[Official] Playstation Home

[Ricardo Gil]

However the service itself was never going to be a day 1 blow out hit, it's all about maturing and evolving along a timeline of continually adding/changing and building content. Much of that content will be influenced by user feedback, so it's essential to get people into Home, using and testing it and feeding back information about what they want to see.

But if you notice the comments, they weren't exactly about Home's poor start, they were more about the concept around it. I mean, will it be that useful for gamers? What kind of benefit does it bring anyway? I think that's the real doubt many people are having right now, myself included.

[mikebm]

this is beta just the bare minimum give it some time, you dont judge an infant do you, no you wait till it matures

[TDQuiksilver]

I'm sure those journalists will return with their views of it in time. At the moment it seems like a broken service that Sony definitely needs to get on improving, fast. I don't think it's fair of you to try and silence those that are criticizing it when it seems that all the criticism is justified, at least for the time being.

Nobody is saying Home won't or can't improve, but this is another one of those times (and Sony's had a lot of these) where Sony's hyped something of theirs up and didn't deliver on the hype.

-Spenser

I have to wonder though if it wasn't thrown out there to please those demanding it now. We all know it's not perfect, but how many times have we read "just release it already" ... well, here it is. It's far from perfect, but it has an amazing amount of potential and it's still a pretty nice product for a beta release. Are people forgetting it is just that - a beta? AB hit the nail on the head and I'm glad I'm not the only one that realizes being this nitpicky on a beta release is foolish.

Let it grow - or atleast reserve the right for those of us who actually spend a good portion of time with Home to leave legitimate feedback on it.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

But if you notice the comments, they weren't exactly about Home's poor start, they were more about the concept around it. I mean, will it be that useful for gamers? What kind of benefit does it bring anyway? I think that's the real doubt many people are having right now, myself included.

I'm not about to start list wars over the content, if you don't like the virtual concept, just pass it up and don't use it.

It's a situational service, not one that powers or runs the core of the PS3. That's the XMB - It's what you see/use when your PS3 comes on - You have to go boot up Home to use it, although for those interested I presume one day you might be able to auto-boot Home.

If you want to use it, you'll do so when you have friends to go on with, or if there's new game space/content relating to games you have/are going to buy. Or something like Virtual E3/GDC is taking place and there's spaces set up with all the trailers/game content related to the PS3, etc. At the moment your mind is the boundary for what could be done - I'm sure internally at Sony they have quite a list of ideas flying around, but that idea of the gamers mind being the boundary will interest them. Of course they want to hear what WE want as well!

Or some people will just use it for the social aspects of talking to other gamers. Every person on Home at least owns a PS3, so must be into gaming. I doubt very few people will go blow the load of cash needed to buy a PS3 right now just to use Home. So in that sense, you ARE hanging around strictly with gamers. Like us on NW, we all regular in the GH, why? Because in other sections of the board while there may be gamers, there's many people not into gaming.

If none of that interests you, no need to blow blood vessels, just don't use Home - It isn't replacing the XMB. Sony seem to think it will be a popular additional service, and a marketable area not explored by other consoles.

It is, but it's a risk we'll need to wait and see the results of at timely intervals. Meaning what Home looks like in 3/6/12 months time, how many people are using it/what functionality it has intertwined with gaming/the PS3. In a way we should be somewhat happy Sony are taking a gamble to potentially bring something new to the console scene [persona taste/opinion aside, just focusing on the element of new ideas]. MS done it with online play, Nintendo have done it with controller interaction... Not all of these ventures exceed of course, but without new ideas and proposals we'd be stuck redoing the same things forever.

Lot's of ifs and speculation, which makes the project exciting in one hand and very organic, but this speculation also backfires against the people you see going bananas at Sony for releasing Home, and acting like what it's like day 1 is the end all and be all.

All Sony can do is try their best to change the minds of those people over time, and all those people can do is try to somewhat keep an open mind because even they do know that the day 1 service won't = the day 120 service.

Edited December 14, 2008 by Audioboxer

[spenser.d]

I have to wonder though if it wasn't thrown out there to please those demanding it now. We all know it's not perfect, but how many times have we read "just release it already" ... well, here it is. It's far from perfect, but it has an amazing amount of potential and it's still a pretty nice product for a beta release. Are people forgetting it is just that - a beta? AB hit the nail on the head and I'm glad I'm not the only one that realizes being this nitpicky on a beta release is foolish.

Let it grow - or atleast reserve the right for those of us who actually spend a good portion of time with Home to leave legitimate feedback on it.

