Sony Home - The official thread*

[patsu]

Some more Home beta pictures here: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=6301133&postcount=207
(including Home arcades).

You can also see a Heavenly Sword T-Shirt in one of the shots.

 

[Titanio]

Nice, some pictures of the other arcade games in there. I guess there is indeed 4 different games in there right now.

I really like how you seem to have some environmental awareness when playing the arcade games. You don't just exit the environment to load the game, it's all there still in the world.

Graphically those shots show the whole thing off nicely too.

 

[patsu]

Yes... concept.

Are the Home arcade games streamed ? If so, I think it's a good complement to the Playstation Store "download demo/arcade and play locally" model.

I hope they evolve the idea further. e.g.,
Informal P2P distribution of Homebrew games (from own apartment or via friends)
--> Short "Official" or most popular Homebrew games in public Home arcades
--> Longer Playstation Network games (like flOw) or demos
--> Full game

I also like how you can see other people access their virtual PSP too.

 

[Titanio]

Yes... concept.

Are the Home arcade games streamed ? If so, I think it's a good complement to the Playstation Store "download demo/arcade and play locally" model.

I hope they evolve the idea further. e.g.,
Informal P2P distribution of Homebrew games (from own apartment or via friends)
--> Short "Official" or most popular Homebrew games in public Home arcades
--> Longer Playstation Network games (like flOw) or demos
--> Full game

I had thought of homebrew games when Phil Harrison was asked about that, but not P2P sharing of homebrew games without having to go through Sony and get approval. If you can have an arcade machine in your Home and share games between each other..that is a cool idea.

 

[patsu]

Hmm... that's an interesting view.

Do you feel that Home is safer if Sony vets the game ? Before your post, I would have thought most (all) prefer "self-regulations" and freer distribution for user generated content. As long as these content do not get onto public "screens", the community can block/report said content, and Sony has the final "veto", it should be ok.

 

[patsu]

More Home screenshots: http://www.ps3forums.com/showpost.php?p=1384547&postcount=429

...including roadmaps for May and June (unverified). Apparently, Home will also support in-game phone calls (XMB voice chat ?).

 

[Titanio]

Hmm... that's an interesting view.

Do you feel that Home is safer if Sony vets the game ? Before your post, I would have thought most (all) prefer "self-regulations" and freer distribution for user generated content. As long as these content do not get onto public "screens", the community can block/report said content, and Sony has the final "veto", it should be ok.

I think it could be like any other content..free 'distribution' via your private apartment (and your arcade machine therein), and then if you want to put it on the public machines you go through a vetting process with Sony.

I do hope they release a SDK for them..Harrison said they would like to if they can wrap it up nicely.

Sweet pictures, by the way. It sounds like you might be able to make 'calls' from Home to someone in a game. Perhaps that'd be the first step towards game-to-game calls, via Home? That's also sort of the first suggestion that Home will have a greater concurrent presence with your game than 'just' the matchmaking.

Here's the rest of the roadmap, worth posting IMO:

Also, really like what this guy did with his space..nice furniture stacking.

 

[pipo]

I think it could be like any other content..free 'distribution' via your private apartment (and your arcade machine therein), and then if you want to put it on the public machines you go through a vetting process with Sony.

I feel it's the right way to go, but I fear a lot of crap will be put online. I hope they'll find the right way to cope with it, it's not going to be easy I think...

I do hope they release a SDK for them..Harrison said they would like to if they can wrap it up nicely.

That would be really cool.

 

[Todd33]

I got another e-mail about Home. It read something like "Keep watching your e-mail for a possible invite!".

 

[Pete Dog]

I feel it's the right way to go, but I fear a lot of crap will be put online. I hope they'll find the right way to cope with it, it's not going to be easy I think...

Pretty much like the internet at large I guess.

If ads have a place (and only are seen in that place) I think a lot of people aer savvy enough to ignore/not be bothered by it. I mean look at the more laid-back people's responses in the Xbox ads thread.

 

[rounin]

A video I don't think has been posted :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32XCHbTYn9A

 

[Shifty Geezer]

It does look good. Any explanation how they'll do the vids though? They could also benefit from Naughty Dog's animation system to make the inhabitants not look like robots

 

[Tap In]

looks good!

as for the arcade games though, I would think it would be better if they would allow them to go full screen.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I think I agree with their choice. They don't want you leaving the virtual world. This is also why the menus are through a PSP rather than cutting to a full screen menu (well, that and marketting their handheld!). You're always in that space, and never leave it no matter what you do - not to check messages or play games or anything. The only exception to that might be watching movies - not just films, but any content shown in a virtual cinema - where they may send that full screen. I like the idea of the arcades being virtual arcades that look like arcades, rather than being portals to stand-alone games that cut to a console experience, rather than an arcade (albeit virtual) experience.

 

[Arwin]

Yes, I think they're doing a good job in keeping the user interface consistent. Though the transition from walking into a theatre still breaks that.

I'm really hoping that they figure out a way to use your real PSP in a practical manner for what the Home PSP is doing now.

 

[ManuVlad3.0]

New 14min55sec HOME presentation:

Download (155MB)

 

[rounin]

For me, it freezes when it gets to the Bravia TV adding part.

 

[Titanio]

Hmmm

http://games.kikizo.com/news/200705/061_p2.asp

But will users be able to earn money or buy and sell stuff, like they can in Second Life? "Ultimately, that is something that is on the cards. Not on day one, not for a while, but yes - the idea of user-to-user auctions, is certainly something that we intend to put in. And also that ties in very heavily with the idea of user-created content and tools, to create that content. And that's something that we're working very hard on in terms of being able to customise your character, design and ultimately build from scratch your own dream apartment, but also tools that will allow you to create and design smaller items that you could potentially market as well. There's also going to be the option for users to use their own scripting, for the particularly technical users to allow Java mini-games and stuff like that, to be created in your home space and maybe build up your bank of Java mini-games for example."

We talked about this before after Harrison's comments at GDC. It sounds like they've been thinking about it and maybe even see it as a firm part of the roadmap now. I certainly hope so! There's some other comments at the link also.

Asides from user created mini-games, it would be interesting if they exposed scripting for user-created objects in Home to allow them to apply much more sophisticated behaviour to their objects. Though that really would be a big step into second-life style territory.

 

[archangelmorph]

Hmmm

http://games.kikizo.com/news/200705/061_p2.asp



We talked about this before after Harrison's comments at GDC. It sounds like they've been thinking about it and maybe even see it as a firm part of the roadmap now. I certainly hope so! There's some other comments at the link also.

I didn't know this!

That's REALLY promising and I really hope they can put together something like this!

Asides from user created mini-games, it would be interesting if they exposed scripting for user-created objects in Home to allow them to apply much more sophisticated behaviour to their objects. Though that really would be a big step into second-life style territory.

I'm not sure if Sony would even want to do such a thing.. Its one thing having users abuse a virtual space by uploading obscene and inappropriate content, and its another having users abuse the same space by creating objects and entities which can change/interfere/influence or at least exploit the fabric of that virtual world in its entirety, which they will given to opportunity..

Overall I'm really excited by this now, and I think it makes the prospect of Home alot more appealing to me to know that the user-generated content component expands beyond asthetics and may very well allow users to define their own much more functional entities, adding your own depth to the experience..

I'll be keeping an eye on this thread alot more from now on..

 

[patsu]

Home Beta updated

http://www.psu.com/node/11824

Finally comes the most exciting feature of them all - the first true form of in-game XMB access...