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

[Scott_Arm]

Like iPods + iTunes ? Playstation Home + Playstations (Xbox Live + Xbox 360) is still big business. Otherwise why would such a large company like MS be bothered ?

No argument from me. It's big business and Sony is bound to make some money. I don't particularly care, because I'm the end user and I only care about the experience it provides me. I have no interest in financial sheets. Personally, I think locked-in systems are good for the companies and not good for the user.

Aren't you talking about Xbox Live ? Playstation Network is more open than Xbox Live because it allows third party participation and innovation. Playstation Home will bring in third party community services too.

As pointed out, openness is only one dimension. You need to take care of content integrity in a kids network too. Google is very leaky in pr0n protection.

Sure, it allows 3rd parties to add content, which is more open than Xbox Live at the moment. But it is still a Sony system and Sony holds the reigns and they are the vision that drives the overall system. Experimentation is only open to those that can flip the bill for licensing, from what I understand, and I doubt complete access to the underlying system will ever be granted to anyone outside of Sony. Real innovation in communication technology will continue outside of PS Home.

Content integrity is important as well as parental controls.

No one is denying MS's position. However a lot can be said about Sony in this GDC. LittleBigPlanet is now my definitive nextgen title for all ages. Home is something unique and intriguing, stirs much emotion, opens up revenue streams, differentiates Playstation brand, and consolidated Sony's offerings in 1 giant step. I have not seen reaction like this since E3 2005.

Granted Sony still has a lot to prove, but I think they are heading in the right direction.

Little Big Planet looks incredible. It makes me want to buy a PS3, where I had absolutely no interest before. Home I find a mixed bag. I'm obviously not a fan of the way they chose to present information. To me, the presentation is a novelty, but I like the services they are offering and that they do allow 3rd parties to have input in the overall system.

For its value, you already acknowledged the environment's richness and potential for advertisement and marketing. Computing devices are getting more powerful. Not to mention for the umpteenth time, there is a minimalist UI called Virtual PSP (XMB) that can be used for low power devices or quick access (Do I sound more and more like your mother now ?).

Advertisements are not something I look forward to, and neither is the marketing aspect. Sure, it's great for Sony and if I was an employee, I'd think it was wonderful. As an end user, it's not something I want to experience. It does allow free access to the basic functionality, which is good.

XMB is fine. It has a number of features I like. If XMB is a subset of Home, then I'd be happy to use it and ignore the rest, but I feel the rest would be a wasted effort that could be spent in other ways to add more value for the customer.

I don't think you need to worry about them. From the GDC presentations, you should already realize that Sony has an experienced and talented team behind this.

Communication with the outside world is not difficult (There are established standards and technologies to do so).

Well, hopefully I'll be accessing media on peoples PS3s through a web interface some day, as that would be a far more interesting and useful application of the Home features.

Again if it's a small business, why would MS be bothered ?

It's not a small business. It's a business worth quite a few dollars. It just doesn't happen to reach a great portion of the people in the world. They will bother because they're competing for the same customers.

I just don't see Home as the revolutionary product its being made out as, because by design it is exclusive to a niche audience. OLPC has potential to be a true communication revolution because it will reach people that have never owned a computer before and it will bring them into our information community.

You could say Home or Xbox Live might be revolutionary to a very small and specific market segment, but not in the scope of the world.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Oh ! now you need to save the world to be revolutionary ? That's news !
In the first place, must Playstation Home be revolutionary to be successful and competitive ? As it stands it's an exciting concept and extensible platform. Never done before in 1 (console) system... especially for free.

I suppose at this point we're arguing the semantics of the word, but I don't think Home is revolutionary. I don't think it will drastically alter the way the general public goes about its daily life even as much as google's services have.

The concept of home is not particularly exciting because it is a repackaging of many things that have already been done on Xbox Live, with some additions. That's great and everything, but I don't feel they've "raised the bar" dramatically, or that Microsoft should be worried about making a quick attempt to "catch up." It's not a whole lot different than other things the game space has experienced, just may be a few things put together from other places.

This thread started as a declaration that Sony was about to jump into an immense lead over Xbox Live with this revolutionary service, and I, as well as a few others, think its neither of those things. I don't think it's bad, I just outlined what I thought the drawbacks were, and what I thought they'd have to do if they really wanted to make something revolutionary that would permeate popular culture. There are a lot more exciting things going on in the computing space than PS Home.

 

[patsu]

Well, hopefully I'll be accessing media on peoples PS3s through a web interface some day, as that would be a far more interesting and useful application of the Home features.

Stay tuned. DLNA has been demonstrated on PSP and PS3 (I think Xbox 360's XMBC also supports it). DLNA is based on HTTP. So in a sense you should be able to browse and playback stored media on a PS3 (may be Xbox 360 too !) over the home network or even remotely.

I just don't see Home as the revolutionary product its being made out as, because by design it is exclusive to a niche audience. OLPC has potential to be a true communication revolution because it will reach people that have never owned a computer before and it will bring them into our information community.

