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

[-tkf-]

"We've been working on Home for about two-and-a-half years," he said. "So we're absolutely aware of other avatar-based (environments), but we're taking a different approach."

I was wondering about that. With the public beta coming up next month already and release targetted for the Fall, this thing has to have been coming for quite some time. From Phil's words, it seems they started on it half a year before E3 2005. So must have gone out of their way to keep this a secret - and of course it's understandable why.

I think he mentions it started on the PS2?

Must have been a really scaled down rough version

 

[Gradthrawn]

Another thing I was thinking about..consider if the ESA (organisers of E3) created a themed E3 space where people could gather and, perhaps, watch live streams of conferences or the like.

Could you imagine the type of demand that event would put on the servers?

Eurogamer live blog of an event on a big screen in their space. Now, you might wonder why do this if you can just go online on your PC and watch the live-blog, but again, I think people are already inclined toward sharing those events, and it would be cool to be able to do that in a console community. Something like home could facilitate that perfectly.

Exclusive, "Home only," content could push that further. Instead of a watching Eurogamer's live blog, and waiting for the video of the conference, have a live stream at the Home Theater along with exclusive video interviews. Followed by a moderated live Q&A session with Phil in Home, as his avatar. Something like that, I think, could really drive the community.

 

[DJ12]

Could you imagine the type of demand that event would put on the servers?

Not as much as you'd think, seeing as P2P seems to be integrated into home the load would be shared.

I don't think gamespots server(s) have ever melted down streaming the e3 conferences live.

 

[Arwin]

I think he mentions it started on the PS2?

Must have been a really scaled down rough version

If Yamauchi Kazuno had anything to do with it (which he's likely to, isn't he, considering his SCE position?), then I can imagine this as how he wanted to start the lobby, invite people to your Gran Turismo garage, chat, and start a race from there. I could definitely see that work in Playstation Home. Come to think of it, that overview of trophies probably were 95% GT5 ... lol.

 

[Gradthrawn]

Not as much as you'd think, seeing as P2P seems to be integrated into home the load would be shared.

I don't think gamespots server(s) have ever melted down streaming the e3 conferences live.

Ah, yes, you have a point. The large spike in users Home would see is no different than something Gamespot or IGN sees during the same time. However, I don't think P2P would play a part in an event like this. The content is coming from a server, not from someone's PS3. In addition, Home servers are not just serving up text and video, there's a lot of additional functionality that they're providing (and/or facilitating).


Not sure if this has been posted yet, but here's some information from a Q&A with Phil that answers some of the questions people have been asking:

PSN Userbase

Currently, 500,000 PS3 owners in North American have registered for the PlayStation Network, about 50% of the current U.S. installed base. After Home launches this fall, Harrison believes the number of registered online users will increase significantly. Though he admits "it's not going to be for everybody," Harrison can't see any reason why 100% of PS3 owners won't mess around with Home in some capacity.

Second Homelife?

Since the big reveal, fans and members of the media have repeatedly compared Home to the PC social experiment Second Life. Harrison called such comparisons "way over-simplifying both" Home and Second Life. While the two do have characters walking around a 3D world, Harrison believes the similarities end there. Second Life is almost exclusively driven by user-created content, while Home is an entertainment-focused environment in which almost everything is provided by Sony or third party supporters.

For the Parents

Home adheres to Sony's parental controls. There are several blockers that can be switched on to keep people safe from abusive gamers. In fact, you can mute anyone in Home or choose not to see their character at all. And since there is not physical interaction between characters (sorry pervs), there's no reason anyone should be able to bug you for longer than it takes to hit a button on the Sixaxis controller.

What about lobby size?!

Beyond abuse, a common concern has been the server size of Home. While no one at Sony is giving exact numbers, there is a hardcap limit of how many can be on a server at a given time. The overflow simply spills into the next server. And yes, there is a plan for intelligent grouping so that friends stay together on the same server.

But they'll nickel and dime you for everything!

Everything in Home sounds pretty damn cool, but it's hard to believe Sony can offer all of this and continue its model of having its Network be free of charge. Well, believe in miracles, because you can enjoy Home for free. Granted, selling premium content will be part of Home's business model (as will advertising), you do get quite a bit for free.

