Playstation Home almost here – but will it help PS3 beat Xbox 360?
Playstation Home. We’ve all heard of it, whether we’re PS3, Xbox 360, or Wii owners, and some of us have even sampled it thanks to the ongoing beta. But with the promised but as yet unconfirmed proper launch date just around the corner, will Home exceed or shatter expectations, and if it does, will it help the PS3 beat the Xbox 360 at all this generation?
Let’s forget the Nintendo Wii for a minute. I know it’s hard what with the little white console being talked everywhere once again in the run up to Christmas, but for the purposes of this conversation, it means nothing. The Wii has all but won this console generation, and the true battle is now raging between the PS3 and Xbox 360.
In that battle, everything matters. Be it the price of the hardware, the quality and quantity of games, the exclusives, and the online functionality. That last element is about to kick off royally. Microsoft has already launched the New Xbox Experience, a re-jigging of Xbox Live, which added avatars, Netflix, and… that’s about it.
It’ll soon (fingers crossed) be Sony’s turn. Playstation Home has been a painfully long time in coming, with the last few months especially dragging due to delays and an unwillingness to reveal a final release date. But Home has been promised before the end of 2008, giving Sony just three weeks to make good on its pledge.
We’ve discussed Playstation Home quite extensively here on Blorge. One writer argued it was sure to disappoint, while I myself have veered from being bored with the wait, through feeling a complete lack of interest, to finally being tempted by its imminent release and the many videos uploaded showing its features.
But the big question remains virtually untouched – will Home actually help Sony sell any PS3 consoles?
It could, as it is another positive element of the PS3, along with Blu-ray, Metal Gear Solid 4, and the lack of RRoD. It should also vastly improve the Playstation 3′s online experience, which has really paled into insignificance when compared to Xbox Live up until now.
But those other options, price, games, etc are likely to still be much more important when it comes to choosing which one of the current-gen consoles to buy than Home is. Put it this way, Home isn’t worth the £100 ($150) or so that the PS3 costs over and above the Xbox 360 at the moment.
I’m looking forward to Playstation Home, but maybe that’s just because I’ve been waiting so goddamn long for it to become a reality. I still have my doubts it’ll manage to live up to expectations, and even if it does, it’s unlikely to sell many units of the PS3. The race for second place behind the Wii is still far from over.
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25 Responses to “Playstation Home almost here – but will it help PS3 beat Xbox 360?”
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December 7th, 2008
I dont think people are going to go into a store and say… OH MY gAWD GIMME THE CONSOLE THAT HAS that Home game…
this is a nice lil thing for people who dont have a lot of games… and can just hang out with others in a virtual space… for people like me… who has 7 unfinished games… its not very important…
but I am excited the game specific rooms… like the warhawk rooms and socom rooms… where I can go with my clan and make strategies… but it doesnt help when Im trying to have a quick match…
also… I heard this from one of the podcasts… and it never occured to me… but… you guys do know that you can access netflix from the net browser on the ps3 and watch movies… maybe Ill get a netflix account…
December 7th, 2008
Hone on its own won’t sell consoles in significant numbers. However, if Sony can integrate Home with user’s “other” social networking (Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc.), it COULD move consoles. People already hooked on that crap, if they find a more interactive way to do it, they might buy a console just for Home.
December 7th, 2008
Well DWH said it. It really has no significance at all. Even the 360 Avtars are an after thought once the game is inserted in the disk tray and that is the whole point of a “Game Console”. The same goes for the Mii’s. What I do think makes the 360 and Wii avtars different is that you can apply them to games and use your avtar in game. I have never heard of the PS3 doing that. Sure it will be cool for the first month or so but really after that it’s all about the games.
December 7th, 2008
Oh and DavidB Facebook is owned by Microsoft.
December 7th, 2008
the one thing that i am looking forward to with home is being able to take a party from one game to another, it is rather annoying having 8 guys jump from COD4 to warhawk without the half hour of “hurry the f*** up msg” over psn being sent
December 8th, 2008
yeah lets hope Home has a system similar to the 360s “party System”… that would be a great new addition…
December 8th, 2008
no
December 8th, 2008
The one thing that was decisive for me in not getting the PS3 was the lack of tracking for your stats and achievements, which I had been utilizing and enjoying for a year before PS3 came out.
If Home can consolidate this with Trophies (supposedly standard for all games in 2009) and some kind of standard tracking for performance in games, then I’m sold… when I get another spare $400 to drop and the spare time for it’s exclusives… umm… okay, that might not happen (well, at least until God of War III comes out exclusive to the PS3, then I will absolutely have to give it serious thought).
