Home is a Success
Loads of stuff to do, money to spend.Published: 11:45, 02/07/2010 by Peter [Colossalblue].
21It seems that you can’t go for a financial quarter without somebody, somewhere, claiming that Home is actually very good or very successful or just not the huge waste of time that we all mocked mercilessly for months after its release before deleting it from our XMBs and trying to forget about it.
This time it’s the turn of Jack Buser (Home Director) to stand up for Home. Talking to Gamasutra Buser has claimed that the service is innovative and it has taken time for the industry to begin to understand it.
I think it takes some time as the industry as a whole, whether that be consumers or whether that be the media, to start to shift their focus to these new types of platforms and see how people are actually spending their time with the console and with gaming in general, I think we are part of that evolution, part of that conversation.
Apparently there are over one hundred games now on the service, with fifty virtual spaces and fourteen million client downloads. That’s a pretty big service to provide for free. But hold on, it’s not actually free is it? The service exists, partially, to sell us virtual items (they’ve created over five thousand of them) in micro-transactions. Mr. Buser says “it’s one of the highest-margin businesses in the games industry”. So that’s why Sony representatives keep telling us how great it is!
It does have to be said, cynicism aside, that Home is a much different product to the soulless place it was in the few months after launch. Sony are putting a lot of effort into continually improving the service and it continues to be very popular among a certain sub-set of PlayStation owners. I might even venture back for a look myself.
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02/07/2010 at 11:48
Member since: Forever
I actually think Home is starting to turn around, people must be making money from it now.
02/07/2010 at 11:50
Member since: Jan 2009
Definitively. Some great spaces and such going on. Xi was a great addition.
02/07/2010 at 12:58
Member since: Sep 2009
For me personally I think Home needs to emphasise the ‘micro’ in micro-transactions. Things like the football game where you spend a few pence on balls I buy without thinking twice, likewise I’ll happy pay 79p for a book of tickets to play games at the Midway Carnival space. But when they start asking for £1.60 for a pair of shoes, then another £1.60 for the trousers, and another for the top, and another for the hands, and another for the head etc. you soon end up paying £8 for a complete outfit!!! That is the same as a full PSN game!!! You’re not telling me it takes the same development cost to make one outfit as it does to make a full game!
Complete outfits should be £1.60 (like LBP sackboy costumes), individual items should be 20-50p, that is the impulse purchase, that is what you pay without even noticing your wallet amount change.
If they focused on a low-price/high-volume model I believe Home would be both more appealing for part-time users and ultimately more profitable, afterall 14 million 50p’s is still £7M!
02/07/2010 at 13:24
Member since: Jul 2009
I know what you mean, those prices sound a little too high. What I would say though is that I’m not privilege to all of the numbers involved in the business – The number of transactions, the cost, price and profitability of each transaction and the section of Home transaction which offers best turnover.
02/07/2010 at 13:15
Member since: Dec 2009
i don’t i think it’s boring until u meet a person thats dead on lak and u can talk awy 4 hrs
02/07/2010 at 14:08
Member since: Jul 2009
Proper English please, matey. Not even sure what you were trying to say. :-\
02/07/2010 at 14:16
Member since: Aug 2009
me either … confused!
02/07/2010 at 21:39
Member since: Forever
Pretty sure it was chav, il go find a native wearing burberry and see if he can translate.
Shit sorry after finding his mum was only 23 i seemed to have found something more fun easy and cheaper to do.
03/07/2010 at 09:23
Member since: Aug 2009
Northern Irish?…. Dead on… means great to talk to and I don’t like it
02/07/2010 at 11:50
Member since: Aug 2008
Home has a very strange effect on me. I go into it every so often (like once a month maybe) and am really surprised by how good it has become. I try loads of new areas, play the games, chat to a few randoms and generally spend a good amount of time in it. Then I stop and yet weirdly don’t feel the need to go back to it.
Perhaps if I had more real-life friends on PSN that I might want to hang out with in Home, I’d have more regular use for it.
02/07/2010 at 15:38
Member since: Sep 2009
I’m exactly the same, don’t go for weeks and then when I do visit I’m there all night!
02/07/2010 at 12:07
Member since: Jun 2010
I find Home to be quite enjoyable. There are a surprising amount of virtual items that you can earn for free, by playing the various games and son on, and some of the challenges are quite decent. My main problem with it is the fact that they still insist on having two or three player limits on the activites, usually with no queuing system.
02/07/2010 at 12:11
Member since: Mar 2009
Beware the new Midway Carnival space, it’s a real cash cow!
But yes, Home’s definitely expanded almost beyond recognition.
02/07/2010 at 12:30
Member since: Dec 2009
Home is awesome – I love it, I always meet my bros n buddies down there…
02/07/2010 at 13:05
Member since: Feb 2009
Home gets a lot of hate but it’s a pretty good experience now. You can checkout game and film trailers, play a host of games and wander round lots of environments randomly meeting people without spending any money at all.
I’m just waiting for games like MAG to implement home spaces in the Style of the US Warhawk space for the integration between home and games to go one step further.
02/07/2010 at 13:48
Member since: Jul 2009
Excuse my naive question but did Home show E3 live? If so, I’d be happy in there (with headsets) watching it with YMAM, Andytorr, or anyone from TSA to be fair.
02/07/2010 at 14:16
Member since: Jan 2009
No i think just the trailers from the show. But I might be wrong :/
What do you get for watching all the trailers? I noticed after watching one it said 1/8 trailers viewed. But I couldnt be bothered to download the rest.
02/07/2010 at 14:51
Member since: Sep 2008
Access to the VIP section upstairs, which has nothing interesting in it whatsoever.
02/07/2010 at 14:35
Member since: Feb 2009
It wasnt streamed live, but they recreated the Sony Floor. Was pretty good I thought.
02/07/2010 at 14:18
Member since: Aug 2009
I love HOME, go on atleast once a week and download all the spaces and get every free item. Have meet some nice people in there and it also has some good games that im addicted to.
02/07/2010 at 15:48
Member since: Feb 2009
I can’t stand home. To be fair i haven’t been on there for ages, but wandering around chatting to strangers’ avatars isn’t really my thing. Neither is playing sub-standard games when i’ve got a back catalogue of outstanding games to get through. Each to their own i suppose.
02/07/2010 at 16:28
Member since: Jun 2009
Try loading it up again, you might be surprised.
02/07/2010 at 17:19
Member since: Aug 2009
Are Home updates included in the PlayStation Plus auto download feature? If not, they bloody should be!
02/07/2010 at 17:59
Member since: Forever
Good point. That would be great.