Rolly Polly "Music Cafe" in Playstation Home, Japan:
http://rolly.jp.sonystyle.com/motion/special/sp12.jsp#motionplayer
A waste of time for me since I wrote off Rolly as gimmicky, but heck, at least they are using the platform to market their product.
Problem is it's for show only (non-interactive). Playstation Home should be an interactive marketing platform.
If they want to explore toy robots, they should look at integration with PS3 (e.g., robots + PS Eye + new controller + Cell), or at least integration with PSN. A standalone, single-function robot like the Rolly experience is so 80s.
EDIT: Sony's Automatic Photographer is another product that could benefit from better integration with PS3:
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0908/09080600sonypartyshot.asp
It has built-in support for motion detection, smile detection and face detection.
The robot is designed with a camera (item 14) to detect its surroundings and a display (18) which can show images. A microphone that reacts a user’s voice and speaker allows the robot to respond to sound as well. Sony also plans to add a position detection sensor to the robot such as an acceleration sensor, gyro sensor, or possibly a GPS receiver.
Arwin said:It reminded me that Burn Zombie Burn space actually has animated zombies walking around, so what you thought about earlier is already possible. It also has a minimgame with similar zombies trying to grab you while you navigate a kind of maze.
The idea of 'living' in Home waiting for people or meeting up seems lost on me. The service now appears to be more a standalone experience, more of a game in itself where people turn up and run solo quests for those that like doing stuff, or a glorified message board for those who like socialising. It doesn't appear to work as an effect hub between games and media experiences on your PS3, a place you want to reside in between activities where you meet, launch games, and return to. That's my impression, but is anyone finding it otherwise?
I see patsu's logged into Home often enough, but then he does the socialising thing. Does Home work any better than a chat-site in that respect?
Another case study was discussed, namely PSN title Burn Zombie Burn. Developer DoubleSix downloaded the Playstation Home SDK tools and single-handedly built a Home space for Burn Zombie Burn, complete with a shop for users to purchase clothing featuring branding for the game. "Sales have gone up for Burn Zombie Burn because of this space", claims Van Der Meulen.
The HDK tools are split into three parts – the development kit itself, the documents and user guides, and the 'Content Delivery System' for submitting projects to Sony. Home spaces submitted can be either "public spaces" which anyone can enter, or "personal spaces", which users can enter alone or invite friends to join them. Their personal spaces can also be decorated with items bought from the Home store and even sold to other users.
Cox's slide on the subject also contained the bulletpoint, "Future: Clubhouses", but Cox himself did not divulge any details on this. [patsu: Hallelujah !]
Integration between Home and PS3 titles is important for the future of Home, says Cox, with two main methods available to developers. Sony is pushing developers to give users the ability to not onlhy launch their games through PlayStation Home (with multiple people if desired), but also to drop both themselves and their friends straight into a specific level of a game, skipping the title and loading screens.
Describing the Lua programming language support for HDK, Cox says that "Home is there for people who play games" but points out that "you don't have to make a game... you can make any interactive experience you want". Tools available to create worlds filled with audio, videos (and video streams), media-RSS and scoreboards mean developers can go beyond simply making a place to complement their PS3 release.
Among the additions to Home coming in build 1.3, Cox mentioned the Character Viewer Tool, which will allow devs to do a lot more with character creation, and custom animations for characters – up until now only the pre-set animations which come with Home are at a developer's disposal, but allowing animations built for specific purposes will mean "avatars will feel so much more involved", according to Cox.
There will also be more 'active items' -- i.e. furniture can be linked to a minigame -- and added restrictions on which clothing items can be worn simultaneously with others. For example, Cox explained that "Mortal Kombat components would not be available at the same time as Street Fighter [components]".
How come the Asian spaces are so much more interesting ?
Beach space in Hong Kong Home:
You have an oxygen gauge if you're underwater.
So Home is growing and improving, but does it actually do it's job yet, or has its job changed? Lets say we were to organise a B3D Fat Princess game, and scheduled a time. Is it really worth visiting Home beforehand to await people and meet? Or is it better to sit in a game that's fun and await everyone to pop online?
When Home was first unveiled I was sceptical. Than I started to grow interested, and after it was released lost all interest. Admittedly I haven't been on since lots of the updates. Sony lost me on the 'first impression' and on the few times I've been curious to have a look since, it hasn't loaded with network issues. Or I've just got bored downloading spaces.
The idea of 'living' in Home waiting for people or meeting up seems lost on me. The service now appears to be more a standalone experience, more of a game in itself where people turn up and run solo quests for those that like doing stuff, or a glorified message board for those who like socialising. It doesn't appear to work as an effect hub between games and media experiences on your PS3, a place you want to reside in between activities where you meet, launch games, and return to. That's my impression, but is anyone finding it otherwise? I see patsu's logged into Home often enough, but then he does the socialising thing. Does Home work any better than a chat-site in that respect?
Universal. Game. Launching. That’s right – you can now launch into any PlayStation 3 game directly from Home. Titles that fully support game launching (like Street Fighter IV, Resistance 2, MotorStorm, and Far Cry 2) will be identified by separate icons that appear over an avatar’s head and will have varying degrees of additional multiplayer functionality built in. Simplified game launching will take you from Home to the start menu of your favorite games with ease.
There are tons of little updates that you’ll notice when PlayStation Home v1.3 launches. To start, you’ll see that your avatar has additional emotes – including two new action emotes (you can flip a coin with your friends or play the old “pick a number between 1 and 100” game). You will also be able to pose your avatar in a variety of ways (photo op anyone?). We’ve also added some new categories of clothing (composite and outfits) that will allow you to customize your avatar with greater ease. In addition, we’ve optimized the targeting system, added a new queuing system, fixed quite a few pesky bugs, and are giving you the option to determine your cache size (you can choose from 3, 5, 8, and 12 GB) so as to make navigating Home a much smoother experience.
Shop-a-holics will be stoked to see that an in-store item previewing option will be rolled out. This feature will allow you to preview items of clothing on your character in 3D (including the ability to check out multiple items simultaneously to see what combinations best suit your taste). You’ll be able to preview all furniture in 3D as well, complete with zoom and rotate options so you can check your potential purchases from all angles, right down to the nitty gritty. We’ll also offer you the ability to rent certain items and purchase “consumables” (limited use items) when available – such as the new Shrink Potion that lets you shrink your avatar to a tiny size.
PlayStation Home v1.3 will also see additional portable objects (like the Bubble Machine) made available to the community. To start, we’ll be giving everyone free cameras that you can use to snap pictures from either a 1st or 3rd person view. These photos will automatically be saved to the Photo section of the XMB, from which you can then upload to the picture frames you have hanging in your personal spaces. We’ll be announcing more portable objects very soon
Last but certainly not least, we’ll be launching a SingStar space right around the time that PlayStation Home v1.3 hits your PlayStation 3s. This swanky night club-esque SingStar-themed game space is sure to be the hot new hub for all of you party goers. Whether you want to get down with your friends on the reactive dance floor, vote for your favorite music videos on the Video Jukebox, or test your knowledge at the SingStar Music Quiz, this space promises to have something for every SingStar fanatic.