Sony Home - The official thread*

Well, all i'm saying is if it is in beta you should expect work in progress and bugs.

Could it be for security reasons they make you redownload the packages and firmwares ?.
They should be modular so you can patch parts of OS or Home. I bet there is a reason for it.
 
habbe said:
Well, all i'm saying is if it is in beta you should expect work in progress and bugs.

Could it be for security reasons they make you redownload the packages and firmwares ?.
They should be modular so you can patch parts of OS or Home. I bet there is a reason for it.
Click to expand...

Well see that's what it seems like to me, is that the Home engine, and the Home spaces themselves are different entities.

Like, Home itself doesn't feed into the spaces, if that makes sense? It's almost like each area contains it's own software so to speak, and everytime that this software is updated, each space needs to be redownloaded to include the software updates, vs Home itself just feeding into and updating the Home spaces.

I'm sure none of that makes sense...I can see it in my head, I just can't find the way to word it :cry:
 
IIRC, when the open beta patch hit, I had to download only two of the four spaces. That made me think they changed those spaces as well.
The future is differential downloads, which should be really easy to implement.
 
habbe said:
Well, all i'm saying is if it is in beta you should expect work in progress and bugs.

Could it be for security reasons they make you redownload the packages and firmwares ?.
They should be modular so you can patch parts of OS or Home. I bet there is a reason for it.
Click to expand...

I hope so.

The Home UI needs some serious rework/rethinking. The RedBull Air Race UI also s*cks big time.
 
Maybe they could have some Warhawk aircraft to let you fly over Home spaces.

Just saw the EA Sports Home trailer. Looks like they are creating a space to play trailers of upcoming EA games. Not surprising, they're not going to create content for reasons other than to promote their products.

But nothing about using the Home game launching to improve the usability of online game launching in their games.

Must not occur to EA that improving the underlying products (by producing a better interface through Home) might help sell their products more than trying to lure people to their Home space to watch commercials.
 
patsu said:
EDIT: Gah.... it's the same article as an earlier PDF link: http://www.developmag.com/print-edition?_login=true.
They broke it in 2 to publish on the website.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I started reading that at work today and had a deja vu moment only to realize I read the PDF version :LOL:

Also, I love EA's space. You get in-game currency that you can use to buy a seat at the high rollers poker table, or upgrade your race car in their racing game, etc. Reward systems for all their games with leader boards. This is how you do a gaming space.
 
I just checked out the Red Bull flying game, pretty cool, but I found it hard to get into. I can't tell if I'm in line to play or I just can't get the button to show because of the people.


I also played Echochrome and won eight items, I think most of them are a white outfit to make your avatar look like the guy in the game. If they can get more and more spaces by 1st and 3rd party groups there will be plenty of content to keep people busy.
 
I'm quite impressed by the stuff EA has shown, and I'm also surprised by how much they support PS3, given their biggest earners are sports titles in America, where the 360 has the clear domination over both userbase and attach rate.
 
patsu said:
Demo here: http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/01/09/ces-2009-inside-eas-upcoming-home-sports-complex/

Coming 1Q 2009
Click to expand...

That looks kinda cool. EA Sports seems like a good fit for Home, they should be able to sell all kinds of sports paraphernalia. I haven't explored Home much yet, but aside from buying items, can you buy property? Like if I wanted to splurge and buy a huge house in a prime location, is that possible yet or is it all dealing just in smaller items at the moment? I remember ages ago in Ultima Online that in the beginning there were some prime real estate locations that got snapped up and became very valuable years later. Maybe the same thing might happen in Home. Plus, I've always wanted a waterfront mansion :)
 
Yeah, there's a real estate agent where you can buy property in there already, though right now it's limited to buying a summer house. It's on the water though ;). I got that summer house for free in the beta and they allowed us to keep it. When they made the beta public, it became priced at something like 5 euro I think.
 
As much as I'm down on home, I do find Listen@Home really cool. Hope there's a way to expand the tracklist without having to redownload the area, or anything silly like that.
 
