I have to wonder if Sony are barking up the wrong tree with “Home” for the Playstation 3. For those of you who have not heard of this product it’s a free to use virtual environment where Playstation users may create, upgrade and decorate a virtual “home” Interact with other users in spaces designed by game publishers and other users, play a range of mini games and purchase items and new houses through micro-payments.
If you have heard of the much hyped Second Life it might sound familiar. On paper it almost looks like a good idea, micro-payments have proved hugely successful for Apple (Think iTunes and the iPhone App store) But can it work for the PS3? Well I have to say I’m not convinced. I eagerly loaded up the public beta in December and soon found myself asking “Why would I use this when everything it does can be done so much faster without it?” Take Voip, if I currently need to chat to my friends online I send them an invite from the Playstation’s XMB (Desktop) the whole process takes seconds.
If I choose to do that in “home” I have to load up the Home application and log in (possibly 30+ seconds, but then I have to locate my friends and physically (…umm virtually) walk to them to start up a conversation. And if they are not in the same space I also have to load up the space they are in… all in all it could take minutes! A recent update means you may only Voip in personal spaces or by making a “call” to a friend… ok, yes that is quicker – but not more so than using the XMB. Similarly if I want to find out about a new game why would I load up home when I can just use the PS3′s handy internet search tool. And other than learning about new PS3 games or watching Movie trailers there is very little to do in home. The mini games soon get tiresome and you begin to wish you could run around, play leapfrog, ride a bicycle, bark like a dog and roll over wagging your tail… strip naked… anything other than re-decorate your apartment… again!
Six months on and little has changed in Home, I wander around the Piazza and listen in on the same conversations as I did in December “Why can’t I shoot people,” “Is this it?”, “I’m tired of Chess” etc, etc.
Maybe I’m a cynic, I was never a fan of Second Life and Home seems to be more of the same but with less features but prettier graphics. Yes I might enjoy decorating my apartment and adding screenshots and videos of my gaming prowess to virtual picture frames and LCD TV’s and maybe I’d even go and buy a plate glass trophy cabinet for all of my awards – but will anyone want to come and look at them?
Last December Google killed “Lively” their version of an virtual interactive world and last November Reuters pulled the plug on their virtual Second Life news-desk, “about as fun as watching paint dry.” is how one ex-reporter describes his time there, I know the feeling! Home must be costing Sony a tidy little packet… and yet while it’s development sluggishly carries on calls for an improved XMB continue. Barking up the wrong Tree? Now if only you could do *that* in Home!
Expect Sony to rebound in microtransactions shortly with a PSP Go Phone…
I see the PSP Go and the switch to all direct download games as a stepping stone towards a Sony Ericcson PSP Phone. Yes, I too laughed at the notion of a phone competing with dedicated handheld devices.
But that’s before I found out that EA is porting the excellent Red Alert 3 over the iPhone!! Note that EA never thought it worthwhile to make a version of Red Alert for the PSP.
And then look at the news today, Sega of America’s president and CEO, Simon Jeffery, just left his position to head up the exclusive iPhone game developer ngmoco, who have a reputation of pushing the iPhone’s hardware to deliver killer app titles. Simon Jeffery is no chump. He is hailed by many gamers for his critical role in pushing through KOTOR, and many other killer app games as president of Lucas Arts.
Many many game developers who’ve commented already noted that the iPhone 3G is almost as powerful as the PSP! But the next gen device, the 3GS takes the hardware to a whole another level, it uses a next gen GPU using Open GL 2.0, a much faster CPU and has double the ram, 256 mb! Basically it’s specs blow the PSP’s out of the water (which is expected since the PSP is almost 5 years old).
Currently the 3GS is not a big deal, the iPhone has a marketshare of 50 million, same as the PSP but achieved this in just one third of the time period, but all of them own the last gen hardware. It’ll take some time for enough people to own the newer 3GS. But in an years time, I expect there to be atleast 10 million such owners, and premium games are going to be made to cater to the 3GS owners only, pushing the gaming performance to levels better than anything on current handhelds.
The sheer convenience of being able to play high quality games on a device that you always have with you, whereever you go, and can also take hiqh quality pictures, and videos, and look up directions, browse the internet and make phone calls, is not to be underestimated.
That’s why I fully expect that Sony is already feeling some heat from all the mobile game developers switching over to the iPhone development. How could it not, when the 3G is already lining up big titles like Red Alert 3, and is even getting the president of Sega and the father of KOTOR to switch over to exclusive iPhone game development.
Combine all this with the current upcry of iPhone gamers demanding someone make an iphone shell that sports TWO ANALOG NUBS and two shoulder buttons, now the the recent 3.0 firmware upgrade fully gives apps and games the ability to make use of any hardware shells made for the iPhone, and the rumors that multiple hardware makers are interested in doing just that, in order to capture the sales of the entire iPhone gaming community in one swoop.
I fully expect that Sony is already hard at work coming up with an all in one mobile device and phone, that is capable of playing all the same games that the PSP Go is capable of playing, and serving all the same functions that the iPhone is capable of serving. Don’t forget that Sony is already a major player in the phone industry with it’s beloved Sony Ericcson phones. And this Ericcson brand of phones is feeling quite a bit of heat from the iPhone’s success, same as most phone makers.
