Just earlier this month we'd been hearing word from Sony that it was seeing PlayStation Home as
more of a "social game platform" than a "social network," and now we're hearing that Sony might not be seeing it as much of anything. Peter Edward, the director of Home for Sony, says that the service is "not a priority right now." Kind of at odds with his other statement that it's "proved there is a market out there and we've got a lot of people that spend a lot of time in [Home]," but we'll let is slide. So, is this a roundabout way of saying Home hasn't been as great as Sony thought it would be, or just a different way of saying the emphasis is changing? We've never minded Sony's Home efforts on their own, but in the context of an also-ran multiplayer platform, it's easy to see why the company should be focusing on other aspects of the gaming experience.
Update: Sony has
gone on record saying that this statement as reported by
T3 from a talk at the London Games Conference is a misquote, instead saying that Peter was talking about how monetizing Home was not as big a priority as building the platform -- which others have confirmed.
posted November 2nd 2009 12:20PM
Your thinking here is too limited. The real future direction is complete immersion, as in no more physical body needed after it wears out. You then become a part of the computer cloud. Also, computer technology is evolving so fast that a fully immersed human will barely be able to tell it apart from reality, other than the fact that just about anything is possible. Compare Pacman to Crysis. That's how far we have come in 30 years. Since computer speed is increasing exponentially, the gains in the next 30 years will be even more impressive by comparison. Also, the young field of Optogenetics holds promise in direct computer/brain interfaces. Several projects such as Blue Brain are making real progress in whole brain simulation.
Ps home is stupid anyways
All they have to do is mix Home with GTA and millions will join immediately
Well, I liked this news more when it was mis-quoted. Home is a waste of Sony's resources.
From someone who has both an Xbox 360 and a PS3, there's a reason why I buy almost every cross-platform title for the 360. The Playstation Network is inferior in almost every way to Xbox Live. I honestly don't mind spending the yearly fee for Live, because of all the enjoyment I get from playing multiplayer & co-op titles on it more than justifies the price.
The party, chat, & messaging system is an absolute breeze and crucial to the whole experience. Why PS3 hasn't been able to implement something close to Microsoft's is a mystery to me. All the while Sony has been more concerned with virtual bowling alley's and wallpaper designs for your virtual dorm room.
Really. I've played a LOT of online multiplayer on PS3 with minimal to no issues. I also recall many issues about live network being down in the past (wasn't it down shortly before or after Christmas). Maybe Live is "somewhat" better than PS3's online, but certainly not enough for me to warrant paying their fees to use it.
Home is garbage, sony should scrap it. Or change it into a geographical location based chat platform
Enagadget couldn't resist, there's been a lack of negative Sony stories.
Guys! get with the times!
This news is easily 2 days out of date. Everyone involved has said that this is a misquote and has been bent out of all proportion.
This from Kotaku:
"Allow me to put your minds at ease about this recent press. The coverage of what Pete Edwards said at the London Games Conference was not only a misquote, it was a misreprentation of what he actually said.
Edwards was saying that monetizing Home was not as big a priority as building a great platform, with a compelling environment and a strong community. Home is still a top priority for Sony and will continue to release quality content and provide a positive experience to our users.
And yes, we will continue working on fixing bugs, login problems, and other user issues."
http://kotaku.com/5393968/playstation-home-manager-exec-was-misquoted
Get with the times guys!
Still, the news would have been better if it WAS NOT misquoted.
It saddens me to see Sony continue to support Home when they could be making other improvements instead. Home is a waste of time and energy.
All the while an over-abundance of positive apple coverage, and negative win 7 coverage, hmm maybe there is a word for this sort of thing? *cough* biased *cough*
It still amazes me that they made an avatar editor for Home with way more detailed customization options than either the Xbox Avatars or Miis, which lets you create a face right down to the structure of individual bones, and yet the avatars still look nothing at all like real people. The Mii editor is rudimentary in the extreme, but I've seen Miis that look eerily like their subjects, and yet Home avatars always look dull, dim and dead. It's typical Sony: all technology, no character.
Same with the Home space itself: technically impressive, but bleak and sterile in the extreme.
I thought that must have been wrong, especially considering his job is dedicated to Home; he'd hardly be bashing it because of that.
Home is crap, I would like to see home avatar with the Infamous controls with total freedom to roam & jump everywhere ! that would be incredible. Right now I feel like my avatar is a stick with bad and unresponsive controls ! The Home world is simply uninteresting.
