[slider]

Thanks for posting Patsu. I had seen that but, frankly, it was getting embarrassing with my continual edits to that post of mine.

Plus of course real life gets in the way!

Good to see the news about Ubisoft. Coinciding with Ubidays itself; minute by minute if I have my timings right (is Paris an hour ahead of GMT??). Bit of a shame that they don't have anything upcoming (that I know of) that'd really interest me. For now I'm getting off on the evolution of the tech/nature of Home. This is what a lot of us had wanted when the media sharing aspects were revealed.

Better still, not long to go.

[Gradthrawn]

Here's a video. Very interesting. I think Shifty and I were just talking about this. Recreating a trade show in Home. The video shows PSDay 08.

The online Media & Events Space can be re-dressed and re-branded just like a real-life venue. Following the test event’s success, Home will now start scheduling more elaborate and exciting productions for the Space, which will be available for use by both first and third parties.

EDIT

Never mind. Missed slider's edit about the Threespeech video.

[Jaeyden]

This is really exciting. Certainly some of the best news about Home in recent weeks. Y'all will have to keep us updated on how it goes.

[patsu]

They still have quite some way to go. Imagine live Gran Turismo racing event coverage (http://kotaku.com/5011256/gran-turis...demy-kicks-off) in Playstation Home, racing celebrity attendees, race queens, cheering for teams, "instant win" lucky draws for gamers, followed by direct game launching to GT5 with friends after the event.

[Shifty Geezer]

Originally Posted by patsu

They still have quite some way to go. Imagine live Gran Turismo racing event coverage.

Imagine PS3 owners actually being able to use Home!

[patsu]

That's so painfully true.

[DJ12]

It's about time they just opened it up if you ask me.

Make it reasonably hard to download so not just anyone can get it, just those that want in on the beta period and understand what that entails.

[patsu]

Ubi Day's over:
http://kotaku.com/5011511/this-is-ho...od-you-with-pr

Sony throw up videos and screenshots of upcoming games in a virtual exhibition. It all sounds great in theory, but as the clip above shows, it's going to take a particular breed of person/fanboy to be bothered running around a virtual space (complete with eerily disembodied David Reeves talking head) just to see a clip when they're only a few mouse-clicks away on this here internet.

Yes, I feel the same way by looking at the clip. The formula for virtual exhibition still needs to be refined. Even in a virtual world, the focus should be on consolidating/summarizing popular and valuable activities, and making them available one step away.

* People should be able to view the media in their apartments, clanrooms, Home game lobbies (suspend the game search), or virtual PSP... as long as there is a TV screen. Chat should be part of the video watching. Walking/running should not be required at all.

* Q&A with the organizer and guests should always be possible and organized/automated.

* Recording of the event should be possible.

Don't worry about the virtual world. Serve the user needs first. As long as the users are happy, they will decorate and use the space over time. Work on web integration and improve the browser (e.g., Web surfaces should be allowed). As long as people can access their favorite sites from Home, they may not mind lingering around slightly longer and sharing their findings.

[slider]

I think that Kotaku vid is a few days old Patsu. From the Judges Day or whatever it was called. I do take their point about things being a few clicks away on a PC.

As long as there's a virtual psp button that'll take you straight to an event (rather than having to jostle for a view of the screen!) it won't be as niche as they're hinting at. Or alternatively the suggestions you make.

Of course content will be king again. If reveals are done (time)exclusively in Home there will be a market. But that's a whole other discussion.

[patsu]

Yeah, both the Judges Day and Ubiday were over. The video is indeed from the Judges Day, but I think Ubiday has the same format.

EDIT: slider, Kotaku and I are referring to the way the events were organized and executed. It's not as effective and useful if they simply do a simulated, off-line event.
They will need to repackage it to fit the Home environment. You're right to say that PS Home may already have the foundation to address the concerns. There may be some gaps that prevents certain use cases though. We won't know until Sony experiment and optimize the event experience further.

[patsu]

Dress was one of the applications highlighted together with Home. I am not quite sure what the relationships between them are.

Here's more details about Dress: http://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/fa...?news_id=59583

PUMA by Mihara Yasuhiro introduces a worldwide preview of its collaboration with dress for PLAYSTATION3 (PS3) at Pitti Uomo.

