Sony Home - The official thread*

[Shifty Geezer]

That's the theory, but what are the real tangible benefits? EA already own the sports world. How much more can presence help them? And are the people who use Home likely to be influenced? Likewise other gamespaces. Why should Ubisoft create a game space? What would all that effort get them that other far cheaper solutions (reviews and previews with the press) doesn't?

If Home was a Big Deal than I could understand the investment, but this early on, I think if I were a publisher I'd take a very wait-and-see approach, unless content creation is cheap enough to be readily write-off-able.

 

[patsu]

Depends on the kind of gamer profiles visiting Home right now.

If most of them are like me (borderline or non-sports gamers), then getting us interested in their Sports games would be beneficial in the long run. If they are already sports gamers, influencing them to buy EA games with exclusive Home items would be a plus too.

If they execute it right, Home can be a condusive channel to interact with gamers directly. Mechanisms such as "Promo Code" and built-in URL access is a good way to track whether their customers come from Home. One of the relevant traits in Home is that a user can rally his friends to visit a space together (That saves companies $$$ to get people to read/see their one-off advertisements).


As for doing it early, it's for grabbing mindshare. They would need to make a bet whether Home will be attractive to people first. If enough developers chip in, they can draw and sustain a bigger crowd together.

 

[DJ12]

EA spend millions on adverts to catch a few gamers that might be watching a TV show they've bought adspace in, 3 million people have supposedly downloaded home already when there's not much to do, all gamers, all those users will go to the EA Sports space as there is a lot to do there even if you don't like sports.

For a company of EAs wealth I imagine making a considerable space in Home was a no brainer.

 

[wco81]

They're trying to bring traffic with glorified parlor games so that people can watch commercials for their games.

How about supporting game launching and improving the usability of their games, to attract people to buy their games instead?

 

[patsu]

Probably falls under a combination of PSN enhancements and Home integration.

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009...ming-this-week/comment-page-1/#comment-164423

CydoniaX replied on January 7, 2009 at 1:52 pm

Game launching is a top priority for us and coming soon!

Given their hopeless mini-game launching UI in the Air Race, I am scared of their general game launching extensions.

Btw, the EA sports complex is more than a collection of parlor games. At the very least, there are additional collectible items.


EDIT:
For the long announced media sharing...

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009...ming-this-week/comment-page-1/#comment-164449

@CydoniaX
When is HOME going to get the ability to have picture frames, tv’s, and radios in the personal space? When will there be custom soundtracks for HOME? When is there going to be custom wallpapers for your personal space?

CydoniaX replied on January 7, 2009 at 5:32 pm
We are continuing to work toward this because we know it is a big desire for the community. The technical capabilities are there and many things are possible. But we have nothing to announce at this time.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

EA spend millions on adverts to catch a few gamers that might be watching a TV show they've bought adspace in, 3 million people have supposedly downloaded home already when there's not much to do....

the important figure here is how many are actually using it? I downloaded, but I don't go there.

As Pastu points out though, tracking follow-through might not be hard. In that respect I give kudos to EA for testing the waters with something big enough to matter. They clearly recognise potential here. It will certainly be interesting to see if it pans out. A rich multimedia experience could be very good. Sony need to cheer the avatars up before I ever go back though!

 

[DJ12]

Why don't you go there?

I'm guessing it's because there's nothing to do and maybe because game launching doesn't work?

Sony will realise that people want stuff to do and to be honest I wouldn't be at all surprised if they paid EA to make something to move things along.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Why don't you go there?

There was nothing to do and lousy communications. Game launching seems pointless to me if you can't chat with your friends about what game and settings you want! "Let's play online. We can all meet in my apartment and your avatar's can look miserable sat on the sofa while I set up a game..." May as well just post XMB messages as we currently do, where at least we can play whatever we're playing until ready to join a game.

 

[patsu]

Yup, it is important to realize that game launching needs to be complemented with more goodies to make Home worthwhile. The experience should also be relatively easy and fast, but richer and extensible.

Otherwise, it is probably more efficient and effective to launch game directly from XMB.

An easy way to see this is LBP. How can Home replace/enhance the Pod ?

There was nothing to do and lousy communications. Game launching seems pointless to me if you can't chat with your friends about what game and settings you want!

To be fair, you can text chat. But voice chat is gimped now if you're not in the private spaces. They should allow open mic for people in the same party regardless of private or public spaces.

 

[zoekimball]

Well, at least you didn't say that HOME sucks as a game.

 

[wco81]

Yeah if you want to play games, why wait for Home to load up so that you can launch the games?

It only makes sense if the usability of game launching in Home is superior to XMB.

Otherwise, people aren't going to bother.

Edit: If you have the disc in the console and you power it up, it will boot that game unless you try to navigate in the XMB BEFORE the disc loads. So the default is that the game loads and if you try to start an EA Sports game online, you are using XMB.

To go to Home, you'd maybe have to quit the game, then load Home and then from there launch a game?

Home game-launching better be the greatest thing since sliced bread for people to bother.

 

[patsu]

Hmm... the usability aspect needs to be straighten up. That's for sure.

But it can offer a totally difference experience such that comparison with XMB becomes moot.

No matter what Sony does to Home, there will always be people who prefer the utilitarian XMB approach. There is no use trying to coax everyone to join Home.
If Home is superior to the much more simpler XMB in every major way, they might as well replace XMB with Home totally. I just don't think it's possible.

I do believe it's possible to unify both UI such that the user can toggle between them seamlessly (e.g., overlay XMB UI over Home but with more features enabled).


