Sony's blind trumpeting of its PlayStation Home service continues apace, with director Jack Buser telling Gamasutra that it has been a "huge success for our company, [and] something that we have been very proud of."
This is a service that sees 14 million (out of a potential 35 million) PS3 owners download the free software and use Home at least once. Also, despite the intense interest in E3 from gamers the world over, the basic fact is that Home saw less than quarter of a million of those users visit Sony's own virtual booth.
It could be argued that there's something of an animosity towards the application. Buser acknowledges this by saying; "Home is new. We're doing a lot of really new stuff that I think the industry is still wrapping its head around. We're seeing a lot of innovation in the space, and some of us have hit success."
Well, Home is quite new in geological terms, not in vidoegame-related terms, having gone live (albeit in its seemingly endless beta form) in the USA in 2007. Buser believes that in time, the games industry as a whole will "shift their focus to these new types of platforms."
Although Home isn't quite the blockbuster that Sony keeps saying it is, there is one thing going for it. Some of it is profitable. Once again, the man has been well briefed, stating, "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."
Exactly what on earth "Once they reach maturity, they are profitable" means outside of "Once they are profitable, they are profitable" is anybody's guess.
"In fact, I would say that it is a very good business model for PlayStation - I like to say it's one of the highest-margin businesses in the games industry." He'd like to say that but plausible deniability will only allow him to say that he'd like to.
So it's a virtual walk-in advert then. Cheers.
This is a service that sees 14 million (out of a potential 35 million) PS3 owners download the free software and use Home at least once. Also, despite the intense interest in E3 from gamers the world over, the basic fact is that Home saw less than quarter of a million of those users visit Sony's own virtual booth.
It could be argued that there's something of an animosity towards the application. Buser acknowledges this by saying; "Home is new. We're doing a lot of really new stuff that I think the industry is still wrapping its head around. We're seeing a lot of innovation in the space, and some of us have hit success."
Well, Home is quite new in geological terms, not in vidoegame-related terms, having gone live (albeit in its seemingly endless beta form) in the USA in 2007. Buser believes that in time, the games industry as a whole will "shift their focus to these new types of platforms."
Although Home isn't quite the blockbuster that Sony keeps saying it is, there is one thing going for it. Some of it is profitable. Once again, the man has been well briefed, stating, "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."
Exactly what on earth "Once they reach maturity, they are profitable" means outside of "Once they are profitable, they are profitable" is anybody's guess.
"In fact, I would say that it is a very good business model for PlayStation - I like to say it's one of the highest-margin businesses in the games industry." He'd like to say that but plausible deniability will only allow him to say that he'd like to.
So it's a virtual walk-in advert then. Cheers.
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