Once you download Home this fall, you have free access to all of the public spaces, your own character, some accessories, furniture and your own apartment. Other items, including additional clothing, are unlocked via premium content, offered free as advertising by third parties and earned by playing PS3 games. Pricing is not something Sony is ready to discuss, but Harrison said, "We have given it a lot of thought."

Outside of Home

One cool way to upgrade your pad is by customizing the view out your window. Everyone's house has "the perfect view" so that no one is stuck looking down into an alley. However, there will be different options for what is outside your window. You may want to look out over a lake, for example. To make your lake view different than others, Sony plans to offer some extras to place in the background. You could put a boat floating out by the lake or perhaps have a flock of birds fly by in the horizon.

AND FINALLY:

I don't want a clunky 3-D interface, I just want to do [whatever]!!

If none of this sounds appealing, fear not. Just about everything you can do in Home can also be done through the cross media bar. It just won't look as cool.

 

[cthellis42]

And since there is not physical interaction between characters (sorry pervs), there's no reason anyone should be able to bug you for longer than it takes to hit a button on the Sixaxis controller.

First no porn on Blu-Ray, and now no hanky-panky on Home? Oh Sony, when will you learn?!

 

[mckmas8808]

The developer/publisher spaces idea has a tonne of potential when you think about it. I didn't really think to much of it initially, but thinking about it, it could be quite powerful.

It was being discussed on GAF, but it would be very neat if a developer can host online tournaments in their games from a themed dedicated space, with displays around you potentially streaming video from the games people were playing, or perhaps if it was possible, live video. Imagine in a tournament, people launching into, say, races from this dedicated space, watching them race live on a big screen, and then having them return back to the space afterwards to congratulations (or comiserations) from the rest of the people participating there.

Another thing I was thinking about..consider if the ESA (organisers of E3) created a themed E3 space where people could gather and, perhaps, watch live streams of conferences or the like. These kinds of events are very 'social' in a kind of weird way already for people online..people go on to messageboards and post furiously during them. So to be able to share that experience within a closed console community would be very cool. Ditto, media outlets could create spaces to pipe their coverage too. Harrison mentioned during the demo that partners can put html on displays, so if that can be HTML hosted elsewhere, it could be pretty easy for a 1up or IGN to integrate their existing set ups with that. So, for example, you could go and keep tabs of a Eurogamer live blog of an event on a big screen in their space. Now, you might wonder why do this if you can just go online on your PC and watch the live-blog, but again, I think people are already inclined toward sharing those events, and it would be cool to be able to do that in a console community. Something like home could facilitate that perfectly.

Of course, these are all "coulds and woulds" right now, mere possibilities. But I guess just the more I think about it, the more potential I see there.

Great post. More people need to read through this post here.

 

[mckmas8808]

Thanks for bolding the last part.

 

[Tap In]

The developer/publisher spaces idea has a tonne of potential when you think about it. I didn't really think to much of it initially, but thinking about it, it could be quite powerful.

It was being discussed on GAF, but it would be very neat if a developer can host online tournaments in their games from a themed dedicated space, with displays around you potentially streaming video from the games people were playing, or perhaps if it was possible, live video. Imagine in a tournament, people launching into, say, races from this dedicated space, watching them race live on a big screen, and then having them return back to the space afterwards to congratulations (or comiserations) from the rest of the people participating there.

Another thing I was thinking about..consider if the ESA (organisers of E3) created a themed E3 space where people could gather and, perhaps, watch live streams of conferences or the like. ...

what am I, chopped liver?

 

[Titanio]

Not as much as you'd think, seeing as P2P seems to be integrated into home the load would be shared.

I don't think gamespots server(s) have ever melted down streaming the e3 conferences live.

A live stream probably wouldn't be p2ped..since p2p-ed stuff might not be totally synched up. For broadcasting to lots of people also it probably makes more sense to serve it from a server. But technically it should be possible for Sony to allow third parties to serve video content from their own servers. If that were the case, someone in Home watching a Live stream would be no different than someone on a PC watching a Live stream, and during conferences etc. Gamespot's own servers seem to be OK.

Allowing (trusted) third party partners to embed content - html, video - hosted elsewhere would seem to make sense.

On a slightly different note, I kind of hope we can embed our own html onto displays, hosted elsewhere on the internet even. I suppose a web browser accessible via displays would serve that purpose well. It would open the world up nicely to 'the real world' and the rest of the internet. Openess and interoperability in terms of net access, and perhaps other communication, would be really nice (I'd love if the messaging system was interoperable with others for example, although it could probably never be with the one I use myself currently thanks to politics i.e. MSN :/).

what am I, chopped liver?

