Sony Home - The official thread*

[Dungeonscaper]

Waiting on the questing system. Will make it much easier to find rewards and feel like you're accomplishing something.

Game still needs better loading times and more stable framerate in some spaces.

 

[patsu]

Waiting on the questing system. Will make it much easier to find rewards and feel like you're accomplishing something.

Game still needs better loading times and more stable framerate in some spaces.

Quests may be interesting, depending on how they do it; 'specially if it's tie in with XMB trophies, real life gifts, and/or betting between friends.

 

[patsu]

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011...pdate-scribble-shooter-and-fall-blowout-sale/

Scribble Shooter is one of the 2 "real" games I like in PS Home, out of tens and hundreds of promo mini-games.

...
a huge upgrade to one of the most popular games on the platform. Those of you that own the mega-popular Scribble Shooter – the top-down, shoot ‘em up arcade-style game known for its addictive gameplay and unique art style – will now be able to share the game with your friends. This additional functionality was developed based upon the feedback of the PlayStation Home community, and we’re proud to release this totally free upgrade to all Scribble Shooter fans effective immediately. Enjoy!

As with typical Home presentation style, the video is rather loud and salesy/pushy:

Nonetheless, PS Home is a dedicated gaming environment with a captured audience. Exploring cutting edge community/social and liberal DRM models fit the framework. Would like to see more ideas there.

Simplifying game development with PS Home library and tools is fine, but I doubt Home can ever be better than Playstation Suite in depth, breadth/scope and reach. They should open it wider than PS Suite, or go really deep. If the Home team tries to chase after the gaming crowd with the current, simplified 3D engine, they will just lag behind.

 

[patsu]

Nonetheless, PS Home is a dedicated gaming environment with a captured audience. Exploring cutting edge community/social and liberal DRM models fit the framework. Would like to see more ideas there.

Simplifying game development with PS Home library and tools is fine, but I doubt Home can ever be better than Playstation Suite in depth, breadth/scope and reach. They should open it wider than PS Suite, or go really deep. If the Home team tries to chase after the gaming crowd with the current, simplified 3D engine, they will just lag behind.

By the gods, PS Home better rise to PS Suite's challenge soon. The former should be superior in rapid prototyping game-like apps. Perhaps, it can sit on top of PS Suite ? May also want to emphasize user generated contents since it was Home's original pitch.

Sony Developing a “Cutting Edge” Social Game for PS3
http://playstationlifestyle.net/2011/11/10/sony-developing-a-cutting-edge-social-game-for-ps3/

In a new job listing for Sony’s London studio, the company is looking for a Producer “to join an existing team creating a new IP”, specifically asking for social gaming experience:

PS3 and/or social gaming would be an advantage.

Additionally, the advert says that the Producer will be “responsible for the delivery of all titles developed by the franchise,” and that they will have to “supervise post-mortem execution at the end of each title”, suggesting that multiple games are planned.

In a separate job listing, but part of the same hiring push, SCEE London’s game is described as “cutting edge”. It’s not specified if the game is the “huge” Move game Sony’s London Studio is working on, but as that is a “character action game” it seems unlikely.

In the second job posting, we have:

The candidate needs to be jack of all trades, but also a master of some (C++/C# & SQL in particular).

 

[patsu]

Home Weekly Update: Watch Free Full-Length Movies with Crackle
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011...e-watch-free-full-length-movies-with-crackle/

PlayStation Home is proud to announce the release of Crackle on all LOOT EOD Screens this week. Now you can watch hundreds of full-length Hollywood movies and thousands of television shows with your friends for free. The LOOT EOD Screens can be found in the LOOT EOD Theater, Sunset Yacht, and the Hollywood Hills House.

...

Went back to Home last 2 nights to play the new Texas Hold 'em in PS Home. They should speed up the transition between players. Faster pace is better here. Otherwise, it's a decent effort. Easy to get in and out.

You don't have to walk up to a poker table to play anymore. Home will pop-up a simple UI to schedule you to any open table. They finally learned that players don't need to obey the law of physics in a virtual world. ^_^ Took them only 3 years to do that.

 

[patsu]

PlayStation Home lets friends watch free movies together now, UStream and radio next month
http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/20/playstation-home-lets-friends-watch-free-movies-together-now-us/

... now all PS Home users -- in North America -- can do social viewing with up to 60 users or private parties with up to 11 at a time. Crackle's selection of movies and TV shows are available today, while live broadcast UStream events (Engadget podcast party anyone?) and musical stations provided by RadioIO are scheduled to debut in December. Press play on the video above for a quick preview or check after the break for a celebratory press release.

