Sony Home - The official thread*

[patsu]

Yes, the leaderboard is a nice touch. The fact that the Home team missed it the first time round is somewhat scary.


Btw, the US "I Love Ninja" event ended today @ 7pm PST.

Everyone's supposed to dress up as Ninja (or in black) and party for one hour.
Here's the winning Home instance; everyone will receive 2 free games, I think:

The Asia Home has a different event (Valentine's Day celebration):
http://www.siliconera.com/2009/02/13/playstation-home-turns-into-chocolate-land-for-valentines-day/

Sony Computer Entertainment Asia is throwing a virtual Valentine’s Day party with chocolate decorations sprinkled inside PlayStation Home. To tempt people to log on Sony is giving away a free chocolate replica of Home Square between now and February 14. Give it to someone else as a gift or horde it until it becomes collectable.

EDIT: New Red Bull Air Race time: 1:48:46

 

[patsu]

Make your music be heard in Home

The Home user community has a semi-official mechanism to showcase their own music in Home now. ;-)
They should really add it to LBP too.

Source: http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/board/message?board.id=ps3home&thread.id=558277

The people of Home have spoken and they want more music. The main obstacle is the copyright issue, so I thought well if the music was made by us there wouldn't be a copyright problem. So I talked to Locust_Star and here is the plan:

If there are any music artists that would like a presence in Home, Locust_Star would be happy to review your music. You would have to sign contracts with Legal that gave Sony permission to stream your music, but that can be arranged. HOWEVER, there are a few details you need to know.

1. The purpose of this is not for you to post other peoples music that you want put into Home. Any music you wish to submit must have been created by you.

2. Any music artists who would like to participate in this must send me a PM (Private Message) with: Your artist/band name, a list of the song titles you want to submit, any contact info, and a link to your website that has your music. If you do not have a website you can set up a myspace account and upload your music there.

3. The deadline for the content for review is 02/20. On that day I will send Locust_Star the list of submissions. This isn't the only chance, so nobody needs to worry if they can't turn in content by then. The next deadline date is located at the bottom of this post.

4. Locust_Star will review the content and decide if its appropriate for Home. If it is deemed so, he will pass the contact info off to the guy there that handles the legal aspects and he will contact the individual artists and execute contracts.

Not only is this a great way for your music to get noticed by people, it lets the community generate their own content, and it gives the people what they want... more music. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask.



Submission Deadlines

The submission deadlines will be bi-monthly.

1. 02/20
2. 04/01

Don't know how talented the PS3 user base is.

EDIT: Oh wait, the musician doesn't need to own a PS3. He/she only needs to allow Sony to stream his/her creation. Hope someone spread the words to the right people though.

 

[slider]

Huh, this is something I was trying to guess at on the first announcements. I'd always thought it could perhaps be the next big thing. Concievably bands could have a presence in Home. Just like any brand I guess.

Let's see what happens. Artists won't get as wide an audience as, say Myspace, but it'll be much more a captive audience.

 

[deathindustrial]

What they should have done is to partner with someone like last.fm who already has a royalty system in place. This would have avoided most of the legal hassle presumably while at the same time actually providing a decent amount of music to choose from.

For example, I listen to a lot of death metal and true school industrial music. How does having Sony create a small vetted list of what *they* think is appropriate music for a Home user improve the Home experience for me?

Cheers

 

[patsu]

I think they are 2 different creatures.

A formal relationship with commercial entities like last.fm, pandora, etc. is probably on Sony's radar. Negotiating for such an arrangement will take time, especially if Sony wants to value add on top (e.g., Home specific voting and presentation). The short cut is probably to integrate a custom PS3 web browser view into Home (so the service appears as a web client to say, last.fm; but it may still be a grey area). In any case, an example of such commercial arrangement is the upcoming GameTrailer.com content distribution in Home.

What the Home user community wants to try above is to introduce a secondary service, for unproven/new musicians to contribute to Home. Locust_Star will probably do a first censorship pass but leave the popularity question to the user community (Listen@Home has its own user voting system). I see it as a simple past time to keep people occupied.

A formal arrangement with the commercial distributors will probably be a bigger hit. That's just a guess... unless they combine the service with youtube, like the existing www.youtube.com/tv link for XMB.

 

[Arwin]

Some interesting stuff about Watchmen in Home:

http://kotaku.com/5154530/watch-the-watchmen-invade-playstation-home

Paramount Pictures is readying a major marketing push into Sony's PlayStation Home service for the upcoming film Watchmen, with exclusive footage, a filmmaker Q&A session, and of course, Watchmen costumes for your avatar.

 

[patsu]

The community managers have been more forthcoming these days. They held a Q&A session about a week ago. Here're the screen shots:
http://raausar.posterous.com/qanda-with-locuststar

Essentially, they are reiterating that:

* Streaming media devices, game launching and trophy rooms are coming. Warhawk game launching is just about ready.