December 8th, 2008
trophies mandatory from jan 09… Id want to play old games on the 360… like oblivion and timeshift and the darkness…
even though oblivion costs $30 less on the ps3… Id rather have it on the 360 where I get the achievements…
December 8th, 2008
Home will revolutionize console gaming. I’m in the beta, and it’s simply amazing. It’s threadbare at times, as it’s still in beta, and the game areas are not yet open, but the clan clubhouses with messageboards to arrange clan games are very good, the game launching and reservation system (Only Warhawk at the moment) works well. The party chat is brilliant, you just stand near your mates, and you can chat and voice talk, you only hear the people in close proximity to you. If you want a private chat, you have your own apartment for that.
It works, and it works really well. To the idiot that said “OH MY gAWD GIMME THE CONSOLE THAT HAS that Home game…” Clearly this is not a game (Athough the included games are pretty neat!), it’s a gamers social networking site. Home is to Gamers, what Last.FM is to music lovers, and what Facebook is to sheep.
December 8th, 2008
I wonder how many AAA console selling games Sony could have made for the same price as home?
December 8th, 2008
hmmph… snakeskin… first of all… Im in the beta as well… and I made that comment to imply that Home isnt something that is going to pull people into buying a ps3… the way people buy the 360 for halo or gears…
retard…
December 8th, 2008
“It could, as it is another positive element of the PS3, along with Blu-ray, Metal Gear Solid 4, and the lack of RRoD.”
Nice Dave. Ya had to add that
I never counted Home as a reason someone should own a ps3. I’m excited to see how they are going to utilize the trade shows in Home though. Maybe create a virtual E3 with demo kiosks and new videos. The video sharing while in your own apartments is going to turn into porn theater.
December 8th, 2008
Home was never going to be a system seller on it’s own, it just one more thing on the huge list of advantages to buying Playstation.
Clearly you can’t compare it to Halo or Gears, as guess what, they are games (and cost money).
December 8th, 2008
I think most people already hit on it but… Home is a nice feature. It does bring some neat things like game spaces, game launching, events, mini-games, chat room, etc, etc… I don’t see it spiking the PS3s sales, but it might help to sway a few people. People will ultimately buy a PS3 in 2009 because of the great fist party exclusives in the pipeline for the year. Great exclusive software coupled with a price cut, and Home is just the icing on the cake.
December 8th, 2008
10 days! here we come, finally.
December 8th, 2008
Bowling is fun.
Thats all I have to report. People hog all the arcade machines and pool tables
Wahhhhhh
December 8th, 2008
I hope they add cars. I would like a pimped out Escalade. That way I can pick up the honeys in style before I take them back to my posh summer house for some “hot coffeeâ€.
December 8th, 2008
watta rip, cause my friend got in… he gets a free summer house… because i didn’t if i want the same thing i have to pay for it? though he did say that atm theres only really one area in which to do anything, and all of the furniture is very plain
December 8th, 2008
alright dipshits… if youre in the home beta… gimme youre psn ids so I can add you… currently playing a lot of mk vs dc… but also have socom… so we can play and stuff… or a game of bowling…
bitches…
December 8th, 2008
god damnit why every time. i seriously bet that the people arguing couldn’t not comment their shit response for one article. Man you guys if you don’t like this site or the people on the site just stop coming to the site if your a 360fanboy or whatever go to gametrailers. if your a ps3fanboy stay or vice-versa.
December 8th, 2008
HAHAHHAHAHAHAH
http://kotaku.com/5104832/microsoft-sued-over-scratched-xbox-360-game-discs
HAHAHAHHAHA
WHERE ARE YOU KEV!!! I MISS YOU!!!
December 9th, 2008
dwh – call me when the suit wins… which it won’t… it’s funny you try to make the 360 look bad to try to get people to forget that sony was successfully sued for the ps2… all while you claim the 360′s quality is bad.. lol..
ps3 fanboys… oh well..if you can’t be rigth, be a hypocrite, right? LMAO!!
December 9th, 2008
Kev,
M$ does not need to bother trying to “win” the suit. They will probably just settle out of court. Money talks, and M$ has enough to persuade anyone to do anything.
@DWH: I’m in the Home Beta. PSN ID: Arvis_Jaggamar.
-Arvis
December 10th, 2008
glpevx1,
I can understand your frustration. While it may not be me you are speaking of, I can speak for myself, and perhaps others, in saying I enjoy this site and I want to get a PS3, I just can’t justify the price yet. I would imagine some people who invested in a PS3 can say the same for the 360, even though the price may be lower, argumentatively.
I hope both the PS3 and 360 turn out to be a success for the simple fact that good competition generally necessitates quality production, and we as gamers profit in the end, but I can remember, perhaps with a few others here, how any console generation is generally short lived when compared to 3 decades.
Whether it is a Magnavox, Atari, Nintendo, Sega, Sony, Microsoft, or other iteration, any console will relatively soon be overshadowed by future console technology.
The least powerful console of this generation encompasses many past generations and other former competitors games on it’s virtual console available via download, so I believe it is only logical to assume that barring any major catastrophe, today’s games and capabilities will soon be encompassed in similar fashion on another future console(s) or (gasp) universal console.