Other than that I prefer my Ps3 over my 360 elite, my Wii is in the closet...been there for several months now !
The day I started Home: "Awesome, this looks like it has promise, though my Avatar's such a douche."
The day Sony started charging for Home accessories: Filled apartment with upside down stock sofas and haven't returned since.
Finally. Maybe if SONY drops HOME they can finally concentrate on basic PS3 functionality.
@Wii60
I Agreed with you about some good Sony exclusives, but Modern Warefare 2 is going to sell a lot more on the 360, and MAG, GT5 and GOW III are 2010 titles. Only Uncharted 2 was a 2009 release.
So lets see the 360 have Forza 3, Final Fantasy XIII that is almost like an exclusive for the Sony lost, L4D 2, Halo ODST better seller than uncharted, 2 DLC for GTAIV, Teken 6 another exclusive lost to Sony, Shadow Complex for Arcade.
For next year Sony has the biggest game GOWIII, Sony 1 Microsoft 0
360 has Alan Wake, Halo Reach, Splinter Cell, Microsoft 1 Sony 1
So I really think the fight is very very close. There are many others less important games for both consoles. PS3 slim right now is better choice from the price point. I mean c'mon microsoft $99 for wi-fi and over $100 for 120GB HDD. I dont care about wi-fi because I dont use it for gaming but still is way overpriced.
ok, so how is Home not a priority? Every time i log in, theres something new or updated. the service keeps getting better and better. so for all you haters out there, stop lying about how bad it is, if you havent even been in home. And no im not a sony fanboy, bc i also have a wii, 360. people aren't ever going to be satisfied. in fact, i hate going to the ps blog because i see all the whining that the commenters do..
HEY MORONS @ ENGADGET THIS IS OLD NEWS AND HAS BEEN CORRECTED.
PS Home is stupid and boring. It's the Sims, with even less interesting things to do.
Paul Miller posts from the far distant (and incorrect) past.
Freaky.
My guess is they've given up on it because it's pretty lame. Before the beta came out I was pretty excited for it, I thought it looked interesting. But once it became available and I actually tried it out, I couldn't believe how poorly it was executed. I mean, it's really really bad. There is no use for it at all. It's a huge embarrassment, really.
Wow I love how Engadget have to get their obvious bias out here. The story was already corrected yet ENGADGET being the wonderful Apple lovers that they are, decided to bash Sony without doing an ounce of research on it.
I was at the Windows 7 event with Steve Ballmer for the Engadget Show, live in person and they decided to use all that time to TALK ABOUT MACS. Then the roundtable involved REVIEWING MACBOOKS AND THE NEW iMAC MOUSE.
Of course their Macheads...their internet media types living in NYC. If they were on the west coast the bias would be even worse. Meanwhile the 99% of the country that doesn't worship either Jobs or Ballmer is running Windows XP and waiting for another good OS. All that aside, however, what does Engadget's observation that Sony needs to shift focus to actually *making games* have to do with pro-Apple bias? Does Apple make a game console we haven't heard about? I suppose the iPhone may have cost Sony a few potential PSP buyers, but other than that..?
Say no to playstation Homo.
It has already been stated that the quote was taken out of context. Sony isn't interested in making money from HOME and are focusing on improving it as a social gaming platform. We already know that it is a successful business venture for them but I repeat SONY MEANS THAT MAKING MONEY ON HOME IS NOT A PRIORITY AND THAT IMPROVING IT'S SOCIAL PLATFORM IS!
I love all these people that bitch about the Wireless N going for $100.00. Dont buy it. Most of us dont need it. We can use internet sharing with a computer or a cheaper bridge or do as I did and put the PS3 and the 360 on the same router used as a access point and pow. It works fine. 360 and PS3 run faster... I use to complain about how slow my PS3 was when it came to updates and downloads but now that It is wired to the same router as my 360 it is alot faster...
Sony creates more online lobbies than games! WTH?? If they had clue one, they'd drop every service except PlayOnline, update it extensively and blow Live out of the water. But nooo, their too busy debating how to make Final Fantasy even more gay.
