Phil Harrison's GDC keynote - Home, LittleBigPlanet & more

[scooby_dooby]

People have to remember , not long ago there were doubts that Sony could achieve anything near XBLive and it would take several years to have something compareable.

This is launching one year in, and I think it's modular? So it will probably grow over a few years, we'll have to see it in action this Nov.

 

[AlNom]

Anyone get a feeling of Shadowrun's Cyberspace from this? Seems pretty similar to me, except for the fact that you aren't neuro-linked.

How ironic.

 

[_phil_]

People comparing Home to the Sims should try to dig a lot more into the information at disposal to get a better understanding ,else they shouldn't even be allowed to discuss the subject...

 

[geeQ]

Hi all, new member here.
Just wanted to say I think Sony's new online 'Home' environment looks and sounds like it has the 'potential' at least to be the killer of all killer apps. I say potential because obviously there are many questions and issues which Sony will need to address before it becomes a success. However everybody knows how successful 'The Sims' and 'Myspace' have been and how they have managed to attract a wider audience in general. Could it be that we really should start to view PS3 as much more than a games console?
As for LittleBigPlanet, upon watching the preview movie for the first time I simply could not stop myself from smiling.. It looks fresh, vibrant and above all fun!
Well done to Sony for turning things around.

 

[DieH@rd]

We will know more about Home in April with beta testing...

 

[JNewt427]

Home looks great IMO, and looks to have allot of potential, but I can't sit here and read this thread knowing that the door swings both ways when I say "potential. What I mean by that is some users will be out to try and do nothing but find and use exploits or "glitching" for lack of a better word. Or at least some form or another of miss use. Sony desperately needs to stay on top of this as I have seen for my own eyes the deterioration of one of Sony's biggest online games, the "SOCOM" series. In the last 2 years Sony which bought Zipper the makers of SOCOM have literally faulted on every single aspect of PR support. I won't get into details but simply put, you can't play the game anymore because of glitchers or cheaters, and they have yet to release a patch to fix the issues at hand and it's been over a year and half now. The latest Socom game is great but it's everyone else that uses it that has ruined the game, and Sony just sat there and let it happen!.

 

[inefficient]

They have yet to release a patch to fix the issues at hand and it's been over a year and half now.

PS2 not having a HD kind of makes patching difficult...

PS3 on the other hand, we can expect to see regular patches.

 

[swanlee]

"People comparing Home to the Sims should try to dig a lot more into the information at disposal to get a better understanding ,else they shouldn't even be allowed to discuss the subject."

I saw the presentation and it's the sims for the PS3 plain and simple. Why people are having jizz fits about how revolutionary it is I have no idea.

 

[JNewt427]

PS2 not having a HD kind of makes patching difficult...

PS3 on the other hand, we can expect to see regular patches.

They released a patch back in SOCOM 2 as well as the begaining of SOCOM 3 they did it with a download, it's size was 3000kb and fit on the standard 8MB memory card.

 

[archangelmorph]

"People comparing Home to the Sims should try to dig a lot more into the information at disposal to get a better understanding ,else they shouldn't even be allowed to discuss the subject."

I saw the presentation and it's the sims for the PS3 plain and simple. Why people are having jizz fits about how revolutionary it is I have no idea.

Why do people always like to come and bring negativity to every thread..?

If you don't like it then thats fine, but don't label those who are impressed by it as "having jizz fits"..

Everyone's entitled to there own oppinion so you should respect everyone else's as much as they respect yours..

 

[mckmas8808]

Shooting a game of pool with your friend could be a easy way to cool down after playing some Resistence online for 2 hours straight.

Why wouldn't some people want to do this? I mean Uno is a big hit on Xbox Live right?

 

[Johnny Awesome]

Am I the only person who isn't impressed? I think MS got the right idea with a minimalist interface that enables people do do things like see if friends are online, see who the last 20 people they played with were and negative rep somebody in two or three buttons while in a game. Home seems nifty, but unless you can check your characters cell phone to see if a friend is online while waiting to respawn in Killzone (which brings its own problems in the form of resource use) I don't see it being very practical.

Sony seems to have focused too much on the features and lost sight of the main objective. An online interface like this is like a car with an entertainment system that takes so much energy the car won't start with it on. The feature itself is really nice, but all I need is stereo sound at a reasonable volume so I can listen to something while I drive.

You're not the only one. Personally I think that Home is a joke from a gamer's standpoint. Who wants a cluttered interface when they can have everything at their fingertips with the X360 Dashboard? I'm sure some casual gamers might want to play Barbie doll and happy homemaker in Home, but I see this stuff as pretty insignificant for gaming.

 

[Tap In]

It does all Live can do and more, and Live was the best online service anyone could've imagined a couple of days ago.

I agree that it is a very cool interface. i like it.

But until EVERY game is online enabled and has unified voice/friend/chat/invite functions and features compatible between games, it is still not the equal (let alone better) than Live.

the Front end (with home) will now be better than XBL's front end, I'll grant you that. (no doubt) but the IN GAME features are still behind.

Now most people say... but yea that will be patched... but until Sony creates a unified structure for the Devs to hook into or forces them to abide by an "EVERY game has these online features edict" (as Live does) I will continue to say that it is lacking (and that is fine since it's free).

MS can offer that edict to devs because the online features are built into the hardware and they just need to be hooked into rather than the devs build the online from the ground up.

again... home is amazing for what it offers on the front end and some people will live there daily, I'm sure in their virtual worlds but for someone like me, who spends 80% of their time on the console playing online games, I expect Sony to offer those aforementioned in-game features. So far they have not hinted at any of those features being required for games.

