PlayStation Home: Sales Stats No Figures

And Home is making money... apparently

Posted by Staff
Actually a Mute Records logo... but it fits don't you think?
Actually a Mute Records logo... but it fits don't you think?
Susan Panico, senior director of the Playstation Network, has been spreading lovely, seasonal snow all over the Seattle Post Intelligencer regarding the smashing things happening on Home.

Susan was prepared with beautiful statistics to show that Home is bubbling along like a bucks fizz on Crimble Day morning, yet she had somehow forgotten to bring actual hard figures. But that didn't stop her from telling us all wonderful tales of Home such as:

"Virtual goods priced from 49 cents to $4.99 have generated more revenue for Sony than PS3 movies and video priced up to $14.99 generated in their first week". Eh? We're not even sure what that is supposed to mean in real life. Let's have a bash though:

1) In their first week of sale virtual goods in Home have sold more than Sony movies and videos have anywhere?
2) Virtual goods in Home have sold more than Sony movies and videos on PSN in their first week of sale?
3) Virtual goods in Home have sold more in their first week on sale than Sony movies and videos in their first week of sale... but where?

Never mind those facty things, Susan tells SIP that, "It's a classic 80/20 model, where 20 percent of your customers create 80 percent of your income". We take this to mean that in the Home free Open Beta, at least 20% of people have bought at least 80% of anything that was bought. But how many is that?

Moving on to firmer marketing ground, Susan wants Home to be like HBO because, we'll let her explain, "We look aspirationally at HBO, the way they have 'Sex and the City' and other shows". Right, so Sony wants to be a TV channel because the TV channel has TV shows. Who is this woman?

Finally, moderating sexual harassment... Susan suggests that that if you're a male journalist pretending to be a female using a feminine avatar and a name like "Iamacutegirl23" in order to get a story, you won't be harassed if you mute the other person. Says Susan, "abuse reporting, the ability to mute other avatars, and "rapidly scaling up our moderation team" should fix the problems".

Yup, mute the filthy buggers. That will stop you seeing them dancing in your face. How about a 'kick them in the nuts' function? And with Home's notoriously weak censoring model, who knows if they're being harassed anyway? Trying telling someone you come from Scunthorpe and that you graduated summa cum laude and your favourite food is chicken breasts.

Comments

SuperSaiyan4 23 Dec 2008 13:53
1/7
You know I thought to myself as soon as NXE hits Microsoft is going to charge silly points for avatar clothing etc but no instead the new stuff available is free. And here is Sony with their micro transactions...Now who is taking a leaf out of who's book?

I was interested in HOME until this nonsense about hearing and not hearing and muting etc came into place what a load of s**t.

You should be able to hear everyone but mut those that you dont want to hear simple.
tyrion 23 Dec 2008 15:09
2/7
SuperSaiyan4 wrote:
You should be able to hear everyone but mut those that you dont want to hear simple.

Well as far as I can see, that's what this is. It's just in the mean time, there's a mute all except in private areas default function.
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so retarded 23 Dec 2008 15:45
3/7
wtf are you guys talking about ? Theres mute button you can press to shut anyone the f**k up . microtransaction ? wtf ...you don't have to buy shlt in home . You can basically win all of the clothes and furniture from trophies. so you don't have to pay for shlt.... people are stupid really stupid
TimSpong 23 Dec 2008 16:58
4/7
so retarded wrote:
wtf are you guys talking about ? Theres mute button you can press to shut anyone the f**k up .


You know what, he's totally right there. Hence, I have retained Susan's snowjob but have reframed the story. I can't blame anybody else for my brainfart (well, I can blame last night's company trip to the panto and the vodka) but I won't.

I have berated myself with a metal ruler over the knuckles. My apologies for the error.

Tim
Matt 23 Dec 2008 19:54
5/7
The muting thing seems to help with 1.05, makes sense for now.

But I think a simple mute and just block view alltogether feature would be nice.

Glad people are purchasing items...but please do not get too greedy in terms of prices...
Henry Harris 26 Dec 2008 02:01
6/7
I understand Ms Panico's quandary. But, in my opinion, she makes a mistake in confusing the fictional world of Home and the real world. Home is fictional because it's not real. (Do I really have to explain this?) In the real world a certain amount of grease is necessary to function. We say please, may I and don't usually talk to strangers. Without courtesy the real world would be unbearable. But Home is not real. It's interactive fiction, and in fiction anything can happen. If juvenile behavior bothers you, walk or teleport away. Sift out the interesting people and invite them to your summer home. People who really want to communicate in some meaningful way will get the message and behave. Just don't treat a virtual world like it's real. It's not.
Dan Druff 28 Dec 2008 22:51
7/7
I'd eat her asshole out like a bear cub with a honey pot.
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