Developer FAQ reveals PlayStation Home launch schedule

Those of you who spent the weekend eagerly anticipating the chance to waste even more of your free time immerse yourselves in the new virtual world that is PlayStation Home now have a solid launch window to look forward to, thanks to a FAQ uncovered by Gamesindustry on Sony's developer site; according to the ten-page document, a closed 15,000-user beta will run from April to August, followed by an open beta for 50,000 people until October, with the service going live sometime before Halloween. The FAQ also clarifies some details that were omitted or glossed over during Phil Harrison's GDC keynote, such as integration with cellphones (hopefully not just Sony Ericsson handsets) and PSPs, and the fact that launching multiplayer games from Home and so-called "environmental persistence" will not be ready at launch. Specifically, this means that avatars will not initially be able to segue into cooperative gaming mode from within the Home environment, nor will their digital swag like apartments and cars exist when they're offline. Finally, this fact sheet also shows Sony playing both sides of the fence when it comes to in-world ads and commerce: the company is quick to reassure gamers that Home is primarily focused on socialization and entertainment and that advertisements will be kept to "palatable" levels, while in the same breathe wink-wink-nudge-nudging advertisers and content providers that there will be significant opportunities for them to capture plenty of gamers' hard-earned euros, dollars, and yen. So in conclusion, Home-lovers should be breaking out the Sharpies right about now and drawing a big circle around the entire month of October in their calendars; Home-haters may actually want to do the same, but only so they have a timetable to prepare their inaugural grey-goo or flying Wiimote attacks. [Warning: PDF link]

[Via Gamesindustry]

[How to start a clothign line from scratch @ Mar 12th 2007 1:00PM]

is this just another sims game or what??

[Silver R. Wolfe @ Mar 12th 2007 1:28PM]

It's an online social community that Sony is building for the PS3, in a 3D environment and with 3D avatars.

It will eventually allow you to go straight from Home to Playstation Network titles.

[Jello Mold @ Mar 12th 2007 12:22PM]

I think that whole PS3 Home is overrated, but that's just me.

[Mickey Jones @ Mar 12th 2007 12:40PM]

Hmmm, I guess this won't be like Second Life where half of the virtual economy is based on "escorts", strip-clubs, and ridiculously large physical enhancements.

[Warhorse @ Mar 12th 2007 12:46PM]

So this is Play Stations attempt at online chat rooms?

[gibschan @ Mar 12th 2007 12:50PM]

i htink the Mii's or overrated...but thats just me

[Matt B @ Mar 12th 2007 12:53PM]

Looks somewhat interesting. I can't wait to at least try it.
For now, Fight Night 3 FTW!!!!

[mike @ Mar 12th 2007 2:03PM]

That's awesome. I'm not sure if it will be able to compete with second life but I see this as being an amazing Lobby type of place to just chill out.

http://www.areacodefinder.mobi

[Smitty @ Mar 12th 2007 1:57PM]

It will be interesting to see how this whole thing pans out. It's nice to see that Sony is at least capable of learning from the successes of 360 and Wii, but of course execution and vision are two different things.

As long as the average user isn't forced to use Home for all tasks (i.e. viewing your accomplishments and playing arcade games) and doesn't get micro-transactioned to death, I can't see how it can end up being a failure.

[Kevlar @ Mar 12th 2007 1:48PM]

Hmm. Guaranteed, the "palatable" level will be too much advertising for me. Giant in-game billboards with pepsi commercials playing on them would be enough to turn me off the service. Betcha if you move within 'range' of the billboard, you can hear the annoying audio, too.

No thanks. I'll keep my hopes up that Nintendo will work on their online service a bit to try and compete with XBox Live. My hope is for a "Friends" channel, that integrates with the home-button pause screen for instant-messaging when you pause the game. A few clicks of the Wii-remote, and you can invite your friend into a multiplayer-match, or send them a "No thanks! I'm busy!" message in reply. Now THAT would be awesome!

[Kevlar @ Mar 12th 2007 1:50PM]

In addition, I think Nintendo's answer to the Playstation Home will be in the form of a game like Animal Crossing, which is already promising persistent even-when-the-console-is-off towns that your friends can visit.

Sorry about the multiple comments. I just have a lot to say this morning.

[alexhrose71 @ Mar 12th 2007 1:52PM]

That technical paper also indicates that the servers for Home split the users arbitarily into groups of 64, so there is no guarantee you will be on the same server as your friends.

