an absolute winner but the business model needs to enforce environments built by studios/developers but equally work out remuneration so it’s not time wasted.
cc_star | 29/10/2009 17:34
Team TSA: Writer
7815 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
I think it means they’ve got it to a stage where it looks after itself, there will be new stuff to buy all the time, there will be new areas every now and again, and they’ve got a range of content partners on board.
basically they don’t have to babysit it anymore, and the boardroom can focus on something else, happy in the knowledge that Home is ticking along with regular new stuff just fine.
Funny thing is – if they do another xi thing it would be 10 times as popular as it was last time.
ghosthunter68 | 29/10/2009 17:05
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41 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
I sometimes wonder about Edwards, you just have to look at his previous statements. Home is a beta how can it not be a priority to move it from its beta phase. May be they have realeased that the vision was just a dream and the concept of Home may change. There’s only so many spaces and mini games with one off rewards they can do until the concept becomes bloated and dull.
iNsAnE_gAmInG | 29/10/2009 17:08
* Banned *
-1930 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
Glad to hear Sony are not wasting too much time with Home. Yes, ‘wasting time’. Nobody can relax in Home as it’s awkward conversation wise and a download-fest. Chilling out in your virtual Home apartment can not live up to relaxing with mates in the real world.