Sony Home - The official thread*

[Nesh]

I really hope this is a good sign of things to come. Home's graphics and interface do not help for smooth transitions and seamless navigation which at the end makes it tiring and time consuming. The various loadings throughout Home do not help either.

I think the graphics engine they used looks kind of rough too and the animations are stiff.

Sony should take notice on what MS gave attention to when they developed the NXE and Avatar system because I am pretty sure they studied what Home offers and tried to replicate it in a faster and more functional way in areas were Home lacked.

Less gamers are attached with their Home avatars as PS gamers than they are with their Live Avatars as 360 gamers.

They should add a bit more character to the avatars too. Their design does not help users reflect much of their personality.

I believe that Home currently and the avatars are experienced as separate objects from the total PS and PSN experience whereas MS continuously tries to find ways to integrate and "force" the features they come up with into anything XBOX so that we constantly use them seamlessly and grow in the community.

For example the Live Avatar is there when you switch on the console, it is there when you play a game from disk, it is there when you want to play an avatar based game, it is there when you party chat, it is there when you want to access your gamertag online like from a PC etc etc

My Home avatar on the other hand is non existent except inside home, and its visual presentation doesnt help either to show it like that

 

[patsu]

Official info here:
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2010/03/10/playstation-home-1-35-launching-tomorrow/

Most notably, this update features faster load times, giving you quicker access to PlayStation Home and all the great content within. The new 1.35 update also enhances the login process. Now, once you have launched into PlayStation Home from the XMB, you will be transported directly to a new intuitive navigator, without the need to click through message screens.

This streamlined interface features categories to help you quickly move through PlayStation Home and locate friends in just a few clicks.

Categories will include:

Favorites: Personalize your own section to make locating your favorite places quick and simple.

Personal Spaces: Your clubhouses and personal spaces are now right at your fingertips. The personal spaces you own and the clubhouses you belong to will be viewable in one convenient location.

Friends: Finding your friends in PlayStation Home has never been easier. View the current location of your friends in PlayStation Home, and then navigate there to enjoy the action together.

Explore: Browse all the spaces PlayStation Home offers. Finding a space that suites your taste and mood has never been easier.

Recommend: Keep up with what’s hot in PlayStation Home. This regularly updated category will feature the newest and most exciting additions to PlayStation Home.

Just a reminder that PlayStation Home will not be accessible for a brief period tomorrow as we work the magic on our side to bring you this update.
...
With now 12 million users around the world playing games, attending special events, watching videos, listening to music, and meeting new friends, there has never been a better time to join the PlayStation Home community.

 

[tirminyl]

I can't wait to check out this update.

 

[patsu]

Yes, me too ! But I think they only changed the world map and the loading screen. I am happy mostly because they listened. They still need to fix the in-Home UI.

 

[patsu]

Very very nice upgrade of the World Map. Congratulations ! Switching between spaces is a lot more seamless now.

The discrete downloading of spaces can still be annoying. But the new UI change is a sold *leap* forward.

I will visit Home again. ^_^
I saw more people at Home now too. And the people have more variety of clothings and were chatting away in the Central Plaza like last time.

I also noticed the start up screen is a tad more polished. The new 2D map is cheerful and pleasant, a little more refinement (gradient, drop shadow and what not) and it'd be as polished/tasteful as iPhone and Mac UI look.

Keep working on it !

 

[patsu]

GDC 10 News Flash: PlayStation Home is Booming

http://ie.ps3.ign.com/articles/107/1077442p1.html

PlayStation Home is booming according to Buser's panel today at GDC 10. In June 2009, there were 6 million users; in December 2009, there were 10 million users; and now, that number has ballooned to 12 million.

Sodium One, Home's MMO/tank game, had 1.3 million "engagements" in its first six weeks of availability. Of those players kicking the tires on the free taste, 25 percent of them bought the full game.

300+K people bought the full Sodium game so far. Not bad !

the usual team creating these Home titles is between four and seven members and the development cycle is between five and 12 months depending on what type of game it is.