 

[Npl]

"People comparing Home to the Sims should try to dig a lot more into the information at disposal to get a better understanding ,else they shouldn't even be allowed to discuss the subject."

I saw the presentation and it's the sims for the PS3 plain and simple. Why people are having jizz fits about how revolutionary it is I have no idea.

Im not going into comparing Sims and Home, but the biggest oppurtunity is that "Home" aint in a vacuum like the sims (or Second Life) - you will have tyins to many creative Studios that work on PS3-Games.
Dozends of developers beside Sony will stress their grey matter to outdo each other to promote their games in HOME. Compare it to UT, where we seen mutators and total conversion that play nothing like the original game.
So if theres a new "Theme Park", you might be able to visit just such in Home, free of charge - just for promotional reasons. Shooters might offer a glimpse of their levels and gameplay by providing a paintball game in "Home", and I can only marvel what a "Katamari" in "Home" would look like.

 

[Tap In]

Shooting a game of pool with your friend could be a easy way to cool down after playing some Resistence online for 2 hours straight.



Why wouldn't some people want to do this? I mean Uno is a big hit on Xbox Live right?

I would. I do it now with an XBL arcade game "Bankshot Billiards 2". It's a really cool physics based pool game. One of my favorite little Live Arcade "wind me down" games.

 

[_phil_]

I saw the presentation and it's the sims for the PS3 plain and simple. Why people are having jizz fits about how revolutionary it is I have no idea.

it look to me that it's you that is plain and simple .It's much more myspace meets second life than the sims.the most obvious reason is that people are real ones ,not AI bots virtual tamagochi ...

 

[patsu]

Honestly, I don't understand what makes this a considerable step above and byeond every other online service to date? Is it because it's 3D? I just don't see it.

Perhaps it's because you're taking a one-dimensional utilitarian look at things. HOME is not so. The XMB addresses those utility needs. Its objectives are to provide convenience, ease of use and quick access to certain functions online and offline. We will get these for free.

Besides incorporating XMB (in the form of a virtual PSP), HOME is a whole new world for online exploration (to discover new things at your own sweet time), rich interaction (personal expression, communication via emotes, video, voice and text), marketing (online developer events, clan activities) and commerce. One doesn't have to join in if it does not interest you but it is there for people to hang out. I have guys coming over to my website and hangout in a 2" x 3" shoutbox everyday. I sure can see more messing around in a full blown customizable environment.

What we saw is only the technology. Home is a service. You might want to check out Habbo Hotel to see how online activities drummed up by the community leaders and the organizers can build strong community (and profitable business).

They took the gaming lounge and combined it with the social aspect of an mmo. It's neat, but I think the result that was shown is not quite as spectacular as people are making it out to be.

As evident in this GDC, Sony is not stupid. Give them time to pan out. In terms of approach, we are talking about smart people from the industry (Sony and developers) plus the user community coming together to build and extend a common environment. Xbox LIVE (even with XNA Express) for instance is an almost totally MS controlled thing. What Sony is trying to say is that HOME, like LittleBigPlanet, is also Game 3.0.

All of the services you listed are great. Live started it and Sony is rightly following suit. Those features will most likely exist independently of Home, or at least they should. The rest of Home is not really remarkable to me. I don't think it's bad, I just don't think it's quite as revolutionary or ground-breaking as it's being made out. I guess it's the interface that I find unremarkable, as you put it.

That's partly because Sony didn't show all, and you're only seeing the utilitarian side of the formula.

EDIT:

I think people are vastly overrating HOME, PS3 fans are so giddy when they don't have bad news for the PS3 they seem to spaz out on anything. it is the sims for the PS, as a person with a job, a life and a woman that actually lives with me, the whole internet sims deal has no appeal for me. If anything it is another distraction from actual game content.

I have met MTV VJs, models, air stewardesses, nurses, college students, Go-Kart racers, doctors, teachers, software engineers, retail store owners, artists, ... in my own online community. All of them have real jobs, exciting lives (including night lives). Some like myself are married (Others not). I don't see what your point is

The 3D world technology is not new. There are some usability limitations which I hope Sony will address with the same vigor they showed us in GDC. Other than that, I think PS Home is shaping up rather well so far

 

[Tap In]

Perhaps it's because you're taking a one-dimensional utilitarian look at things. HOME is not so. The XMB addresses those utility needs. The objectives are to provide convenience, ease of use and quick access to certain functions online and offline. We will get these for free.

Besides incorporating XMB (in the form of a virtual PSP), HOME is a whole new world for online exploration (to discover new things at your own sweet time), rich interaction (personal expression, communication via emotes, video, voice and text), marketing (online developer events, clan activities) and commerce. One doesn't have to join in if it does not interest you but it is there for people to hang out. I have guys coming over to my website and hangout in a 2" x 3" shoutbox everyday. I sure can see more messing around in a full blown customizable environment...l.

it sounds really cool but I'm a loner for the most part so.... can I lock my virtual door or be invisible?

 

[patsu]

it sounds really cool but I'm a loner for the most part so.... can I lock my virtual door or be invisible?

You should be able to... but given that you're here with us, I wouldn't say you're a loner at all.

 

[mckmas8808]

I would. I do it now with an XBL arcade game "Bankshot Billiards 2". It's a really cool physics based pool game. One of my favorite little Live Arcade "wind me down" games.

I'm glad someone thinks like me. I wish you had a PS3.