Press release:

Sony DADC Launches New Era of Media Consumption with Real-Time Social Experiences for Feature Films, TV, Radio, and Live Events on PlayStation®Home

Crackle, Ustream, and RadioIO Channels Join Virtual World in LOOT™ Entertainment on Demand (EOD) System

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Entertainment and social networking come together like never before as Sony DADC's LOOT™ group partners with leading digital media companies to bring virtual world experiences to feature films, television, radio, and live events to Sony Computer Entertainment America's PlayStation®Home social game platform. With the addition of Crackle, Ustream, and RadioIO social experiences to PlayStation®Home, users can invite friends to share traditional entertainment experiences in a virtual environment, communicating with each other in real time-whether across town or on the other side of the world.

"The PlayStation®Home platform provides an opportunity to change the way people interact with online media and our LOOT team thrives on introducing new types of fun and exciting experiences to PlayStation® users," said David Sterling, vice president of business development at Sony DADC. "We are very excited to bring familiar social experiences from the real world into a virtual environment, so people around the globe can connect and communicate with each other while sharing their favorite movie, show, music, or event. This is the next big step in social networking and it will transform the way people consume media."

Created by LOOT, Sony DADC New Media Solutions' internal development team, the PlayStation®Home real-time social game platform is available on PlayStation®Network to all users of the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system. Users in North America are able to explore a world of entertainment and unparalleled interactive capabilities either using LOOT's Public Theater virtual spaces which offer "Social Viewing" experiences with up to 60 users or invitation-only private spaces such as Sunset Yacht, Hollywood Hills House, and the LOOT Space Apartment where hosts can invite up to 11 friends to watch content together and communicate via voice and text. Now, PlayStation®Home users will be able to share the experience of the platform's Entertainment on Demand (EOD) system with content provided by three leading online media companies.

Crackle: Social viewing for feature films and TV

Crackle, a multi-platform video entertainment network features hundreds of full-length Hollywood movies and television shows plus Crackle originals. Short-form content from Crackle has been available on PlayStation®Home since November 2010; now, all Crackle content is available on the social platform, including movies such as STEP BROTHERS, RESIDENT EVIL, GLORY, A FEW GOOD MEN, and STARSHIP TROOPERS, TV shows such as "Married...with Children," "NewsRadio," and "Jackie Chan Adventures," over 1,000 anime episodes including "Samurai X," "Blood +," and "Blue Exorcist," and over 40 Crackle originals including the award-winning "The Bannen Way," "Issues," and "Why It Crackles." New titles are added monthly. In a rich virtual world experience, user avatars can get together with friends in the LOOT Space Station public space, the LOOT Sunset Yacht personal space, and other spaces to watch ad-supported Crackle content on-demand. Real-time text and voice communications bring users together in the kind of shared experience movie and TV fans have always loved.

Ustream: Real-time interactivity around live broadcasted shows

The Ustream network features online lifecasting and live video streaming produced by more than 12,500,000 registered users. PlayStation®Home will now feature a broad range of live Ustream events. Ustream content will be available in both public and personal LOOT spaces, allowing PlayStation®Home users to enjoy the entertainment of their choice, the way they choose.

RadioIO: Streaming music pioneer takes listening social

RadioIO (IWDM.OB), PlayStation Home and LOOT bring another option for "Social Listening" to PlayStation®Home by recreating the social experience of listening and discovering music with your friends. The new LOOT virtual item called Entertainment On Demand Active Radio lets PlayStation®Home users invite friends into their private spaces, or listen on their own in the LOOT Space Station public space, to enjoy high-quality Internet radio from RadioIO with their choice of more than 60 music and talk channels from Classical, Jazz, Rock, and Pop to Hip Hop, R & B, Country, Electronic, Dance and many more specialty niches including live shows from nationally syndicated radio talk show host Bubba the Love Sponge® and additional programming from Shannon Burke and Dangerous Conversation with Scott "Ledge" Ledger. Concerts and sporting events will be available in the future, as well as virtual goods to extend the fan experience.

DADC is Sony's arm handling DVD, Blu-ray production. It seems that they provide digital solutions too.

Sure hope the final product allows us to jump to the Entertainment-on-demand screen right away (Follow the PS Home Hold'em model !). The EOD performance has also improved significantly compared to pre-1.5 days.

Still missing/lacking a viral angle though.

 

[patsu]

Sodium 2, IMHO one of the only 2 best games in PS Home, updated to use the new graphics engine...

Sodium2 Payback Comes to PlayStation Home + Weekly Update
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/11/23/sodium2-payback-comes-to-playstation-home-weekly-update/

 

[patsu]

PlayStation Home Releases v1.60 + Weekly Update
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/12/07/playstation-home-releases-v1-60-weekly-update/

NEW FEATURES

Furniture Placement Limit

We have doubled the furniture placement limit in personal spaces and clubhouses from 50 to 100 items.
Standard and active furniture limits have been merged into the same system. Currently all actives take up 22 furniture slots in the new system. Thus you can now place a variety of different combinations:
100 standard furniture items or…
78 standard furniture items and 1 active or…
56 standard furniture items and 2 actives or…
34 standard furniture items and 3 actives or…
12 standard furniture items and 4 actives.

GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS

Targeting in Personal Spaces
Targeting in personal spaces has been improved.
This means you shouldn’t accidentally target furniture items through floors or ceilings any more.
Although we have made exceptions for wall hangings and lights as these tend to be placed quite high up.
If you find any items of furniture in places you can’t reach then you can always remove them through the furniture browser and place them somewhere else.

Portable Items and Companions
We have changed the way that companion portables work so they will now automatically re-activate after you enter and leave a game or relocate between spaces. No more having to put your companion away and take them out again when you do this!

Help System
There is a new help system to aid new users as they explore PlayStation Home for the first time.

Arcade Games
Arcade games are no longer subject to the 3 minute inactivity timeout when placed as furniture in Personal Spaces or Clubhouses.

CHANGES

Menu Pad
We have removed the “Community” section of the Menu Pad. The information that used to be contained in here is now communicated via the Message of the Day pop-up at login and the new loading screens.

... plus bug fixes.

[size=-2]How 'bout more design changes ? ^_^[/size]

The free Crackle movie streaming is somewhat valuable, but could be simplified more. Took me 30 seconds to figure out how to use it.

 

[Arwin]

I heard someone complain about the active item limit, so this is good news.

 

[patsu]

Yap, I was one of them (argh... 4 photo frames per apartment ?).

Update is live now btw. Tried to play with it last night but it hadn't updated yet.

 

[patsu]

Google nabs Square Enix and other game developers to do native client Chrome games
http://venturebeat.com/2011/12/08/g...er-game-developers-to-do-native-chrome-games/

Google announced today that its three-year effort to create a muscular browser technology that can run heavy duty apps such as console-like games is now ready for prime time.

Google has provided the platform to allow games to run in the Chrome browser and make use of the computers 3D graphics hardware. That makes it possible to run games with high-end console-like graphics in a web browser.

Square Enix chief executive Yoichi Wada attended the event at the GooglePlex headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., and said his company has been waiting for this day for a long time. The company created a version of its Mini Ninjas game for Chrome as a “native client” game.

...

If Sony open up Home and essentially allow people to build HTTP-based Home spaces and gamify the entire Internet, it would be a good complement to the Google Chrome movement. It's one of the reasons I think Sony need a good web browser on their gaming platforms, and PS Home needs to open up and port to other OSes.

...

I wonder if the new client is still based on HTTP. If they stay on HTTP, might as well fully utilize its advantages. Apple built live video streaming out of HTTP protocol so that providers can rely on the same web infrastructure (e.g., Port 80 to clear firewalls easily, shared web server farms, etc.). Each stream can be split into multiple small files/segments. According to one of their patents, saving the first segment on the local HDD allows them to start playing a song or movie right away, while the other segments stream via HTTP to the client if the user continues to listen to the same song segment.

If Sony stays on web-based tech for Home, they should leverage the net (web contents/relevance, communities, traffic, and other devices) to spread PS Home. Otherwise, doing it over a proprietary level streaming protocol may be easier and more performant. I kinda hope they continue to research and exploit HTTP-based tech though.

It's cool to have people build HTTP-based Home spaces throughout the net.

A little disappointed that the new Home will feature such a static city structure. Reminds me of AOL's graphical frontend and Apple's eWorld:

Was hoping they start from a clean slate. Keep the original structure minimalist, and allow users to populate the space depending on who's signed in to the instance.

The static cityscape seems wasteful. Home developers can probably use the space for more Avatar interactivity and games.

Would love a closer look. Would be fun to integrate it with Near or the "Life with Playstation" globe so that I can choose a Home instance based on geography.... or even interests.

EDIT: It would be _bad_ if the Home team incur the overhead of HTTP and yet do not utilize its strength at all.


At some level, if you have a framework and community to gamify the entire Internet, it seems more interesting and powerful than facebook or google+ games.

At some point, turning the Playstation bronze, silver, gold and platinum trophies into currency and points will also help Playstation Home. The static 3D backdrop seems meaningless in comparison. Community and dynamic contents should be the keywords for PS Home.

 

[patsu]

The latest fruits of PS Home's gaming focus...

11 New Games Come to PlayStation Home This Wednesday [Today]
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/01/10/11-new-games-come-to-playstation-home-this-wednesday/

(All 11 YouTube videos in the link)

 

[patsu]

Bwahaha, hey Sony, look at this:

It's similar to what I wanted for PS Home when it was first launched: A mix of abstract 2D and 3D world... "Imagine looking out of the window"


... but you should let the signed in users populate items in the current world session.