DrJay24 said:
I just checked out the Red Bull flying game, pretty cool, but I found it hard to get into. I can't tell if I'm in line to play or I just can't get the button to show because of the people.
Click to expand...

Yes, the Air Race join game UI is the worst I have ever seen, even by Home's standard. Started a flame thread on the Home forum to make sure Sony noted the issue. Many people, including myself during the first visit, can't start the game at all.

They need to stop using the UI designer for this space.


The Air Race is pretty simple. The cool thing is while you're piloting the plane, you can still see the crowd and their chat bubbles on the ground. At the same time, if I'm on the ground, I can see the plane(s) in the air when someone else's playing. It's intriguing.

But they need to stop using the UI designer for this space.

I also played Echochrome and won eight items, I think most of them are a white outfit to make your avatar look like the guy in the game. If they can get more and more spaces by 1st and 3rd party groups there will be plenty of content to keep people busy.
Click to expand...

My son and wife visit Home sometimes. They would sign in using my wife's female avatar, but the kid manned the keyboard. This meant the rest of people would see something like "dfdsak fafaeiaskla" in the chat bubble.

They received XMB messages and Friend's Requests like so in return:

Subject: dfdsak fafaeiaskla

Body: wat ?
Click to expand...

Deleted 1-2 of these for them.


They also play Pool and Bowling. Got chased away because my kid would hog the controller and keyboard. Basically, nothing happens if you play with them. >_< (They were most likely fighting for control in the living room).

But they enjoy Home nonetheless. Good thing her PSN id ends with the word "mommy". I suspect a lot of people give her free pass when it comes to silly behaviour in Home. I actually arrived home (the real one) after a week's work and found her giggling childishly to me in bed as she recounted all the silly things they did together in Home.


You see, Home can be a wonderful thing. But Sony is not doing its best.
 
zoekimball said:
I'm quite impressed by the stuff EA has shown, and I'm also surprised by how much they support PS3, given their biggest earners are sports titles in America, where the 360 has the clear domination over both userbase and attach rate.
Click to expand...
I think FIFIA does them pretty well ;). But the big wonder for me is 'why go to all this trouble? How do they expect to gain? There's no direct monetary gain from visitors. How much chance is there for them to sell stuff? Or do they feel the advertising alone is worth it?
 
Probably all of the above.

EA can sell sports paraphernalia to visitors even if they don't buy their games. It allows EA to build relationships with sports fans on PS3 over an extended period of time. The same thing also enables EA to build relationships (and opportunities) with the sports franchises.

They can build loyalty with home items and the community of visitors.

They can further develop their brand by developing new ideas in Home.


If I were them, I'd also look into extending the experiences to the web in the future. The Develop article mentioned that Flash games can be converted to LUA scripts (easily). With better Internet-PSN integration, perhaps they can implement new (viral) ways to market their games to the net folks, specifically the casual gamers.
 
It also seems to me that EA has deliberately waited to include certain online features into their PS3 versions until Home could provide them.
 
Okay, I forgot to mention something for my own sake.

Hey Sony and EA, could you kindly include some training mini-games or guides for your sports games (It's probably much cheaper to do in Home) ? :p

Like I bought MLB The Show but I have no idea how to play it because of its technical nature (I only get the rough idea). I believe slider has this problem too. It looks like I will buy MLB 2009 this year, but it would be nice if I can play this with my family for real (rather than admiring the graphics).

The sports franchises will be happy. Need to be spoon-fed here [Raise white flag].

EDIT: Alternatively, if Home allows user generated content, make an area for people to contribute their strategies and techniques. I should be able to learn from those proxy info as I play along.
 
Shifty Geezer said:
How do they expect to gain? There's no direct monetary gain from visitors. How much chance is there for them to sell stuff? Or do they feel the advertising alone is worth it?
Click to expand...

Brand presence. It's quite simple. Advertisements of their own games is one benefit, but the sheer presence is another. Within a years time, every major or important video game publisher will have a game space, simply because they don't want to be pushed aside in the areas where other companies are already gaining a foothold.
 
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