Sony Home - The official thread*

[Gradthrawn]

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.

Interesting. That's either very good (they've got something entirely new planned) or very bad (they've given up on it outside of PS3 and will likely keep it there so long as its profitable). Also, if you could please, ask him a few other things:

• How big is the Home team?
• What's the makeup of the team (number of web designers, 3D artist, web developers, engine coders, etc).?
• Is Home profitable for SCE?
• Is Home profitable for third party content contributors?
• Any usage statistics he's willing to share.

 

[orangpelupa]

maybe its not ported to PS4 but it does not eliminate the possibility that sony make newHOME (i hope)

 

[Arwin]

I currently don't really see a future for it, especially if they provide enough alternative opportunities to hang out with friends 'native' in XMB. I did actually like Home a fair bit, and a redesign that allows for a super fast 2D version as well (as patsu suggested) could definitely still work, but I don't see Sony having much of a priority for this now.

I'm sure we'll learn more after E3 ...

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Interesting. That's either very good (they've got something entirely new planned) or very bad (they've given up on it outside of PS3 and will likely keep it there so long as its profitable). Also, if you could please, ask him a few other things:

He's a third party content creator so doesn't know the inner workings. It's definitely profitable for him and other content creators (otherwise they wouldn't be making content ), so one assumes it's profitable for Sony as well. He moved onto making Home content when the dev he worked at as a lead artist folded.

 

[Gradthrawn]

He's a third party content creator so doesn't know the inner workings. It's definitely profitable for him and other content creators (otherwise they wouldn't be making content ), so one assumes it's profitable for Sony as well. He moved onto making Home content when the dev he worked at as a lead artist folded.

Ah, I see. I got the impression that might be the case (him being a 3rd party) based on your wording but I figured I'd ask anyway. In that case, please ask him about the content creation pipeline for Home. I'm curious as to what the workflow looks like.

 

[patsu]

I currently don't really see a future for it, especially if they provide enough alternative opportunities to hang out with friends 'native' in XMB. I did actually like Home a fair bit, and a redesign that allows for a super fast 2D version as well (as patsu suggested) could definitely still work, but I don't see Sony having much of a priority for this now.

I'm sure we'll learn more after E3 ...

Yes, if they offer the social services from the 2D UI, it would work faster and more efficient.

Hoping for some twist to spice things up, like beefing up LBP2 to take over some of the Home services. LBP needs to improve user level promotion.

IMHO, we need some sort of user-to-user marketplace too.

 

[Arwin]

I think Sony is better off focussing on some kind of API / SDK level support at this point that would allow people to move freely from gameworld to gameworld or something like that, allow MMOs to have users leave the MMO as a group straight into another type of game etc., so that the MMO environment could take over the Home functionality or something like that.

But who knows. Home did work, and if it was redesigned with all lessons learnt from the original Home, it could be very strong.

There's also still the drive to make Home server-side software, wasn't that a rumor? That could also point to another way Home could go.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I think Home changed focus early on from PlayStation community feature to random MMO social experience. Ideas of meeting up, forming groups, and launching games, wasn't supported early enough for gamers to take to the platform for games. It was also pretty inept, with only two people at a time able to play pool despite them being virtual tables.

I'd recommend a remake, a new brand and concept that's far swisher and natural and covers all ground. Maybe with the 8 GBs, Sony could go as far as to keep the Home experience resident and allow instant switching, basically replacing XMB with Home (as long as it had a decent 2D simple UI on offer as well). Home at the moment is a really weird concept. It's games, but naffy ones that don't play well due to all the overhead. And crowds of people who get in the way.

 

[patsu]

I think Sony is better off focussing on some kind of API / SDK level support at this point that would allow people to move freely from gameworld to gameworld or something like that, allow MMOs to have users leave the MMO as a group straight into another type of game etc., so that the MMO environment could take over the Home functionality or something like that.

But who knows. Home did work, and if it was redesigned with all lessons learnt from the original Home, it could be very strong.

There's also still the drive to make Home server-side software, wasn't that a rumor? That could also point to another way Home could go.

Like XML game launching !

If they take this approach, it may be good to standardize some of the dialog boxes and UI flow to prevent confusion.

 

[patsu]

I think Home changed focus early on from PlayStation community feature to random MMO social experience. Ideas of meeting up, forming groups, and launching games, wasn't supported early enough for gamers to take to the platform for games. It was also pretty inept, with only two people at a time able to play pool despite them being virtual tables.