You could say Home or Xbox Live might be revolutionary to a very small and specific market segment, but not in the scope of the world.

I don't know why you keep labelling Playstation Home as revolutionary. It doesn't have to be so. It's exciting enough for many Playstation owners as it stands. Some expected more or something different, but there is always room for improvements.

The concept of home is not particularly exciting because it is a repackaging of many things that have already been done on Xbox Live, with some additions. That's great and everything, but I don't feel they've "raised the bar" dramatically, or that Microsoft should be worried about making a quick attempt to "catch up." It's not a whole lot different than other things the game space has experienced, just may be a few things put together from other places.

Frankly, I don't think people care whether MS is worried or not. I feel good about my PS3 purchase and look forward to Playstation Home and LittleBigPlanet. Many people thought the 4D/jack-into-the-matrix talk was crazy, but Sony delivered (That's partly why it's amazing because the idea sounded so far out then). It's free and extensible too ! Some of us may even get to shape it via the closed beta. That's all there is to it. I posted because quite a few early posts have flawed data (myself included) or arguments.

This thread started as a declaration that Sony was about to jump into an immense lead over Xbox Live with this revolutionary service, and I, as well as a few others, think its neither of those things. I don't think it's bad, I just outlined what I thought the drawbacks were, and what I thought they'd have to do if they really wanted to make something revolutionary that would permeate popular culture. There are a lot more exciting things going on in the computing space than PS Home.

Re-read the thread again. I don't think it's that way. Some are excited, some see less value. The word "revolutionary" may be in your head more so than others.

 

[[maven]]

While I find Home interesting, I sure hope they don't forget simple things like cross-game invites and messaging (which de facto has very little to do with Home, I know).

 

[IGNDavid]

It´s incredible, forst this LittleBogPlanet and then Crysis, WOw!

 

[IGNDavid]

I hope the put on some AA, if not to much slowdowns which i dont think would be a problem if the game is 640x480.

 

[Diamond.G]

Stay tuned. DLNA has been demonstrated on PSP and PS3 (I think Xbox 360's XMBC also supports it). DLNA is based on HTTP. So in a sense you should be able to browse and playback stored media on a PS3 (may be Xbox 360 too !) over the home network or even remotely.

I was curious about this. PSP has a separate menu for DNLA access. But the steps to connect obviously dont work for the PS3. You have to initiate the remote PSP access from the PS3. Has Sony fixed that in any of the recent PSP or PS3 firmwares? Also Does anyonte think that the PSP is going to get the Home interface (the 3D stuff)? That would be neat if so.

 

[patsu]

I was curious about this. PSP has a separate menu for DNLA access. But the steps to connect obviously dont work for the PS3. You have to initiate the remote PSP access from the PS3. Has Sony fixed that in any of the recent PSP or PS3 firmwares? Also Does anyonte think that the PSP is going to get the Home interface (the 3D stuff)? That would be neat if so.

Not that I know of. It was demo'ed and Sony has been quiet about DLNA since then.

 

[Tap In]

While I find Home interesting, I sure hope they don't forget simple things like cross-game invites and messaging (which de facto has very little to do with Home, I know).

and universal feedback and mute features for all users that apply across all games in "last played with" list.

Yes these basic functions have got to be implemented at some point (acrosss all games) or even with home, PSN will not be offering enough online functionality (these lack of features are more akin to Xbox 1 Live version).

I know I sound like a broken record on this and with the few games out so far for PS3 it may not seem like a big deal but in the future with 100 quality games out, you want accessibility across all of them to cross invite and message/chat/leave feedback with or for other users who not on your friends list that you just met in a game, as well as friends. At least I do now since I have been exposed to it.

Seriously as cool as I think home is, these other online features are more important in the decision making process of me owning a PS3. Those who have not spent a significant amount of time playing 360 version of Live may never understand where I'm coming from.

When this happens, I will gladly, shut. up.

 

[Bad_Boy]

I strongly feel many of the online type options in Home will be available in the XMB as well.
Theres many hints that they are co-developing the XMB and Home at the same time to allow the same features.

For example, game invites. Phil mentioned in a gamesradar (IIRC) interview that game invites would not be available on day one in the closed beta of Home next month, but it would be added shortly after. Gives me reason to think they are still working on it. Along with an IGN note, they mentioned that every feature in Home would still be available in the XMB (minus all the social stuff).

So you still have a choice on which method to use for online gaming, but Home clearly has a different message of being social the xmb (or any menu system) cannot provide.

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.

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/771/771763p1.html

 

[patsu]

It should be...

I think there are 3 logical levels here:


(1) Playstation Game/Application

(2a) XMB -- Minimalist interface
(2b) Playstation Home -- Playstation Community in 3D (Game clans, lobbies, ...)

