Sony Home - The official thread*

[patsu]

Hmm... I didn't measure. Didn't have a problem with Sodium game loading. Are you sure it's not waiting for you to press X ? :^p ?

 

[patsu]

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2010...uccess-toy-story-3-community-events-and-more/

We wanted to take a moment to thank each and every one of you, the nearly quarter of a million gamers that have visited the booth since we launched it last Tuesday. In the first day alone we had over 60,000 visitors (compare that to the 46,500 real world attendees — more people visited the PlayStation Home E3 Booth in one day than did the Los Angeles Convention Center for the E3 festivities last week!)

Needless to say, the virtual E3 Booth event space has been a tremendous success. And we have you, the 14 million users that make up the illustrious PlayStation Home community, to thank for that.

60,000+ visitors to the E3 space out of 14 million is not exactly a good news (yet). Granted, not every Home user goes to the E3 space. I didn't until 2 days ago. For a gamer centric community, I expect 100,000+ to a million+ (1-10%) to visit the space across time.

It would be more interesting to tell us what people do in Home, and what are the most popular home spaces.

I appreciate the following gestures though:

After all, it was your idea to recreate the PlayStation E3 Booth for the hordes of gamers unable to attend in the flesh. It was your requests for bigger and better rewards that led to the development of all the awesome commemorative items associated with the space. It was you that asked for the behind-the-scenes look at SCEA’s PlayStation Home development team that has been airing in the VIP area of the virtual E3 Booth. It was you that demanded that the SCEA PlayStation Home Community Management team get out from behind the screen and chat face-to-face on the show floor (many thanks to those of you that took the time to stop by the booth and talk to us, learn about some of the new content we have coming down the pipe and, most importantly, give us your feedback on the platform — we had the time of our lives!)

Thanks for the hard work ! Hope the Home team continue to simplify the service. Some day, I really want to see majority of PS3 users launching games from Home. ;-)

 

[Arwin]

60,000+ visitors to the E3 space out of 14 million is not exactly a good news (yet). Granted, not every Home user goes to the E3 space. I didn't until 2 days ago. For a gamer centric community, I expect 100,000+ to a million+ (1-10%) to visit the space across time.

The 60.000 was the first day. The article says that 250.000 people have visited the space so far, so yes, that expectation seems realistic? I would have liked a little more loot/swagger though, to give us that E3 feel ...

 

[patsu]

Ah, 250,000 would be more reasonable, but the more the merrier. It's a gamer community afterall (Should aim for at least 10%).

 

[Grall]

I think the numbers are relatively low because Sony doesn't f**** inform people the damn thing is there!

I even loaded up Home during E3 to see if there was anything and I couldn't bloody find the damn space. Not a single indicator anywhere either within home or outside of it that there was an E3 space, or how you reach it.

 

[Arwin]

I think the numbers are relatively low because Sony doesn't f**** inform people the damn thing is there!

I even loaded up Home during E3 to see if there was anything and I couldn't bloody find the damn space. Not a single indicator anywhere either within home or outside of it that there was an E3 space, or how you reach it.

Did you log into the U.S. Home? Because it was only up there as far as I know.

 

[Grall]

Did you log into the U.S. Home?

No. Didn't know that was possible, or how to accomplish it...

Anyway, why would they make such a space region-specific??? Are they completely stupid?

 

[patsu]

New Midway Home Space to celebrate Canada Day and Independence Day:
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2010...-event-alpha-protocol-toy-story-3-items-more/

The Midway — available Thursday, July 1st — launches with 10 games, over a hundred rewards (including the Darla’s Den personal space), and plenty of secrets that you will have to uncover for yourself as you progress through this massive new game space. Simply collect your tickets from the kiosk at the entrance to the Midway and embark on a journey where a new reward is unlocked for every level of every game you master. Hang out in the space for long enough and you can even be rewarded with more plays for your favorite games (or the ultimate bragging rights at the Meet Darla photo booth). You can even collect exclusive arcade-style games like Trigger Happy-in-a-Box for the Darla’s Den personal space! Just enter the hilarious Tele-Porta-Potty in PlayStation Home’s Central Plaza to access the Midway when it launches this week.

Video: http://www.viddler.com/explore/sceablog/videos/1087/

 

[patsu]

PlayStation Home Model “Quite Profitable":
http://edge-online.com/news/playstation-home-model-“quite-profitable

PlayStation Home is quite a profitable business for Sony, and one the company’s very satisfied with, according to Jack Buser, director of the 3D virtual space.

"… I would say that it is a very good business model for PlayStation, and quite profitable, I might add. I like to say it's one of the highest-margin businesses in the games industry."

"We haven't talked too much about the platform itself, but what we have said is that every mature virtual item we have ever created has been profitable. We've released over 5,000 virtual items on the platform, and we know that once those items reach maturity, they are profitable. So you see us creating a tremendous amount of virtual items, because it is such a high margin business for us to be in.

"The proof is in the pudding," he added. "With numbers like we have, it goes without saying that Home has been a huge success for our company, something that we have been very proud of."