The only problem with arguing about how much potential it has is that it's had the same amount of potential since it started development which, according to the first post in this thread, was over 3 and a half years ago. That potential is the reason that people have been demanding it so badly for so long and now that it's here, people seem to have found that Sony's not capitalized on very much of that potential. I think people want to know what they've been up to for the last three and a half years.

-Spenser

[Guest]

I dunno... Sony can add more content if they want but im not buying any of it.

I like the idea of the game machines... If they updated that with the latest PSN game demos that would be kinda sweet.

Then again its probably a lot faster just grabing it from the PSN store...

I hope they introduce a background download service into home, integrate it further with the console.

ie: download the latest content, rooms, updates while the playstation is idle or when playing another game.

Just wonder how they can improve the core aspects of home... nothing really compelling at the moment

Seems like Sony is full of "potential"... but just not delivering

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

My issue is, I don't want to have to boot Home just to team up with my friends before we start a game. I want an easy straight forward way to invite and join games from the XMB, across all the games no matter what they are, i.e a seamless service like XBL's.

Home is Sony's solution for it with parties etc, but I have no interest in the other features Home has to offer at all. So I hope this doesn't mean they are going to focus all their attention with the integration and never work on the XMB because it is far from perfect.

Create a standard, stick to it, and force developers to use it. That way I won't have to go through the headache routines just to play with friends on MP games!

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

I think people want to know what they've been up to for the last three and a half years.

-Spenser

Well 3.5 years ago as explained already the service was a 2D interface for the PS2.

At GDC07 it was introduced for the first time as a 3D world.

Along the the way we did get glimpses of Sony admitting they did need to do a 180 on certain things, and underestimated parts of the project itself. So of course, they probably hit roadblocks and other issues in trying to deliver a service like this. There wasn't really anyone to imitate as such, they are the first company to try and offload something like this on a console.

They had to create a good SDK for other developers, then try and go to convince people to work with them, creating content to be used in Home. Many developers would plain and simply even see just this as a risk, as what happens if they signup and end up wasting their time?!

Then obviously you have the mammoth task of designing/creating/putting a network infastructure in place. The design part/engine probably took a good while - Have you seen any MMO/Online service that looks as good? Or if you watch the Red Bull video, it actually incorporates a true game, the plane flying around within Home itself.

Obviously the engine is fairly scalable and able to support some technical feats over engines currently on the market.

This was all developed by two teams within Sony, in London and Cambridge [uK]. I have no idea of the sizes of these studios, but it's just to iterate it wasn't as if the whole of Sony were focusing on Home. Sony were still running a PSN service which had to be drastically updated, a PS3 which launched missing many features and internal studios having to focus on bringing a good gaming library into place.

So IMO I truly believe such a service requires the amount of time it's had to be made, and where Sony shot themselves in the foot was their OWN predictions completely undershooting the time needed, therefore they put unrealistic release dates in place for us. As opposed to the initial release date of 2007 being completely obtainable, and it was Sony mucking up development - Although I'm sure there were bad development decisions made that did extend development time along the way.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

So I hope this doesn't mean they are going to focus all their attention with the integration and never work on the XMB because it is far from perfect.

Just for everyones information, SCEE [Cambridge and London] work on Home.

SCEJ works on the XMB side of things.

So it's independent development so to speak, but obviously they all correlate together.

I guess what I'm saying is no, from the way it's setup it shouldn't mean the XMB being left behind, but we'll need to wait and see what else is planned for the XMB.

As you said though Munky, I do hope what's obtainable in Home [parties for example] has some sort of equivalent in the XMB for features where it's possible to have a 2D and 3D representation.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

Good to hear (Y)

I hope we get a seamless XMB across gaming without Home then (Y)

[SuperJediMedia]

Not only that I saw one girl on her knees doing the business to some other chick with a circle of guys round them watching. I was sitting down on some stairs in the Mall and a guy came and stood right up close and wanted me to give him some head. Wouldn't have minded but he wasn't my type. :laugh:

The Respect toward girls on Home is just Appalling

I like girls, myself. But damn some of guys going TOO far with it!

10 guys surround 1 girl to ask for personal information, send lewd messages that's Harassment.

Obviously a LOT of guys on home are Immature, cuz no one mature would send girls lewd message and expect a warm response.

:no:

Edited December 14, 2008 by JediXAngel

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

I like girls, myself.

No wai :o

[SuperJediMedia]

I mean, check this out, this is Ridiculous

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

If those are being sent to you, report the asshats and get them banned.

Anything text based sent through Home/PSN is logged and can be checked.

[SuperJediMedia]

If those are being sent to you, report the asshats and get them banned.

Anything text based sent through Home/PSN is logged and can be checked.