...

Dress is a new interactive fashion software developed by, Sony Computer Entertainment’s Worldwide Studios, JAPAN Studio, that bridges the gap between the virtual world and real world of fashion.

Dress functions as an advanced ‘interactive fashion magazine’ where consumers can select and try on different outfits. The most innovative feature of Dress is it’s true to life representation of fashion models (rather than avatars) and fashion items and clothing.

Dress will eventually utilize PS3’s PLAYSTATION Network allowing fashion lovers to share and rate their original fashion designs and also host fashion shows and contests.

The Spring Summer 2009 PUMA By Mihara Yasuhiro apparel & footwear collections are featured in dress: an advanced software simulates all fabrics and colour options from the PUMA by Mihara Yasuhiro wardrobe allowing the user to select individual pieces that can be combined to create desired looks.

Models are then chosen from a panel to take part in a virtual catwalk show or dance sequence featuring the selected outfit.

[Shifty Geezer]

Originally Posted by patsu

Dress was one of the applications highlighted together with Home. I am not quite sure what the relationships between them are.

Dress is an embedded aspect to Home, as I understand it; one of the places you can visit when you join Home, where you can do...fashion stuff. Clearly hosting your own catwalks is one of the options, and designing your own clothes was another tooted feature, with the possibility of having them made, but I don't know how that'd work. I presume that'd be more a case of uploading images as printed textures on existing designs, rather than having full dress patterns cut and stitched together.

[patsu]

Originally Posted by Shifty Geezer

Dress is an embedded aspect to Home, as I understand it; one of the places you can visit when you join Home, where you can do...fashion stuff. Clearly hosting your own catwalks is one of the options, and designing your own clothes was another tooted feature, with the possibility of having them made, but I don't know how that'd work. I presume that'd be more a case of uploading images as printed textures on existing designs, rather than having full dress patterns cut and stitched together.

Yes, but I also heard that Dress uses a different avatar system. *If* this is true, then it seems that Dress is just another application, like how Home can launch a game from within.

May be they have updated Dress (or Home) to use a common avatar system. If not, a virtual world interoperability standard will be interesting:
http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/200...nd-linden.html

EDIT: Also, another minor leak on the Home beta: http://www.ps3-sense.nl/showthread.p...p=9059&goto=#1
I remember the photo frame wasn't working before. Now it is (could be working for some time already).

[one]

Thanks patsu, very cool update! I'm intrigued by dress for some time, its new business model and cloth simulation signify key aspects of PS3. It'll be one of the focuses in the non-game strategy recently announced by Hirai at the strategy meeting. Hopefully we get more details soon.

[patsu]

E3 to be broadcasted live in Home:
http://www.n4g.com/ps3/News-168300.aspx

Tuesday is the big day for the Sony press conference on E3 2008. To celebrate this Sony will give 25 beta accounts to the press in Europe. The Media and Events space will open on Monday where people can watch the press conference live on a big screen. Several billboards will contain new trailers of Sony's newest announcements.

So you can switch between watching the trailers and the live E3 coverage in Home ? (Just look at different billboards and video screens).

[Gradthrawn]

Originally Posted by patsu

E3 to be broadcasted live in Home:
http://www.n4g.com/ps3/News-168300.aspx



So you can switch between watching the trailers and the live E3 coverage in Home ? (Just look at different billboards and video screens).

Very nice.

Weren't some of us just discussing the possibility, or lack there of, for something like this in another thread? Our discussion may have revolved more around capacity and load, however, if memory serves me.

[deepbrown]

Originally Posted by Gradthrawn

Very nice.

Weren't some of us just discussing the possibility, or lack there of, for something like this in another thread? Our discussion may have revolved more around capacity and load, however, if memory serves me.

They did the same for Playstation Day in Europe.

[DieH@rd]

Originally Posted by patsu

E3 to be broadcasted live in Home:
http://www.n4g.com/ps3/News-168300.aspx

Do we know how many ppl can be in one area of Home?

[patsu]

64 for a regular room. Larger (100 ?) for special rooms. Multiple copies of the "same" room can be generated on-the-fly when this limit is reached.