(3) Playstation Network Platform -- The underlying infrastructure for online gaming (interoperates with 3rd party solutions such as XFire, Quazal, Demonware and GameSpy)


So features such as cross-game invite will need to work across multiple vendors' solutions in (3), plus integrates with UI in (2*), and game world in (1).

Seeing their previous efforts, they are probably working through it as we speak, and polishing it.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

I wonder why noone has mentioned this yet:

The current maximum of concurrent users in a lobby is 64. But a multitude of lobbies can be active at any time to accommodate all users.

This kinda defeats the entire purpose of Home in my humble little opinion. I thought they could go up to a few hundread people at least.

Sure, this will keep the lobby from getting crowded, and of course I can understand the possible bandwith and latency issues that a large crowd would generate, but still... Even if you only want to meet 3-5 friends, you'd probably have to spend quite some time in a traditional UI to find a lobby that all of you can enter, right? And how will they handle matchmaking through such a small pool of users present at the same time at the same 'place'?
And so on... Democoder in particular should pay a bit more attention to these very real limits on what Home may become.

 

[one]

Even if you only want to meet 3-5 friends, you'd probably have to spend quite some time in a traditional UI to find a lobby that all of you can enter, right?

Forgot in which one but in one of video interviews Phil Harrison said there's an intelligent scheme to make sure you can put your friends in the same room.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Won't make the experience any less limited... From all this, it seems to me that Home will be a simple (as in, not massively) multiplayer Sims with lots of hooks for companies to sell you stuff. A sort of a 'game above the games'.

Not that it's that neccessary to be able to 'socialnetwork' (can I use that as a verb?) with all the PSN users, it's perfectly fine if you can use Home with just your close circle of friends. But don't try to make it look like something much bigger, and don't call it Game 3.0 because that'll create the wrong impression and unrealistic expectations.

And stuff like the industrial revolution was not created by some guy waking up and thinking, 'let's start it today'. A few years into the future, we may decide that a new age for gaming has started at around this or that time because of something; but no company should step out and say, 'it is starting here and now'. It's ironic that Sony choose a buzzword similar to Web 2.0 - I think we all know what the actual community thinks about that.

 

[Bad_Boy]

Won't make the experience any less limited...

You mean limited if you can or can not find your friends? I'm not sure what you mean. Even if the limit was 100 people there would always be theoretical limits. You said if you wanted to meet 3-5 friends, which should be possible with grouping and search options noted by Phil and the Q&A.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Won't make the experience any less limited...

Less limited than what? Would you rather hold a conversation with your mates on a text-based chatroom with 10,000 members? Or have to find your mates in a virtual football stadium with 30,000 inhabitants? Would you actually prefer more people in a larger arena, so it's even harder to find your friends? In GW, which I bought solely to play with two friends online, we had a devil of a job meeting up before they added improvements. Basically you ran around the arena until you spotted them or their name. Gradually they added features to make it easier to find them.

If you think of what lobbies are supposed to provide, is there any need for more than 64 per lobby? If they want a place to emulate real-world social gatherings, they could do with upping it to a couple of hundred for proper parties. But generally, for meeting people you know, number in the lobby is irrelevant. For socialising, the 64 gives plenty of new people to encounter. If you think that's a limited number of people, please explain how the experience would be better with more people, as I can't see that myself.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Look at Democoder's posts and ideas/expectations to see what I mean... with these limitations, Home is clearly not what he imagines it to be. Sony has created the wrong impression somehow.

 

[Moonblade]

In GW, which I bought solely to play with two friends online, we had a devil of a job meeting up before they added improvements. Basically you ran around the arena until you spotted them or their name. Gradually they added features to make it easier to find them.

Going off-topic but I'll keep it short. There was a little trick to find them easily .
Simply copy-paste his nickname in the part formation screen, press the 'trade' button and you'll automatically run to him.

 

[Bad_Boy]

Look at Democoder's posts and ideas/expectations to see what I mean... with these limitations, Home is clearly not what he imagines it to be. Sony has created the wrong impression somehow.

Can you link to the specific post you are referring to? I haven't been keeping up with this thread page by page. I'm not sure what limitations you are talking about.

 

[-tkf-]

and universal feedback and mute features for all users that apply across all games in "last played with" list.

Yes these basic functions have got to be implemented at some point (acrosss all games) or even with home, PSN will not be offering enough online functionality (these lack of features are more akin to Xbox 1 Live version).

I know I sound like a broken record on this and with the few games out so far for PS3 it may not seem like a big deal but in the future with 100 quality games out, you want accessibility across all of them to cross invite and message/chat/leave feedback with or for other users who not on your friends list that you just met in a game, as well as friends. At least I do now since I have been exposed to it.

Seriously as cool as I think home is, these other online features are more important in the decision making process of me owning a PS3. Those who have not spent a significant amount of time playing 360 version of Live may never understand where I'm coming from.

When this happens, I will gladly, shut. up.

When was these features iplemented in Live, afaik it wasn´t there all time. And are these feature running in the game or "behind" the game.