PlayStation Home has a kind of duality about it. Certain members of the “PlayStation nation” love the place and regularly spend hours in there. Many people simply don’t understand it, never visit it and have no interest in it whatsoever.
It’s a difficult situation for Sony, who have failed to deliver on many of the promising features they suggested Home could be capable of while occasionally providing extremely interesting experiences that nobody assumed Home would provide.
So, what’s the company to do? They’re intending a huge overhaul of the service, which has been in open beta now for almost three years. The overhaul will see the online meeting space and casual game emporium turned into a kind of social gaming hub.
In an interview with VentureBeat, Jack Buser, Home’s director, has outlined their plans for the services future.
We are going to ‘up level’ games as the heart of PlayStation Home. This means that Home itself is going to become a game. The first things you see when you get into Home are games.
The newly designed service will launch in the Autumn and will include a focus on the hardcore gamers who wish to share their love of gaming. According to VentureBeat, who have been shown the service, the new hub will be a kind of large scale social game in itself as well as allowing access to user generated content, socialising, shopping and viewing.
The new hub will also allow users to teleport into a number of genre-themes areas which allow for socialising in areas more closely linked to a user’s favourite genre. For example, there’s a gritty urban setting for action game lovers, a sports area with scores and highlights and a jungle-themed “adventure” area.
Source: VentureBeat
DR-DAVROS
HOME needs something to pull me in.
Trophy rooms – would be nice but not a must have.
TV – TV in room where you can stream movie’s and watch with friends not sure if thats possible :)
Photo’s – Have ability to share photo’s with family\friends in your apartment.
Avatars – Already mentioned this in past and someone mentions it above but yes using your avatar in game would be good if possible.
How about XGC only works via Home so you setup your party then launch a game. Probably not going to happen if the XMB os can’t handle it due to memory. Im still unsure why it was mentioned in a PR doc for PS+ aswell as other sources.
jmg24bad
if you say its not a must have, your less likely to recieve it ;)
e8
Hope the eu square is demolished & the something similar to original square is built. (miss the fish & tranquillity. Orig sq was cool.)
John Malcolm
What’s the point of this waste of time and money at all? Buying non-existent stuff for a flat that doesn’t exist (but has a nice view), and buying clothes for an avatar so you can go dancing with non-existent people added by the system to make the place look busy?
If Sony had put the money squandered on Home into something useful, say proper security for the PSN, then we would have been less likely to have been hacked in the first place…
colossalblue
I share your opinion of Home – it’s not for me at all.
Everything else you say is completely unfounded though. Home makes substantial amounts of money by selling that virtual tat to millions of people willing to buy it. That’s why Sony sinks development time into it. And non existent people? You mean like bots? I’d be interested to see you prove that claim…
e8
the old reply… games/home & dlc, all virtual & the later merely enhances the former.
xdarkmagician
Right now the 3+g Home takes up on my HDD is more valuable to me than Home is. My biggest issue with Home is it’s never been the service that was ‘promised’. Even so, Home still has potential. I hope they can create something that is more accessible and useful to the hardcore gamer. IMO Home is currently a novelty, you only really need to visit it during E3, Gamescom, or during special contest. And adding any kind of trophy to ‘bribe’ people into visiting Home would ruin both Home and whatever credibility trophies currently have.
Awayze
Let people use their Home Avatar picture as your PSN Avatar picture. This would make a lot of people go into Home to create an Avatar and check out stuff whilst they’re there;
Add trophies.
Jakster123x
Well, it sounds interesting but I can’t really see Home having a full overhaul on the PS3 due to lack of RAM etc, so I think a fully fledged Home will be on PS4 but a new hub is certainly an intriguing idea, especially if the focus is put on games.
Maybe they’ve cut down the load times, too…
Foxhound_Solid
Crackalacking….
jmg24bad
hmm i enjoy ps home alot so any good changes are welcome
gaffers101
Haven’t been on Home for ages, not since the mass photo. Not really fussed what they do with it TBH.