* EA Sports complex should be hitting in a few updates

* Mini-games will be available in your own apartment

* New moderation tools and process will be implemented

* Pets will be available in Home too

* New apartment models to be available (realistic ones and fantasy-based ones)

* More avatar customization to be available



Wow if they can deliver all of them in a neat package and on time.

 

[slider]

* Pets will be available in Home too

I'm quite concerned that this one more than any other jumped out at me. Tamagotchi-a-like?

 

[patsu]

Probably related to this one:

...although I don't mind something more curvaceous.


I'm pushing for: 2D game launching, advanced clubhouse/clan rooms, speed and website integration.

 

[obonicus]

Probably more like the non-gameplay pets in MMOs, a little animated something that follows you around, probably repeats a cute animation now and then.

 

[patsu]

Then I might have misspelled it. Should be called pest instead of pets.

...unless they allow me to change its behaviour (LUA scripts !)

 

[patsu]

EA Home Space Hands-on

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2009...-impressive-ea-sports-playstation-home-space/

One of the most impressive piece of software I tried at a recent EA event wasn’t a game — it was EA’s smartly designed sports hangout for the PlayStation 3...

The Sports Complex is an EA Sports shrine and gaming center. It is still being built, scheduled for a partial April opening. By the time it is launched, two of a planned three games will be available within it: racing and poker, with a golf game to follow.

Hmm... still doesn't talk about EA Game Launching.

 

[Delta9]

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2009...-impressive-ea-sports-playstation-home-space/





Hmm... still doesn't talk about EA Game Launching.

The EA space looks great IMO, all the games for Home need awards, I just won the Ice Breaker stuff and it was pretty cool to get new clothing.

About game luanching it would be a great idea if Sony were just holding it off until they have a XMB version to go along with it.

 

[patsu]

The EA space looks great IMO, all the games for Home need awards, I just won the Ice Breaker stuff and it was pretty cool to get new clothing.

What Ice Breaker stuff ?

About game luanching it would be a great idea if Sony were just holding it off until they have a XMB version to go along with it.

They better hurry up !

 

[Delta9]

What Ice Breaker stuff ?



They better hurry up !

I think the levels were 4 and 7 I needed to get to, and it gave me a Ice Breaker beenie cap and t-shirt.

 

[patsu]

Some interesting stuff about Watchmen in Home:

http://kotaku.com/5154530/watch-the-watchmen-invade-playstation-home

It seems that the Kotaku article missed some info. 27th Feb is when they'd release Watchmen Home items. But there is a Live Watchmen director Q&A in Home Today: http://playstation.joystiq.com/2009/02/23/watchmen-qanda-streaming-live-from-home/

Today is the day of the live in-Home Watchmen Q&A with Zack Snyder and Dave Gibbons. You're invited to watch ten specially selected guests asking the director of the movie and the artist of the graphic novel about what we can expect to see, come March 6.

The event kicks off at 4:30pm GMT (11:30am EST).

EDIT: It's on now --> URL is: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/507339

 

[patsu]

Playstation Home Watchmen Live Q&A on YouTube (Part 1)

 

[slider]

patsu, I just wanna say I (and I hope we??) appreciate the updates!

That's quite a cool concept. I only watched a few seconds - upto Max asking a question - because I've got work to do.

Some immediate thoughts...

Is the interaction model different for these shared experience events?

and...

I was expecting it to be swamped! Or is it another (sensible) case of start small and expand?

 

[patsu]

patsu, I just wanna say I (and I hope we??) appreciate the updates!

Well, I'm tracking because the topic is something I'm deeply interested in.

That's quite a cool concept. I only watched a few seconds - upto Max asking a question - because I've got work to do.

Some immediate thoughts...

Is the interaction model different for these shared experience events?

and...

I was expecting it to be swamped! Or is it another (sensible) case of start small and expand?

The YouTube video is only half the experience. They had a text chat window on the right half for people who weren't selected into the Watchmen room.

For the recent KZ2 developer Q&A on the PS Blog, they used another format (a more common one). Everyone could send questions via text chat. Jeff Rubenstein moderated the content and flow of the questions.

For smaller Home events, they adopted the in-Home experience. CydoniaX and/or Locust_Star would appear in-person in the Central Plaza or Gamer's Lounge. It is as you said, people swarmed them like piranhas. I could not see any host, just this big ball of limbs and heads The questions were asked and answered in the standard chat box.

My sense is they will eventually settle on yet another format. None of these are really ideal. The Home team seems to be building new moderation tools as we speak.

 

[slider]

Well, I'm tracking because the topic is something I'm deeply interested in.

Oh, me too. I've always loved the concept and possibilities but haven't been able to follow as closely as I'd have liked.

Thanks for the other comments too. I'll log in sometime this week and have a wander round. I've found the official Euro Playstation site is pretty useful in getting tipped off on events and stuff.

Cheers.