Home is a unique opportunity for delivery or many things... but it falls short on interaction with different demographics. there is no divide between child or adult. No difference between night & day. THere should be a sun set ever day.. ( & sun rise ) & a cross over point, where virtual bars or clubs open for the adults. in the first few days the world got on to home all we did was dance !! a simple thing.. but still theres no dance floor or clubbing.. ive been a dance music producer for over 20 years & i hate going to clubs !! i dont wont to go out to these horrid places, i want to switch on home, pay a pound to get a weekend pass & go clubbing on there, with exclusive mixes, maybe downloadable sets from top DJs. the infrastructure is there, dam they are sony, they have the music too... ultimately, Bring day & night in to home.. its uses will double & open up a whole new world of possibilities beyond these stupid game spaces.
This is far out of context. The whole quote was something more to the effect of "There's a business we can build out of home, but right now that's not a priority. Instead we're working on making it a functioning service before you make it something pay for etc".
I can't remember the words exactly but the internet does hold them.
What Engadget looking for articles knocking SONY!! You don't say!
well the 68 people in the comments and the one editor don't stack up to the 7 million people logging into Home :)
http://www.develop-online.net/news/32253/PlayStation-Home-attracts-7-million-residents
I doubt 1 milliion people visit this blog :p
what am I doing here I'm going back to Home :)
I never even booted up home... Fail from day one Imo. sony could've spent that time on something more beneficial to the system.
Never booted it up, huh? How can it be a total fail if YOU NEVER EVEN TRIED THE SERVICE?!!?!? Sorry to shout, but that little bit of fanboi drivel just got me riled up!
Sorry Engadgeteers but you misquoted the person.
taken from here: http://kotaku.com/5393968/playstation-home-manager-exec-was-misquoted
PlayStation Home Manager: Exec was Misquoted
And finishing off the PlayStation Home priorities controversy, the service/virtual world's community manager has told users on the official Home forum that the Sony executive was misquoted in reports that he'd said Home is "not a priority."
From CydoniaX:
Allow me to put your minds at ease about this recent press. The coverage of what Pete Edwards said at the London Games Conference was not only a misquote, it was a misrepresentation of what he actually said.
Edwards was saying that monetizing Home was not as big a priority as building a great platform, with a compelling environment and a strong community. Home is still a top priority for Sony and will continue to release quality content and provide a positive experience to our users.
And yes, we will continue working on fixing bugs, login problems, and other user issues.
Additionally, Michael French, the editor-in-chief of Develop Magazine, which hosted the event in question, tweeted to Stephen Totilo this afternoon that Edwards was in fact misquoted: "Edwards was definitely misquoted at our event. His point was that Home is a community platform first, and 'a business' second"
So this should all make Sony's position on Home crystal clear. It's not dead, it's not going away, it's still a priority and it continues to have the full support of the company
Oh and Home rocks, why else would microsoft be copying it for the 360 new dashboard? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm?
Thank YOU! Engadget should be updating after this is 6 pages old probably to save face. There's no integrity with some of these sites anymore.
holy $h1t mr miller. Congratulations, you actually managed to post an old a$$ story and still miss the week old correction. I imagine that the article about the misquote will reach you in about 3 months from now.
Don't care. Home is a piece of crap. Ever since they took away voice chat it just feels like some crappy avatar game where the basic point is to buy digital accessories with real money. Ridiculous. Bring back voice chat and I'll care.
We heard this on November 1st?
I've always loved my PS3 and Home. PS3 has a lot of advantages to the 360 that I happen to like, it just doesn't have as many games. But I don't care, I love my PS3 and 360. I like my PS3 more though, but I like 360 GAMES more.
PlayStation Home 'not a priority right now' for Sony = Fail
Little Big Planet should have been the platform for Home. Home as it is right now is kind of uninspiring.
That's because it blows. I removed it from my PS3, waste of space,
I don't know if Sony IS or IS NOT working on HOME or really cares about it at this time. Maybe later, maybe not. I though even before it was released in BETA that it was garbage. I'd say the same thing if it came out for the 360. The Avatars on the 360 are almost worthless, though it's cool to see all the different ones with the 1 Vs 100 Game. People want to play GAMES, watch a Blu-Ray or stream Netflix, not walk about in a Virtual World. Talk about a waste of time and a boor fest. The long load times don't help. The whole concept I thought was flawed. You try it once, and that's it.
Now maybe on the PS4, it'd be built into the system from the start and when the system boots up, you start there, and there's no load times, and much more useful right from the start. As it was, it was to little to late.
Sony will never let home burn into flames. Sony just doesn't want the EXBOX to know what it has up it sleeve. You know how the wall can talk.