Speaking at today's Game 3.0 conference in London today, Sony Worldwide Studio VP Jamie MacDonald said Sony is "madly working" to get Home out to the public this year.
He still didn't have a date to give us (which isn't encouraging), but insists that development is "going very well".
"At Tokyo Game Show it was announced that PlayStation Home will be hitting what we're calling an open beta by the end of the year, which means it will be available to everybody," said MacDonald.
"And the latest is, it's going very well. The guys are madly working to make sure that date is hit, and it's going very well," he reaffirmed.
"The reason why we even started developing that (PS3 Home) was really a frustration a few years ago that the online experience for most games players was geeky, tedious and short. Certainly in my experience, I got into a first person shooter online and I lasted about 15 seconds. It's not much fun,"
He went on to ramble, rather cautiously, that Home was designed for everyone and not just teenage, shooter-hungry boys.
"So that was really our driving force with Home, to provide an environment where it's fun to go, you can hang out with like-minded people and talk about games, play games, have a look at the leaderboards, but in an environment that was game centred but not just for these teenage boys, who are fine, but they enjoy very much shooting people, which is fine," he said (thanks PSU).
I'm absolutely positive that this is one of those things that people will get bored of very quickly and simply never use. They'd be better off integrating Facebook into the console than chewing up all the resources it takes to make Home.
Not sure about everyone else, but the reason why i was more excited about home then anything is the integration of trophies, showing them off etc.
But I must say if Home doesn't get released by the end of year all my anticipation of Home will have gone (if it hasn't already)
Let's just hope it worth all this waiting ..
The benefit they have is that's free to everyone with a PS3, so at least everyone will likely 'give it a go' if nothing else. If this was a full retail game, it would be DOA.
However, if they're going to do it they should at least invest the time to make it appealing.
Rushing it to market for christmas will just turn it into another Lair or Haze!
There's little point in doing that though, right? After all, they won't make money from it like Haze did (or could have). And before you suggest that they could sell PS3s because of home, lets be fair, who's gonna buy a PS3 for home?
There's little point in doing that though, right? After all, they won't make money from it like Haze did (or could have). And before you suggest that they could sell PS3s because of home, lets be fair, who's gonna buy a PS3 for home?
Actually they are going to make money from it. Virtual advertising boards are already for sale on it and companies can 'rent' out space to set up their own communities. A lot of the contracts are already in place.
There's little point in doing that though, right? After all, they won't make money from it like Haze did (or could have). And before you suggest that they could sell PS3s because of home, lets be fair, who's gonna buy a PS3 for home?
Actually they are going to make money from it. Virtual advertising boards are already for sale on it and companies can 'rent' out space to set up their own communities. A lot of the contracts are already in place.
Ah well, scratch my last comment then - they may well rush it out then so they start to see that revenue. Its quite brave for those companies to sponsor an 'unproved medium' though. After all, this isn't a game, nor is it a social network. It remains to be seen how it will be received.
Ah well, scratch my last comment then - they may well rush it out then so they start to see that revenue. Its quite brave for those companies to sponsor an 'unproved medium' though. After all, this isn't a game, nor is it a social network. It remains to be seen how it will be received.
It doesn't interest me in the slighest. All I want from PSN or XBL for that matter is to be able to download the latest demos and videos and maybe download some full games if I want. Everything else is unrequired.
By the time they get it out all those teenage boys will own their own HOME an will prob be playing on some crazy virtual machine and the ps3 will be as old as the Amiga, besides what is going to be so cool about it anyway this year or not, who wants to show off some blag trophies now that's pure teenage stuff, unless you can invite your mates into your virtual home to watch dvds and play games they havnt got yet its gonna be poo with a capital P!!!
Marty - we as gamers may know it's an unproven market, but all it takes is one Sony PR guy to tell a few advertisers "It's just like Second Life, and look how much real money people are already making in that!" Show a few slides on SL's profits to get them salivating, and Sony will probably secure a few big deals without even trying.
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