Following on from the report this morning, Sony (or at least, SCEA) have gone all out and produced a fancy press release about the upcoming changes to PlayStation Home. I remember the Beta, it was hugely exciting to finally get access all those moons ago, and although my attention drifted elsewhere quickly I’ve been in and out a few times since it launched to see what’s new.
[drop2]Well, it looks like Home is going to get all fancied up, with lots of new areas and a completely new approach to gamers at the centre of it all. The new hub will integrate games, quests and events (and user-generated content, apparently) which also adding better navigation, entertainment and shopping options.There’ll be teleports to genre-based districts from there, which will be aimed at specific types of games and styled to match, such as the Action District which caters for the “hardcore” demographic, and sports a “gritty, urban feel reminiscent of a first person shooter” which will lead to action and horror games. Other areas include the Sportswalk, Adventure District and Pier Park, which is aimed at puzzle and arcade games.
Quests are what really makes Home what it is (who can forget the brilliant Xi which TSA exclusively teased) and there’ll be a central focus on quests for those that like to get really involved, and judging by the numbers Sony have sent over, there’s lots of you doing just that. 23 million users have tried Home, the average time per session is 70 minutes and there are over 230 games, 9,000 virtual items, 65 spaces, 600 community events and the support of over 35 partners.
Oh, and that Home Trophy room that was first shown off when Home was but a prefab? Not happening. “This… evolved into ‘Total Game Integration'” said Jack Buser over on the US Blog, “where your activity in Home can unlock exclusive content in your favorite games, including special weapons, experience points, and much more. Examples include Killzone 3, Dead Island, and more to be announced soon.”
bacon_nuts
Ugh, dont want to have to go on home to get a gun in Killzone 3, If I buy a game, I don’t want to be made to stand about in home to get the most of it. Other than that, cool.
e8
FFS, a worrying approach, very worrying. Activity ingame, unlocks items in home much better. This reminds when various pre-order bonuses became a trend, someone looses & is at a disadvantage ingame. Put me on a bit of a downer there jack. Where the hell do they get these idead from, that messes things up.
Jim H [Teabags]
If Home loads quicker and is generally easier to get into then I’m all for a reboot. Hopefully the games will be much better this time around too.
Jakster123x
Yeah, I read the blog post and Jack mentions that they’ve updated the core client, meaning a much mire streamlined service, apparently. Hopefully that comes to fruition, it is leaking my interest.
The quests that update every day sounds both interesting and a difficult promise to keep. We’ll see how it pans out.
Jakster123x
More*
Everytime!!!
MrJimmy
yep the load time is the biggest barrier bar none.
Phil_E
I would still like the trophy room, even if I don’t invite my PSN friends to my spaces on Home (which I don’t) I would still like it to add just that little bit more depth to the achievement.
tonycawley
Agreed. I don’t understand who makes these decisions. “ok, lots of people want a virtual trophy room. Loads of them want it. Let’s not do it.” Just seems stupid.
DrNate86
There will be some difficulty somewhere down the line that has prevented it. Sony knows how much chatter there was about it, like with cross game chat, so the fact it hasn’t happened must mean some issue reared it’s ugly head.
tonycawley
I was thinking this. I’m thinking every trophy game ever would have to have retro-designed trophies to display in 3d model form.
moshi
My trophy syncing takes forever these days to load up if I’m lucky to escape the Error code so that booting up every time in Home would surely cripple it for good.
Kitch
This is all good news. However, I am slightly worried. I have bought a few pads and bits and bobs. I hope these carry over to the new Home. But this all looks good.
Sympozium Pawa
I don’t think they’ll do that, Sony know that Millions of Home users would’ve bought premium space and if that was gone…. Call Centers would fall to the might of the consumer.
DrNate86
Yeah I wouldn’t worry buddy, there’s no way they would wipe people’s paid content!
Mason_Mk
Loading and waiting times kill it for me every time, i love home otherwise.
Normal procedure for home is log on, download update, load up, download a space, wait half hour for people to appear properly, things to load, video streams to load etc., realise there’s no games available since they are ‘taken’, leave to another space, re-download it, wait half hour again, log off.
TSBonyman
It would be neat if your progress in Killzone 3 allowed you access to a weapon you could use anywhere in Home.. ;)
cam the man
Haven’t been to Home for months but it sounds like it could be worth another look.
I hope the load times are vastly improved.
e8
Looks like if we want to get the best out of & be on a level playing in certain titles, we have to go in home. Bad move imo.
If this gets implemented, they need to cater for mature gamers. I’m 40 in a few yrs time & don’t want to be near home as it is now.
Foxhound_Solid
Cooool. Agreed on the trophy room/cabinet though…
jmg24bad
ok for EVERY TROPHY that is in a ps3 game , it has to have a virtual representation……. how many ps3 games have them? Try programming that and drawing up the room.
Dimpoc
So long as they sort out game launching i’ll come back home.
tonycawley
I never really got the point of game launching. Why not just quit home and launch the game? Actually works out fewer button presses to do that anyway.
Dimpoc
When I say game launching I mean being able to meet up with a people in home and launch into a multiplayer party or private game with those people. If they can achieve this feat this would make home so much better. I would like to think home as multiplayer gaming foreplay.
Also if this feature was implemented well you it would make clans spaces in home make more sense. Also they could even facilitate tournaments using this feature in home.