 

[Lucid_Dreamer]

That's very cool! I should do more game launching from Home with friends. I enjoyed that with R2. I wonder when they will end the Beta period for Home?

 

[Nesh]

Is it me or does Home with the new update runs much faster and smoother??

I like it much more now!

 

[slider]

Is it me or does Home with the new update runs much faster and smoother??

I like it much more now!

Yep, people have been waxing lyrical about it after the last update. I might check it out later today... any tips on where I should head first and what I should check out? Y'know... for the essential Home experience.

 

[patsu]

Sodium has the best experiences.

I heard good things about the MotorStorm space too, but haven't been there yet.

 

[slider]

Thanks patsu.

 

[Arwin]

The Uncharted 2 space is nice too, though compared to Sodium it's tiny. But I enjoyed it anyway.

Yeah, this seems a solid improvement! Things are going in the right direction for sure - everything ran really smooth now, including all the movies etc. The eyes look much nicer too.

I really hope Home will add some solid support for the Playstation Move too as I think there's a great opportunity there for some fun interaction and mini-games within home!

 

[patsu]

Missed out one important quote in the IGN article:

When a person pops into Home, they spend an average of an hour fooling around with the program, and 85 percent of people using Home are repeat users.

Sometimes I left my Home avatar idling in Home. I hope their stats don't count these idle moments.

 

[Grall]

I dunno, something must be wrong with my Home install or something because I can't find ANY gamespace at all. The only areas I have access to are the plaza, apartement, shopping mall, cinema and the arcade. The doorway with the escalators is barred, I dunno what's supposed to be on the other side, if anything at all.

The ARG thingy area also seems to have vanished from Home, kinda sad really coz it was fairly interesting. I never managed to get to explore the whole thing coz there were these neon lazar beams blocking me and I couldn't get past. And all the games that were inside, are they gone too? What a waste, if it was just a limited time thingy.

 

[patsu]

You may want to reinstall Home.

I didn't complete the ARG game (Xi) too. I stopped after the text adventure round. I think Sodium is deeper, whereas Xi has more variety but more shallow.

I really hope Home will add some solid support for the Playstation Move too as I think there's a great opportunity there for some fun interaction and mini-games within home!

When the question popped up earlier, the Home team essentially asked us to just wait. ^_^

EDIT:

That's very cool! I should do more game launching from Home with friends. I enjoyed that with R2. I wonder when they will end the Beta period for Home?

Too bad game launching is not widely supported today.

 

[patsu]

Sony introduced an idea sharing platform on the Playstation Blog:
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2010/03/17/introducing-playstation-blog-share/

Share is a subset of the PlayStation.Blog where readers can submit ideas to us about anything PlayStation-related as well as vote on the ideas of others. Many of you are already making suggestions to us, and we’ve always been listening (that’s the whole idea of the Blog), but now these ideas have an official place to call home. You can find the entrance to Share right at the top of this page.

 

[Arwin]

Too bad game launching is not widely supported today.

It could definitely be better, but there are a few games anyway, and what also helps is that at least you can start any game now from Home, harddisc or bluray, so if you are with your friends, you at least also return to the same space after you've done.

The idea sharing is very good, and it gets top marks from the community. However, this is probably the wrong thread for it.

 

[patsu]

Yeah, didn't want to start a new thread. Piggybacking on this one. If it gets any larger, I figured a mod will move it.

Here's a funny idea with lotsa votes:
http://share.blog.us.playstation.co...-butler-hosting-the-e3-sony-press-conference/

Kevin Butler hosting the E3 Sony Press Conference!

 

[London Geezer]

Ok guys help me out here.
I hate Home. With a vengeance. I just think it serves no purpose whatsoever. You can't do anything more than watching old low-res trailers, walk around and see stupid kids talking about cr4p or being abusive to each other, play a few silly games which i don't want to play. And it's slow.
Am i missing something??

 

[Rotmm]

Am i missing something??

You clearly haven't tried going in there as a female.