Been on PlayStation Home recently? Possibly not, and it appears that Sony's management won't be prioritising their visits there either.
Peter Edward, director of the PlayStation Home platform group told Edge at the London Games Conference this week that, despite visitors splashing some cash on microtransactions in the virtual world, "It’s been a long road. We've proved there is a market out there and we’ve got a lot of people that spend a lot of time in [Home]. It’s not a priority right now but there is a business model there."
Peter Edward, director of the PlayStation Home platform group told Edge at the London Games Conference this week that, despite visitors splashing some cash on microtransactions in the virtual world, "It’s been a long road. We've proved there is a market out there and we’ve got a lot of people that spend a lot of time in [Home]. It’s not a priority right now but there is a business model there."
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Dreadknux 29 Oct 2009 12:21
1/3
I'm not surprised. The most interesting thing to happen to Home in my view was the Burn Zombie Burn space - I really enjoyed the fun design of that space and wonder why Sony went down the hyper-realism route.
The more Home gets integrated with the games, movies and music that the PS3 is home to, then the more the system will be a success, no doubt. Look at people hyping up the 'film sharing' thing on Xbox Live. Sounds like Sony wanted to do a similar thing first in Home, but obviously infrastructure for things like that don't happen overnight. A shame.
Oh, and virtual queues. Why? This is why I've never gone 'bowling', or felt the need to do much else really. I shouldn't have to queue up for a virtual game for God's sake.
I think Home would benefit a lot from cross-game chat as well, whether it's apparently inbound or not. Chatting to your mates over PSN and trying to find them in the mass of people in Home can be quite confusing/annoying.
That, and the controls needs to feel much less restrictive, and the worlds and themes less clinical. They really need to give game 'skins' or something. I want to run around Home as Kratos or Ratchet, at the kind of speed and inertia I'd expect in a game. If Sony wants Home to be a 'meta-game' of sorts, they really need to fix the fact that even running around and exploring the spaces feels mind-numbingly pedestrian.
The more Home gets integrated with the games, movies and music that the PS3 is home to, then the more the system will be a success, no doubt. Look at people hyping up the 'film sharing' thing on Xbox Live. Sounds like Sony wanted to do a similar thing first in Home, but obviously infrastructure for things like that don't happen overnight. A shame.
Oh, and virtual queues. Why? This is why I've never gone 'bowling', or felt the need to do much else really. I shouldn't have to queue up for a virtual game for God's sake.
I think Home would benefit a lot from cross-game chat as well, whether it's apparently inbound or not. Chatting to your mates over PSN and trying to find them in the mass of people in Home can be quite confusing/annoying.
That, and the controls needs to feel much less restrictive, and the worlds and themes less clinical. They really need to give game 'skins' or something. I want to run around Home as Kratos or Ratchet, at the kind of speed and inertia I'd expect in a game. If Sony wants Home to be a 'meta-game' of sorts, they really need to fix the fact that even running around and exploring the spaces feels mind-numbingly pedestrian.
B 29 Oct 2009 13:00
2/3
I've seen many things misreported from the LGC panel talk, but I think this is going too far now. I was there, so I know exactly what the guy was saying.
He was talking in regards to making money in Home. He said that making money is not their priority for Home, that they are making some - that there is a business model, but that's not what they're trying to do. They're trying to build a community.
I've also seen the analyst's comments about another competitor coming in to shake up the market in the same way as Apple did the music industry being lazily turned into 'Apple are making a console'. Similarly the Xbox Live guy's quote about streaming tech being rubbish, was actually him saying that it's too early for that technology to replace consoles, but that everyone is betting on it working in the long term.
However, the articles stay on the web and lies turn into truth. I'm glad I'm not in the position of Pete Edward, Jerry Johnson or Nick Parker, where everything I say is twisted into untruths just to get some clicks. (I'm not just talking about Spong here)
He was talking in regards to making money in Home. He said that making money is not their priority for Home, that they are making some - that there is a business model, but that's not what they're trying to do. They're trying to build a community.
I've also seen the analyst's comments about another competitor coming in to shake up the market in the same way as Apple did the music industry being lazily turned into 'Apple are making a console'. Similarly the Xbox Live guy's quote about streaming tech being rubbish, was actually him saying that it's too early for that technology to replace consoles, but that everyone is betting on it working in the long term.
However, the articles stay on the web and lies turn into truth. I'm glad I'm not in the position of Pete Edward, Jerry Johnson or Nick Parker, where everything I say is twisted into untruths just to get some clicks. (I'm not just talking about Spong here)
TimSpong 2 Nov 2009 11:45
3/3
@B Hi B,
Thanks very much for this input. Sorry I haven't responded earlier; we are in fact going to run an update today on this.
Regards
Tim Smith
Thanks very much for this input. Sorry I haven't responded earlier; we are in fact going to run an update today on this.
Regards
Tim Smith