 

[specwarGP2]

Thanks for the hard work ! Hope the Home team continue to simplify the service. Some day, I really want to see majority of PS3 users launching games from Home. ;-)

I think that ship has sailed. Home seems more like its own standalone app now. People spend hours in there goofing off and buying virtual stuff and playing mini games, and theyre happy with that

 

[patsu]

That's quite true. T_T

It's better to have a small profitable active community than a large community making a loss. [size=-2]But we shall see...[/size]

 

[goonergaz]

It's true, it's quite a nice place to 'chill' TBH - I'm not flush enough to spend money but I guess some do!

Also I noticed on the US store that there was a charge for Home (around $5 IIRC), what's that all about!?

 

[Gradthrawn]

I think that ship has sailed. Home seems more like its own standalone app now. People spend hours in there goofing off and buying virtual stuff and playing mini games, and theyre happy with that

That's quite true. T_T

It's better to have a small profitable active community than a large community making a loss. [size=-2]But we shall see...[/size]

It just takes 1 killer app to integrate closely with Home that makes game launching the best way to play online to change that. Of course, for that to be fully realized, that might require changes to Home itself. Something like the Warhawk war room, but with that concept fully fleshed out, might do it (for a very popular game, of course).

Or perhaps the opposite would need to take place. A killer app that intergrates Home within itself somehow?

 

[patsu]

It's true, it's quite a nice place to 'chill' TBH - I'm not flush enough to spend money but I guess some do!

Also I noticed on the US store that there was a charge for Home (around $5 IIRC), what's that all about!?

I believe that's the starter pack. You get bulk deal for select Home items (furnitures, costumes, apartment).

Or perhaps the opposite would need to take place. A killer app that intergrates Home within itself somehow?

LBP-like creation tools + Home would be interesting. Likely too much risk for Sony.

I went into Midway yesterday, it's quite an interesting concept. Reminds me of Broadwalk in Santa Cruz. Like the FIFA one, you can see custom player animation (e.g., throwing a ball) while they play the carnival games.

So far, I bought the Loot apartment (for making you own Home video), and Sodium Salt Shooter.

 

[specwarGP2]

It just takes 1 killer app to integrate closely with Home that makes game launching the best way to play online to change that. Of course, for that to be fully realized, that might require changes to Home itself. Something like the Warhawk war room, but with that concept fully fleshed out, might do it (for a very popular game, of course).

Or perhaps the opposite would need to take place. A killer app that intergrates Home within itself somehow?

sony should figure out how to integrate an mmo into home. avatars should be viewable in xmb just like how 360 avatars are... that could be the hook to get people to visit home. to dress up their avatars.. once they're there you can try and lure them into the mmo, or they can just hang out and play minigames and buy stuff.

prolly not feasible this gen... but next gen... sony could make a ton of money if there was a compelling mmo with a microtransaction based econony that was built into every ps4

 

[patsu]

sony should figure out how to integrate an mmo into home. avatars should be viewable in xmb just like how 360 avatars are... that could be the hook to get people to visit home. to dress up their avatars.. once they're there you can try and lure them into the mmo, or they can just hang out and play minigames and buy stuff.

I think they already see themselves as a network of mini-MMOs, or a different kind of MMO due to its dynamic room structure.

http://kotaku.com/5423761/playstation-home-director-wants-mini+mmos-on-the-service

"We have developed a forum for developers to come in and develop 3D social games," Buser told Kotaku during a Sony Playstation 3 showcase in New York. The goal is to spawn the development in Home of what Buser calls "mini-MMOs."

If you visit the newer home spaces, you can see people literally playing games right in front of your avatar (e.g., shooting basket ball or playing carnival games). It's no longer the standard "I'm busy playing game" dummy posture.

 

[specwarGP2]

just logged into home after a loooong time. really like the new interface, and there's a lot of stuff to do. I easily spent a few hours in home and bought stuff for my avatar too lol

 

[patsu]

What did you buy ? I bought Sodium Salt Shooter, the Loot apartment and the photo frame. The rest are either freebies or reward from other games.

 

[specwarGP2]

What did you buy ? I bought Sodium Salt Shooter, the Loot apartment and the photo frame. The rest are either freebies or reward from other games.

I bought virtual clothes for my avatar... I couldnt help it. everyone else was walking around with cool and interesting outfits. I prolly spent ~ $7.00 lol. I also won a sparkler and a shirt for playing that fireworks game. I was hoping I could wear my free PS+ shirt since I'm a subscriber but oh well

Its pretty cool how home has evolved... there are lots of people in it!!

 

[patsu]

Its pretty cool how home has evolved... there are lots of people in it!!

My family is away for a long trip. So I get to relax on my own a little. Spent about 30 minutes in Home leisurely. I think if you have time to waste, Home is a cool place.

I went to the FIFA world space. It's now my top Home space for wasting time. ^_^ There are people from all over the world here because it is a global space. We have 4 languages in a random group cross talking. (English, Japanese, Spanish, Italian). Helped me remember some of my Japanese. If you wait long enough for the World Cup advert to play, Shikira's Waka Waka makes a good party background music.

You can see costumes from all Home servers ^_^ (interesting dress sense). And of course, people trying to chase after "girls" from another country. ("f*ck tower of babel" is how one chatter put it ).