No it's not send to me, it's some girl posted this in Playstation forum.

[Digitalx]

sex ?

o rly ?

I would hardly worry though most aren't actually females anyway :p

[soniqstylz]

I would hardly worry though most aren't actually females anyway :p

Which is the even sadder part of it all.

[kyro]

wow , all you guys getting your panties all bunched up.

why so many comments when there is no new development at home. chill ppl , there is nothing more about home its totally unbaked cookie. no other thing to do?

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

We are aware that many of you are experiencing difficulty getting into PlayStation Home right now, and are getting various error messages. We are tracking all these error messages and working on them.

This is due to an overwhelming demand for the service since PlayStation Home went into Open Beta and appeared on every PlayStation3 owner's XMB. We know this is frustrating for those who are anxious to get into PlayStation Home and we want to assure you that we are working on this issue 24/7 and doing everything we can to resolve it. PlayStation Home is an innovative service and opening up a virtual world on this scale has never been attempted before. Remember that PlayStation Home is still in beta and will continue to evolve and improve over the months and years to come. In the meantime, we ask for your patience and suggest you take a break from PlayStation Home and try to login again later.

The Home Community Management Team, CydoniaX and Locust_Star will be posting in this thread continually to update you whenever we have some news on PlayStation Home. We will keep this thread locked for our updates, but will create a special stickied thread for you to continue to post feedback about getting into PlayStation Home, issues you are experiencing in PlayStation Home, and what you think of the overall experience. This thread will be called "Open Beta Feedback."

We thank you for your continued efforts to give us your invaluable feedback and we will do our best to keep you updated.

-CydoniaX & Locust_Star

SCEA Home Community Management Team

Hey All,

Just letting you know that, as of 12:37PM PT on 12/12/08, we are still working on resolving these issues. In the meantime, we ask that you continue to report any problems you may encounter over in the designated thread entitled "Open Beta Feedback." We're collecting this feedback and presenting it to the proper parties by the minute and hour.

Best,

CydoniaX and Locust_Star

Still working away, guys and gals. Just letting you know that we haven't forgotten about you. ;) We're answering your PMs as quickly as we can. In the meantime, please keep posting in the "Open Beta Feedback" thread. You'd be surprised who is on here reading...

Hey All,

2:44PM PT, and just checking in. If you are of age (13+) to access Home are experiencing problems accessing Home due to an error telling you that you are too young to log in to Home using your sub account, please visit THIS THREAD for a relatively simple workaround. We're still addressing this issue on our end, but this should help in the meantime (thanks to all the community members that helped come up with this).

Best,

CydoniaX and Locust_Star

We promised you we were going to check in, and we're holding true to that. No news at this time, but that doesn't mean we're stopping. Remember, the best thing you can do right now is to keep reporting your problems over HERE.

You all are great. Thanks so much for hanging in there while we work on this.

Hi again!

While we know that people will continue trying to get into Home this weekend and not everyone will be able to when they want to, we DO know that during off-peak hours most ARE able to get in and find that PlayStation Home is stable. So at least there's that!

By the way, if you are getting the C-931 error message which is being reported the most, this is the one you'll receive when you can'tt connect and is related to very high levels of traffic. Give it a few tries.

Locust_Star and myself will continue to check these forums over the weekend as much as we can. We will continue to post any updates we get here and respond to your questions in the Open Beta Feedback Forum. We are listening.

~CydoniaX

11AM on Saturday, Dec 13th 2008. We're working our butts off over here to get Home to work properly for everyone. More news to come. Please hang tight and stay tuned for updates.

[kyro]

heh. nice update Audioboxer . Guess they must be overwhelmed with messages.

[Jimmy0]

Still getting the lovely C-931 error. :(

[Jeremy Kyle]

Keep trying, you'll get in eventually - advice from Sony.

[Ricardo Gil]

Hi again!

While we know that people will continue trying to get into Home this weekend and not everyone will be able to when they want to, we DO know that during off-peak hours most ARE able to get in and find that PlayStation Home is stable. So at least there's that!

By the way, if you are getting the C-931 error message which is being reported the most, this is the one you'll receive when you can'tt connect and is related to very high levels of traffic. Give it a few tries.

Locust_Star and myself will continue to check these forums over the weekend as much as we can. We will continue to post any updates we get here and respond to your questions in the Open Beta Feedback Forum. We are listening.

Even at 5AM in Europe? Really? I'll try it again in a few months. Or not.

[soniqstylz]

I've yet to have a problem accessing Home since I first downloaded it.

[houlty]

i've not been able to connect since it became available to everyone.