They actually should’ve released it this past E3. By making a Go phone, they could’ve put in all sorts of heavy duty features into the Go Phone like an OLED screen, a 5 megapixel camera, a 720p video camera, dual analog nubs, GPS etc, to bring up manufacturing costs to $600 (instead of $250 for the PSP Go) and still have been able to release it for FREE with a 2 year contract thanks to carrier subsidies. That would have sold like crazy, increased the PSP’s market significantly put a stop to bleeding out of the Sony Ericcson brand line marketshare to the iPhone. They also would have made huge amount of money by selling tv shows, movies, and later on apps and ebooks (something that they PSN store already offers, but doesn’t get many sales from).
It would been a huge boon to gamers as well, as they would be able to get a PSP that can do every single thing the iPhone can do, offers even more advanced features like an OLED screen, 720p video and a 5 megapixel camera, and would have been able to access the PSN store, and play games online via 3G from ANYWHERE in the world. But I think this will happen yet.
When Home was first announced it sounded pretty cool, and after what seemed like an eternity as Sony kept delaying it’s release (a bad sign) I finally got to try out the Home experience for myself.
I found the whole thing really rather tiresome for similar reasons to Martin (especially as he would beat me at the mini games!).
Home was really the last straw for me with the PS3. I think it’s technically a very well made machine with a decent set of specs on paper but Sony just seem to have lost the plot by focusing on projects like home rather than developing unique and interesting games. I traded in my PS3 for an XBOX360 Elite and have been so glad I did. Even with the cost of subscribing to Xbox Live for me it represents much better value for money.
I’m not a Sony hater as I used to sell Sony products for a living, but I just don’t think they got it right this time around.
Mark C: So that’s why my PS3 say’s you haven’t logged on in 5 months!
Undoubtedly the PS3 is technically the better package. It’s not worth going into the detail here but the specs say it is. But Home is just a mistake and will only ever be a “one-off” visit for most. The loading times are just unacceptable and ultimately everything it does can be done better elsewhere – it’s like they designed a solution to a problem that didn’t exist.
Whilst I understand & agree with a lot of the points above, & that home isn’t that intersting unless you’re a very social person, it is still in beta, & XI was an interesting diversion for a while (if a bit of an anti-climax).
Mark C. stated “Sony just seem to have lost the plot by focusing on projects like home rather than developing unique and interesting games” – because as we all know there’s no good or interesting games out for the PS3 are there? oh, wait a minute, it’s not 2007 anymore.
Value for money is down to personal preference, & if you have no use for a reliable & tidy console that has Wi-Fi, hard drive, Blu-Ray, & bluetooth, & controller batteries all hidden away then I would agree with you as the baseline price of the 360 is very appealing. When you start adding in the extras it starts to look like a different story. Again, it’s all down to the individuals needs & wants.
So if Home is such a failure why have millions of people downloaded the BETA (remember it’s still a work in progress) and it has a 85% plus return user rate all of whom spend an hour or so per visit – you can’t argue with those stats regardless of your personal opinion of the service. I also recall a press release a while ago that raised a few eyebrows at just how much people were spending on Home micro-transactions.
Fact is, although I don’t use Home much myself (and the load bars are a pain), whenever I go on Home every place I visit is busy – if Sony were barking up the wrong tree then surely the place would be a ghost town, and surely big name devs like EA, Ubisoft and CAPCOM etc wouldn’t waste time and money investing in it?
As for the guy that traded in his PS3 for a 360 because of lack of unique and interesting games, he obviously never saw E3 this year… Sony’s 1st party games development is unmatched in the industry…
And let’s not forget Microsoft, after ridiculing the Home concept, are slowly but surely weaving in elements of the service into Xbox Live (even suggesting Live will become almost like a MMO!) – Avatars, Avatar costumes, Avatar parties, Avatars sharing media content, Avatars playing communal game shows etc – all these things are things Home is meant to cater for.
If Home has one failing it’s that it’s almost too standalone for it’s own good – whereas the likes of the XBL Avatars are there on your menu screen, Home requires an independent program – eventually when Home is ready the lines between the XMB and Home will blur and the avatars presence will be more visible on the XMB – it’s the logical next step and the only way it will get mainstream adoption. It would also be interesting to see ‘premium’ spaces introduced – a bit like XBL’s 1vs100 game, or even a virtual (real money 18′s only) casino or poker room – there’s plenty of companies operating this sort of virtual game now that I’m sure would love to get a presence on Home (subject to suitable age checks of course).
There’s plenty of scope for Home to expand, and frankly you’re rather narrow minded to think otherwise. Mind you people said the Wii would fail and motion control was a gimmick – and look how right they were…
Kaden101 this post I made last year about Xbox vs PS3 may interest you and re-enforces some of your points http://www.seenit.co.uk/xbox-360-deal-or-no-deal/051498/
PS3Owner:
I have to say I pretty much share Croshaw’s opinion of E3 http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/779-The-Second-Annual-E3-Hype-Massacre
I’d like to see the source of the “85% plus user return rate” and what is counted as a “return user”, it seems everytime I go there I only ever meet newbies/
“why have millions of people downloaded the BETA” I’m guessing because it’s free? Most of my PS3 friends downloaded it and not one of them still uses it. Apparently they can’t delete it either!
Perhaps I am narrow minded, But I can’t see Home replacing the XMB for a lot of people, even if it ditched the loading times the very nature of the system means it will still take longer to do all of those things that the XMB already does do.