Playstation Home Information
So the big news this week is that PlayStation Home has finally arrived! There was a bit of a rocky start at the begining, with PlayStation Home not being available for download and connection issues. Although, with PlayStation Home being widely anticipated by many PlayStation 3 owners, who wouldn't have foreseen that the PlayStation Networks getting hammered. Now it seems that everything is getting better and users are able to log into Platstation Home with few issues.
Gizmodo has an awesome top ten list of things you need to know about PlayStation Home. The ones that stood out for me were:
4) There will be microtransactions, lots of 'em. Diesel is the partner Sony has been most vocal about for the time being, with pieces of their branded clothing available for $1-$2. And if you want to expand beyond your base apartment, a Summer House will be available for $5.
6) Free Games! PS Home features free bowling and billiards along with a few choices in arcade games. Your avatar actually walks up to a particular arcade cabinet before playing games like a Breakout clone or a gimped version of Ecochrome. Interesting in theory, so-so in execution. And only one guy on a machine at a time.
9) The theater works great...for an ad. You can sit down to watch a movie...if there were a movie. For now, you can watch a loop of a preview for Twilight and an accompanying music video. The quality is that of typical flash video, though the video screen does render smoothly into the 3D background.
The idea of purchasing clothes for an avatar is not very appealing but on the plus side, being able to watch movies within a game with your friends sounds pretty cool. Especially when they allow user uploaded movies ( I wonder how they will deal with copyright issues?). Maybe it will end up something like the Netflix streaming with friends with Xbox360.
Microsoft took a swipe at the PlayStation Home launch by comparing it to Second Life for hardcore gamers. The full quote from Aaron Greenberg is:
"What Home to me feels like is Second Life for hardcore gamers," he said, "it doesn’t feel like it broadens the experience and invites people in. When they unveiled it, it seemed innovative. I think what's happened is now here we are a couple of years later and we feel beyond that."It feels like 2005 tech in 2008. I'm not sure that’s what people want."
Gizmodo doesn't belive that Playstation Home is the same thing as Second Life because of the fact that you can't create content, only buy it. They go on to say that:
Home could be a great platform one day, but Sony needs to provide the content to back it up. And right now, anything short of more advertising is lacking. In Home, I feel like a prisoner—my uniform matches all the other inmates as I walk around beside the other inmates endlessly with nothing to do.
Time will tell with Home, so who knows how it will turn out, but in the meantime, hit up my buddy over at Last Geek for codes to get into the Playstation Home: Uncharted areas. His post has the codes for Uncharted: Sully Bar Room, so get the codes and go explore!
December 13th, 2008 - 13:58
Watching movies on Home with your friends would be cool, but the only way I bet it could work is if you could buy a rental to play in a theater. I’m afraid any plans for a Rocky Horror Picture Show re-enactment in Home are shot.