EDIT: In wco81's example above, what Home can value add is to enable the developers to dish out Home items (as a tangible form of trophies). In addition, LUA scripts can be attached to the items/trophies to make the experience more entertaining. The developers may also allow the players to fool around with like-minded gamers, or participate in a meta-game to increase the value of the packaged titles. Naturally, all these extensions will make a positive impact only if basic features such as game launching are robust and easy to use.

 

[zoekimball]

That's what the plan is. I do see the point in being able to launch in whichever multiplayer game I own straight in a party and to a pre-setup match.

That way I can play a wider variety of games with friends online in less time and work/effort, beside switching discs more often. Takes away all the hassle of matchmaking, inviting, etc. every single time I want to play another match.

Of course, if I want to power play a multiplayer game, I won't bother to play something else an hour later - so there's no point in going back to Home over and over again, whether I'm playing with friends or not. Extensive multiplayer sessions are in that case still best started and finished in the XMB.

 

[patsu]

After my experience with the R1 GAF clan for a year+, I firmly believe that a richer MP gaming experience is possible (and good for the industry in general). R1 is more fun with those people around. How I missed them.

 

[patsu]

A new year for Home !

Here's a reminder for the Home team: http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2008/12/why-sony-home-w.html
I like the article very much because it is almost the same as my own assessment (I quoted it in this thread before).

The issues are not unique to Home. Hopefully Sony can find a way to overcome them (Note his comment on LBP and user generated content).

So far, I can tell moderation has stepped up. But without forming a structure in the user base, it's a futile attempt (e.g., rewarding club owners, help them build their userbase; reward chatty/helpful users with good standing, etc). Home will become too expensive to moderate, if not already.

I also see competitions and lucky draws being done. These are useful, but again since they are not tied to any strategic goals (just temporarily boosting participations), they are also inadequate. More rewards need to be tied to long term community indicators (see above) or/and revenue indicators.

Hope to see the following in 2009:
* Simplify the UI/experience
* Comprehensive game launching in Home
* Tools for user-generated content
* Better integration between Sony non-game applications (e.g., Dress, Home, Life with Playstation, even DLNA support). None of them will make much impact standalone.

EDIT: Also came across this. I believe it's wrong attribution. The unique and very creative content helps to differentiate Sony better. IMHO, the so-called generic content may benefit from a new business model though (e.g., Use the familiar but "cheap/free" content to draw new customers in, in exchange for ads revenue or upsell)

 

[Asher]

Last night I tried to check out the latest changes. Downloaded the update, then it tried to download the Home Theatre again but failed due to network errors. I was on Home twice, and since then (separated by many weeks) I've never been able to log on, different errors each time...

 

[patsu]

Might be something specific to your location. The Home forum does not have any major thread on this recently. My kid checks into Home every other day. No issue so far (One day my wife's account will get banned because of his spamming, I am sure).

I found this thread though: http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/board/message?board.id=ps3home&thread.id=173500
(Folks took pictures of themselves and posted on the Home forum)

I'd suggest deleting Home and reinstall.

 

[patsu]

Something close to Home...
http://venturebeat.com/2009/01/15/sony-electronics-holds-a-virtual-trade-show/

Sony Electronics staged a virtual trade show today for fans of professional broadcasting equipment. The company said thousands of people registered for the event, which was staged by InXpo in Chicago.

Sony customized the InXpo platform for its own purposes. The event included live panel discussions that attendees could watch and participate in. It also had virtual trade show booths for vendors in the broadcast area like Avid and Adobe. There, the companies could chat one-on-one with visitors, give demos, and otherwise display information about their products. Sony showed off its broadcast cameras for TV stations, filmmakers, fim engineers and event videographers.

Normally, Shapiro said that the company would do a road show across 15 cities, talking to 200 to 400 people at each single-day event. Shapiro guessed that the virtual trade cost less than 50 percent of a real world event, not to mention that most of the virtual trade show material can be reused.

Internet 3D worlds and sites have a larger population to draw on. Would be nice if Home can interface better with other Internet services and tap on their traffic (kinda like SOE PC platform + PSN I guess).

 

[tha_con]

I don't know why Sony doesn't write a good java application for Cellphones that taps into PSN / Home. Seems like it would be too easy to make a simple java interface for compatible phones / smart phones that would allow you to sign into PSN. Similar to MSN Mobile / AIM Mobile.

 

[JardeL]

Street Fighter IV and Resident Evil 5 collaborate with Home


Capcom and Sony are teaming up for some major PlayStation Home promotions in celebration of two upcoming PS3 releases. As previously announced at the Tokyo Game Show, Street Fighter IV and Resident Evil 5 will be part of a collaboration with the Home virtual world. Today, Sony shared details.

Both Street Fighter IV and Resident Evil 5 will be compatible with Home-based matching. Players will be able to meet up with other players inside Home and move directly into competitive matches for SFIV and co-op play sessions for RE5..

This direct matching functionality will be included with Resident Evil 5 from the March 5 launch. Street Fighter IV will get the functionality in a future update.

Items and lounges are on the way as well.

Resident Evil 5 will get its own lounge. Themed around the in-game location of Kijuju, the lounge will offer RE5-related items and a variety of events.

On the item side of things, Home Reward support will give players special Home items as they work through both games. Capcom will also be offering paid costumes that dress your avatar up to look like characters from both titles. Additional items will be added regularly.

RE5 lounge looks cool ... More on the link ...