 

[patsu]

I noticed that Jack Buser has a new role with this blog post today:
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/03/09/a-new-era-for-playstation-network-begins-with-journey/

+ Posted by Jack Buser // Senior Director, PlayStation Digital Platforms

He used to be Director, Playstation Home according to his LinkedIn profile.

While I mocked Sony for underselling their stuff. Jack Buser is one of the few Sony people who would oversell his products. Hopefully he'll tone down his sales pitch in his new role. [size=-2]Focus on the product management and marketing first.[/size]

Let's see if he has the power and will to pull PS Home, Near and other PSN initiatives closer.

 

[patsu]

Finally have time to watch Nintendo's Miiverse implementation:

Very similar to what I have in mind for 2D Home
* Launch as background to the standard navigation menu
* Low resource requirements and fast
* Clean visual. e.g., White room
* Unique and pleasant art direction
* Dynamic user grouping/room a la Home Space and LiveArea for each game or theme

All the 3D buildings in Home Spaces are useless, including the E3 ones. The only exceptions are the stage performances (e.g., Miku's concert).

But Home already has:
* Built-in party system by adding individual avatars to the party
* Voice and text chat. Scribbles in Miiverse is definitely useful when talking about games
* Ability to pull items out to decorate the room or use the items jointly (e.g., watch a video together)
* Web browser integration for loading and sharing tips
* A "zoomed in" fully 3D environment when the user really wants to spend time dwelling in the Home world

 

[Arwin]

Interesting new addition to Home:

http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2013/03/18/pottermore-is-coming-soon-to-playstation-home/

 

[patsu]

Yeah if they want to have thematic home spaces, they should dress all of us automatically to fit the game world. It's much more coherent this way. I wonder if the controls are still slow in the 3D world.

I went to the hub the other day. It's still packed with folks like before. Can't wait to see Sony improve Home for PS4 and Vita.

 

[Gradthrawn]

If you haven't stepped into Home in a while (like me) now is probably a good time to get it re-downloaded and pre-load the E3 event area. There's some nice goodies for those that participate:

Virtual PlayStation E3 Booth Opens for Pre-Registration
The biggest video game event of the year, E3, is almost upon us! Following tradition, we’ve taken the actual schematics of this year’s physical PlayStation booth and recreated it in PlayStation Home, right down to the finest details. Few are fortunate enough to attend the real event, but we love sharing the experience with all the PlayStation fans out there. This E3 is shaping up to be an extraordinary one — you don’t want to miss it.

Starting later today, everyone who pre-registers in our virtual E3 booth will earn exclusive rewards, including a Beyond: Two Souls PS3 theme. This is only available for those who pre-register this week!

Log into PlayStation Home later today to pre-register and snag this exclusive bonus!

When E3′s doors open on Tuesday June 11th at noon Pacific (3:00pm Eastern), the virtual doors open too.

This year, we have even more awesome rewards, which you can snag by completing various quests. Here are a few:
Exclusive The Last Of Us PS3 Theme

Two free PlayStation Mobile games: Rymdkapsel and Haunt the House

Free trial of Music Unlimited

Exclusive Destiny PS3 theme

Free trial of PS Plus

Exclusive first wave beta access to Killzone: Mercenary, available later this year on PS Vita

Jump into PlayStation Home before Monday night and pre-register to earn your Beyond: Two Souls exclusive PS3 theme, then get ready for opening day, June 11th. See you there!

It's been a very long time since I stepped into Home and was pleasantly surprised with the way the interface has been streamlined. Also, apparently, your config is now saved on the Home servers instead of locally. It boggles my mind that wasn't already that way, but space isn't free, and megabytes times millions of users adds up quickly, so, I suppose it's understandable.

I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with it on the PS4. I'm hoping the additional memory allows for a more seamless experience that's less about jumping from 1 discrete area to the next, loading the new area each time. A more cohesive streaming open world environment with fast travel could be very nice I think. That, along with proper, full, game launching support.

 

[patsu]

I went there a minute ago:

Taking a picture took 10-15 seconds to save. >_<
On PS4, it should be instant !

The room was dancing to the lounge music.
Too bad it doesn't give me an option to capture the speech bubbles. Some of them were pretty funny. And there is a guy with dancing mailbox avatar in the room.

Will be interesting to see it on PS4.
Praying for art direction revamp.

The UI is still quite poor. e.g., The pre-E3 space took a long time to load, spammed me 3 banner ads while registering me, and then kicked me to the Hub after registration.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

AFAIK from someone working on Home content, it's not being ported over to PS4. That was some months back. I'll see what he knows now.