Haha, sorry, I haven't read through the whole thread So I suppose everything I say should be prefaced with "If no one else has mentioned it..."

 

[Tap In]

Haha, sorry, I haven't read through the whole thread So I suppose everything I say should be prefaced with "If no one else has mentioned it..."

it's ok. most people assume when I'm in a "Sony" thread, I have nothing worthy to say anyway.

 

[Carl B]

it's ok. most people assume when I'm in a "Sony" thread, I have nothing worthy to say anyway.

That's not true Tap In.

 

[Asher]

I haven't read much of the thread (and thus not sure if it's been menitoned) but Second Life anyone?

[edit] Mentioned in the first post. I don't want to sound overly-critical, but it seems like Sony's just pulling another "let's copy something else and change it a bit". Can they not come up with anything truly original?

It seems like a Second Life-meets-Microsoft-Bob kind of thing. I can see why there's hype behind it, but honestly after the novelty wears off it's just going to be a clunky way of accessing features people would prefer to get directly via the XMB.

 

[mckmas8808]

It seems like a Second Life-meets-Microsoft-Bob kind of thing. I can see why there's hype behind it, but honestly after the novelty wears off it's just going to be a clunky way of accessing features people would prefer to get directly via the XMB.

Those things can be accessed from the XMB.

 

[rabidrabbit]

It's not just about accessing your media, achievements, friends... you can't set up a 3D avatar of yourself and apartment on XMB for example.
XMB is not a "virtual world" like "Home", it's just a simple UI.

It's not for everyone, that's for sure. Like first person shooters aren't for everyone.
But there's plenty of people spending their time and money on software and services like Habbo Hotel, Sims games, Second Life... to make generalicing comments like

"after the novelty wears off it's just going to be a clunky way of accessing features people would prefer to get directly via the XMB"

sound a bit odd.

 

[Gradthrawn]

Those things can be accessed from the XMB.

I guess my quote wasn't big enough for everybody, eh? Not sure how he missed that.

 

[wco81]

But the content you access through the XMB right now is non-existent.

There isn't very much third-party game trailers or demos and downloading from the PS Store is painful.

You can add Friends through the XMB but you can't access these Friends through any games yet.

Did the rumors about Sony delaying networking libraries to developers pertain to XMB functionality?

Or did Sony hold back because they wanted developers to integrate Home as the online UI for all PS3 games?

And does Sony plan to improve the backend infrastructure for XMB at all or are they going to emphasize Home for infrastructure investments and hence better experience?

 

[Asher]

I guess my quote wasn't big enough for everybody, eh? Not sure how he missed that.

It was not missed at all, I don't know how you guys read into my statement that I said accessing it via the XMB was not possible. Just that people will prefer to access it via the XMB rather than through Home after a while, just like people preferred to access their applications on the PC via the Windows Desktop than via MS Bob after a while.

 

[Asher]

It's not just about accessing your media, achievements, friends... you can't set up a 3D avatar of yourself and apartment on XMB for example.

You can bet that in order to set up any reasonably customized apartment, you're going to pay with microtransactions.

Long story short, this is what I believe to be a novelty interest. There's no real point to it, or depth. It's a bit neat but it's not a system-selling feature, nor is it something that will be important in the long run.

It's not for everyone, that's for sure. Like first person shooters aren't for everyone.
But there's plenty of people spending their time and money on software and services like Habbo Hotel, Sims games, Second Life... to make generalicing comments like sound a bit odd.

Very few people are spending their money on Habbo Hotel and Second Life; and The Sims is a very different comparison as it is genuinely a game -- not a graphical chat room. If anything is to be compared, this sounds more like The Sims Online which was a complete failure in terms of popularity.

 

[Npl]

You can add Friends through the XMB but you can't access these Friends through any games yet.

Did the rumors about Sony delaying networking libraries to developers pertain to XMB functionality?

Or did Sony hold back because they wanted developers to integrate Home as the online UI for all PS3 games?

Stoopid guess on my side, but Sony might have waited till HOME is in a stable enough state, and now can release libraries that work both from XMB and HOME.

I mean the common features should be functionally the same, a common interface would be quite natural