Sony talks PS3 Home - coming by year-end, but still in beta
By Dave Parrack
It feels as though I’ve been writing about Playstation Home for years. I haven’t, it’s only been months in reality, but with its release being delayed constantly, known and unknown development issues, and questions still remaining, it feels like the service has been a long time coming. Which makes any official word from Sony very interesting indeed.
Jack Buser, the director of PlayStation Home, recently sat down with IGN to discuss Home. He talks about why we should care about it, what experience it will give us, and what is it with all these delays.
He explains that Home is going to be a place to meet friends online, to find gamers of the same skill level and into the same games as you. It’s going to replace the arcade as the place to make new friends and share your hobby with them. All in all, Sony is excited about Home, and so, apparently should you be.
Great, so where is it and when can we, the great unwashed who haven’t been invited to try the closed beta be able to experience the joys of Home? Buser claims the service is now entering the final stages of closed beta, with the open beta very close to launch. And he goes one further by stating:
Like we’ve said, we’re excited about moving PlayStation Home into its Open Beta stage this year. Once we make the move to Open Beta, everyone will have access to PlayStation Home.
That’s right folks, just five weeks before the end of the year is upon us, and the man in charge of Home has categorically stated that everyone will have access to Home before the start of 2009. But even though we’re all be invited, Home will still be in beta?!?
I can understand the delays, although I’m not happy with them. Home is, after all, something new and as yet untried in the gaming community. But it can’t be good that the beat looks set to continue for well, forever by the looks of it. Could it be that Home is set to be like so many other Internet services and remain in beta forever, constantly being tinkered with?
I’m actually looking forward to Playstation Home immensely, having lost my early pessimism over how good it could or would be. But to say everybody’s becoming a little bit impatient is the understatement of the year. Just release it already and let us see why it has taken so long to develop.
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November 29th, 2008
It’s about time. I Hope!!!!!
November 29th, 2008
*singing* IM IN THE BETA!!! IM IN THE BETA *singing*
gotta say… wait… I dont think I can say anything… but there was ONE PART… THAT WAS VERY!!! … never mind…
I hope I see the Socom and the Resistance rooms soon… boy cant wait to buy R2… Woooo HOOOO!!
November 29th, 2008
Of course its gonna be beta.
That way, when the servers come crashing down, or your avatar gets wiped etc, they can say ‘Hey still beta noobs!’…
I’m in atm, and I just can’t see anything better than a free korean mmo in home at the moment. Nothing.
November 29th, 2008
I should probably add that, yes no one said its going to be an mmo or anything, but I am talking in terms of quality.
November 29th, 2008
Awesome i can’t wait. Will b able to chat to people off here, Wylie, Arvis etc. It will be a welcome touch to the PSN. Pity i didn’t get into closed beta but hey.
November 29th, 2008
Home will be the biggest thing since LBP!
November 29th, 2008
what do you guys do in HOME that’s got you so excited?
November 29th, 2008
@kev, everyones just excited because its a new thing
but society gets bored very fast, its all about the moment of newness for us.
Think about it this way: little children opening mountains of christmas gifts… they will not stop after opening one gift to value it… they will open all the gifts as fast as they can because SURPRISE and NOVELTY is what we truly seek.
unless sony does drastic things with home, (in my opinion) home is gonna become ‘just a think in the past’ real soon
November 30th, 2008
kev,
I saw a pic of people doing a conga line in Home. I guess they can do that.
November 30th, 2008
Sweet, I’m going to get involved in one of them conga lines as soon as I download it. Might try and get a Mexican wave going, the possibilities are endless.
As long as Home is useful, I’m interested.
November 30th, 2008
C’mon harry and Kev, you know you want to join the conga line ….. boom, boom, boom boom, boom cha !!!
December 1st, 2008
well… kev… Im most excited about the Game specific rooms thing… itll give a nice place for me and my clan to hang out… while playing stuff like R2 socom and warhawk… I dont really care about the other “meeting new people” stuff…
also… the trophies… YAY!!!
December 1st, 2008
I think they have stated that they are planning on releasing Home as a beta (like gmail) and just keep upgrading it. If you have seen screen snaps or read about it, you probably already have a good idea of what to expect. Home is what it is. It’s basically is a 3d chat room. Some of the mini games can kill a few minutes here and there. The game spaces and game launching is one of the most useful features of Home. It is nice to have and I might use it once in a while, I don’t see myself using it very often.
December 1st, 2008
got it. i’m supposed to be excited to do the conga with other gamers. OR i’m supposed to get excited about playing and talking with friends, which xbox live already does….
sony had better come up with somthing more…. conga lines and online gaming are hardly new or innovative.
…just sayin’….
December 1st, 2008
I’m in the closed beta, and all I can say is that if they COMPLETELY open it up, it will be a great service that anyone would enjoy using (assuming millions of new users don’t make it a glitchy mess).
As is, it’s just interesting. Not great, but both novel and functional. They just need to “unlock” all the features once it hits Open Beta stage.
-Arvis
December 1st, 2008
HOME will kick serious ass i have the beta is great. Real fun can’t wait to get all my buddies on it.
December 2nd, 2008
poor sony… they need to learn from ms how to do it right. how many delays is this now? pathetic.
December 2nd, 2008
Kev,
If they learned from Microsoft, they would have released it two months ago… and it would have irreversibly fried hundreds of thousands of PS3s, locked up systems daily, and would run at an intolerably slow speed.
I’m glad Sony is doing it their own way.
-Arvis
December 3rd, 2008
arvis - just when i think you couldn’t get any weirder….
ms was first to market with an online gaming service, so i don’t know why you think it wuold be late to market…that’s sony’s area…promise, fail, promise, fail..rinse and repeat…
xbox live doens’t lock up systems daily, otherwise there would be forum posts, new articles and other indicators. but there isn’t any…proving once again, how pathetic you can be.
it has fried any systems..but the PSN update has bricked MAAAANY ps3…not good at $600 a pop…
and xbox live has great speeds…. and have never had a problem with it…
i’m glad you’re glad for sony,…. sitting from last place and falling farther everyday, it’s safe to say your’e the only one who is glad for them…
December 3rd, 2008
Kev,
Um… I was drawing comparisons between Home and the NXE. I know yesterday was a particularly obnoxious day for me, but I’m not delusional. That’s your forte.
-Arvis