Add in the fact that you can't even launch games for it (for now...) and it sounds less and less interesting the more I hear.

[Tony Rayo @ Mar 12th 2007 2:25PM]

Alex, that's what the private areas are for. You'll be able to invite your friends into places you are at. It'd make no sense to have 100,000 people crammed all into one public space. In fact in the demo video shown it was possible to invite friends even into public areas, so we'll just wait and see. There are lots of tiny improvements I'm waiting for, in the XMB for example, to happen first. Not to mention the sweet line-up of games coming out this year for all of next-gen (GTA4 anyone?) that will make sure plenty of people will be attending summer school.

As far as Home though, the idea seems interesting (and having it be free was a total must), but I don't see myself using this service much (unless a lot of my existing friends jump on the PS3 bandwagon as well). I'm not really a "MySpace" social, "let's be internet friends!" kind of person. You never know though, I used to love clan warfare in TFC (Team Fortress Classic, a HL1 mod based on the TF mod for Quake) back in the day.

Going even more off-topic I REALLY don't like the look of TF2 and am pissed that Valve took 5+ years to develop the game and they settled on a cel-shaded fuglyness that doesn't look like fun (I'll still buy the HL2 Orange box for the PS3 though). The thing I'm looking forward to the most about the PS3 and something that we all should be seeing very soon is a new firmware and hopefully some XMB improvements. Different color/photo backgrounds and such are nice additions but I better be able to disable auto-launching. I hate it when I turn on my PS3 and it goes into the last game or movie I was playing/watching (come on guys, even the PSP has this function). Speaking of which, are we ever going to be able to watch wmv or flv movies? It's not that I like the formats over mp4, but it's mostly what the internet uses these days. Make it happen, everyone know quality = Sorny! BTW, that was a tribute, not a spelling error, =p.

- Tony R.

[PluhDude @ Feb 24th 2008 7:15PM]

This is to Tony Rayo you can stop the autolaunch feature on the ps3 just go to game settings and it should be there

[Smitty @ Mar 12th 2007 2:02PM]

I remember reading that as well. Apparently, the servers are supposed to split people up based on some kind of function utilizing their friends list. If it works, then you will supposedly be on the same server as your friends with a high level of certainty. Sony also discussed making it 'easy' to shuffle between servers to stay with friends.

Again, it all comes down to execution. It will get old and obnoxious fast if it isn't user friendly and simple to use.

[CrazyD @ Mar 13th 2007 12:33AM]

I find that picture utterly hilarious

This is what Sony imagines Home to look like. People using proper names standing around chatting about gaming in full, articulate and grammatically correct sentences.

As opposed to a bunch of people running around attempting to hump each other, all dressed gansta or like slutty girls with names like xXxSNYPRL334xXx or mAsTaPlAyAFoLIF using aol'er shorthand that makes them sound like giberring idiots, while hurling racial epithets, dissing console and music choices, and calling each other "fags".

Its not a technical problem, its a human one. Although the limited size of the chat rooms, microtransactioned everything, inability to form parties and jump into games certainly doesn't help.

[KC @ Mar 12th 2007 3:20PM]

That's pretty cool. I hope it can split servers according to age groups... I can toally see my kids on it and having a blast.

[Ordeith @ Mar 12th 2007 6:11PM]

*For now, Fight Night 3 FTW!!!!* -Matt B

Is this the same Fight Night 3 that is better on the 360 in every way, and at half the cost?

[Steve @ Mar 12th 2007 9:55PM]

I cant wait to give this thing a test drive, looks FUN!!

[rodan32 @ Mar 12th 2007 11:51PM]

So. . .what makes anyone think there will be actual girls using this service? Or even more unlikely, telling us we're really cool?

[bighmd @ Mar 13th 2007 4:18AM]

Didn't this come out on Dreamcast in 1999? Oh, nevermind, thats the other over-glorified chatroom PSO.

[yur @ Mar 13th 2007 7:48PM]

ehh no point in being skeptical at this point. its too early. i never really get why people are so quick to call whats it going to be like, you planning on telling the world on your blog you called it on engadget? let things play out then commence your bitchery and crying. i for one like to thoroughly check things out before investing in them, unless theyre drunken girlies at the pub, then by all means make an ass out of yourself as soon as possible, much like the douchebags you find on this site spewing their hate.