[patsu]

By the way, the US Playstation site can now be linked to the Playstation Network. You'll get your "Portable ID" image like this:



It takes a few minutes for the Portable ID to become active. I think the EU Playstation site was already linked about 1-2 months ago.

[Arwin]

Eurogamer has a not too informative (i.e. deals with a fraction of what we already know) but fairly enthusiastic hands-on of Home:

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=194738

[patsu]

This is great news ! I hope eastmen sees this.

Best news for me is:

Running a speed test, I discovered that for a long time I'd been wandering around Home at dial-up speeds. While this obviously had an impact on media elements like the video buffering, I'd still been able to wander around and converse with a large crowd of people, all moving about in real time and doing robot dances, without any lag or stuttering. Okay, so it's not exactly Call of Duty 4, but it's a good illustration of how accessible the service can be.

Most of the beta testers I informally XMB messaged with agree:

I'll admit, I was far from convinced about Home. I've never felt the compulsion to have a Second Life, I routinely ignore my withering Facebook and MySpace accounts and I'm quite happy to manage my online gaming friends as names on a list. But after exploring Home for the best part of a day, I'm starting to see the appeal. Sony needs to work out exactly what features like Home Theatre and Game Space are actually going to offer in the long term, and much will depend on how much customisation you get in the initial download, but I can definitely see how this service could become incredibly addictive to those with lots of online PS3 contacts.

...but they want even more content.

[Shifty Geezer]

Yes, the experience sounded terribly sparse. The R2 voice chat sounds very good, working within earshot. But the example of bowling being a rather isolated affair doesn't invite one to go hang out with friends in the Game Space. As a social space, all games should have a significant social aspect, such as a big remote-control car track. A few nicknacks for your apartment will kill off interest. I hope a lot of stuff is available for customization, at least in response to playing/buying games as added incentive, rather than only nickel-and-dime-ing people for anything new. Otherwise the place will just be a bunch of cloned people in cloned spaces, and that'll be freaky enough to destroy much of the illusion.

There's also a question of realism. In one of the walkthroughs, the player had to find an arcade machine not being used. Well we're not tied to hardware! Why can't someone play the game just standing near it?

[patsu]

Originally Posted by Shifty Geezer

Yes, the experience sounded terribly sparse. The R2 voice chat sounds very good, working within earshot. But the example of bowling being a rather isolated affair doesn't invite one to go hang out with friends in the Game Space. As a social space, all games should have a significant social aspect, such as a big remote-control car track. A few nicknacks for your apartment will kill off interest. I hope a lot of stuff is available for customization, at least in response to playing/buying games as added incentive, rather than only nickel-and-dime-ing people for anything new. Otherwise the place will just be a bunch of cloned people in cloned spaces, and that'll be freaky enough to destroy much of the illusion.

Best is to use Mainichi Isshyo's approach. They have new items every week/episode. As long as you stick around long enough, you'll have tons of things to play with. This activity can help to grow the initial base.

The developers will also be able to value add (We saw R&C and MotorStorm constumes last year). This is the part where Sony is working on today, but I feel that Sony has to launch first to generate the momentum (i.e. create content on behalf of developers). It's fine that they want profitability but in a network services, initial investment is inevitable. Few companies want to take the lead if Sony only builds the base platform and hope that people will come.

In the future, the users can chip in too... when they open up the content creation to them. I feel that instead of saying it, they should start sooner than later -- starting with media sharing first (i.e., picture frame).

There's also a question of realism. In one of the walkthroughs, the player had to find an arcade machine not being used. Well we're not tied to hardware! Why can't someone play the game just standing near it?

Phil mentioned this before. You have the option of buying an arcade machine for your own apartment. The arcade machines in the public spaces is a form of game demo. The engine seems to be LUA-based. So technically, end users may be able to create these games too.

[Shifty Geezer]

It's all good in theory, but a look at PSPs download service, followed by a brief visit to the EU PSN store, amply demonstrates Sony's lack of commitment to content. Seriously, they don't even copy over all the same E3 vids from the US store the EU store! I think Home will be dependent on 3rd party additions. If EA, Acitivision-Blizzard and maybe external companies like Addidas/Nike compete for attention, content could grow. But I can't see them investing without a substantial interest, and Sony won't keep that long if they don't launch with enough to keep things interesting.