I'd recommend a remake, a new brand and concept that's far swisher and natural and covers all ground. Maybe with the 8 GBs, Sony could go as far as to keep the Home experience resident and allow instant switching, basically replacing XMB with Home (as long as it had a decent 2D simple UI on offer as well). Home at the moment is a really weird concept. It's games, but naffy ones that don't play well due to all the overhead. And crowds of people who get in the way.

Yes, the 2D UI will be handy for Vita and other mobile devices also.

A continuously expanding 3D world "behind" the 2D UI would make things interesting.

 

[Arwin]

Like XML game launching !

If they take this approach, it may be good to standardize some of the dialog boxes and UI flow to prevent confusion.

Yeah, which hey had already developed for current Home, just wasn't supported well.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I was chatting about Home with my mate, and there's stuff happening. I don't want to give much away as technically he'll be under NDA and some stuff shouldn't be public knowledge, but there are two things of note that I'll mention and expect to be covered tomorrow at E3.

1) He's being kept in the dark about what's happening next
2) There's something substantial happening with Home that shows a significant change in strategy by Sony for the better. It's the sort of thing we'd talk about Sony doing knowing full well they would never do it as it's too big and forward-thinking, but apparently that's the plan.

I can't see Home's present and future not being covered somewhat in tomorrow's show because E3's the best place for it. If not tomorrow than at TGS or Gamescom, or maybe GDC Europe - it'll definitely be covered in a big capacity. I read that Home's unveiling was GDC San Francisco so that opportunity has gone due tot he hardware reveal. Tomorrow makes most sense as Sony fill us in on the services side of PS4 (I assume).

 

[Gradthrawn]

I was chatting about Home with my mate, and there's stuff happening. I don't want to give much away as technically he'll be under NDA and some stuff shouldn't be public knowledge, but there are two things of note that I'll mention and expect to be covered tomorrow at E3.

1) He's being kept in the dark about what's happening next
2) There's something substantial happening with Home that shows a significant change in strategy by Sony for the better. It's the sort of thing we'd talk about Sony doing knowing full well they would never do it as it's too big and forward-thinking, but apparently that's the plan.

I can't see Home's present and future not being covered somewhat in tomorrow's show because E3's the best place for it. If not tomorrow than at TGS or Gamescom, or maybe GDC Europe - it'll definitely be covered in a big capacity. I read that Home's unveiling was GDC San Francisco so that opportunity has gone due tot he hardware reveal. Tomorrow makes most sense as Sony fill us in on the services side of PS4 (I assume).

Very exciting!

Shifty, I can't remember what time zone you're in, but by "tomorrow" do you mean the Sony Pre-e3 conference on the 10th or at the official start of e3 on the 11th?

 

[Kb-Smoker]

Thanks for the info. I just log into home for the first time because they had something about e3 on the news feed. It was really cool. Ended up spending hours playing poker and blackjack. Just like real-life I walked out broke...lol

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Very exciting!

Shifty, I can't remember what time zone you're in, but by "tomorrow" do you mean the Sony Pre-e3 conference on the 10th or at the official start of e3 on the 11th?

I'm UK, so tomorrow means Sony's conference at 2 in the morning for me. So that's today for NA.

 

[patsu]

I was chatting about Home with my mate, and there's stuff happening. I don't want to give much away as technically he'll be under NDA and some stuff shouldn't be public knowledge, but there are two things of note that I'll mention and expect to be covered tomorrow at E3.

1) He's being kept in the dark about what's happening next
2) There's something substantial happening with Home that shows a significant change in strategy by Sony for the better. It's the sort of thing we'd talk about Sony doing knowing full well they would never do it as it's too big and forward-thinking, but apparently that's the plan.

I can't see Home's present and future not being covered somewhat in tomorrow's show because E3's the best place for it. If not tomorrow than at TGS or Gamescom, or maybe GDC Europe - it'll definitely be covered in a big capacity. I read that Home's unveiling was GDC San Francisco so that opportunity has gone due tot he hardware reveal. Tomorrow makes most sense as Sony fill us in on the services side of PS4 (I assume).

How much info are you withholding at this point ? Just one or two ideas, or some concrete implementation stuff ?

Minimally, I am hoping for a 2D Home first and foremost. It would help string all Sony and partners services together.

If the change is substantial, I can see them holding back until Gamescom.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Concrete implementation stuff.

 

[patsu]

Hmph, that far along huh ? Is it still under Jack Buser's charge ?

 

[Delta9]

maybe they have it streaming for all devices including PS3.

 

[Arwin]

That has been a rumor already. And it would make some sense in the light of that one of the latest updates (1.7?) moved all your local save data into the Cloud. But I'm not sure that would effect content creation directly ...