I sometimes forget that Playstation Home, Sony’s proposed Frankenstein Monster that blends Xbox Live-like online service with an American Apparel-ad-meets-Second Life 3D space, even exists. Following its debut at GDC 2007, I was intrigued by the idea, but in the intervening eighteen months, Home has yet to materialize in any meaningful way. A closed beta trial of the service launched way back in April 2007, preceding a tentative launch later that fall, and that beta has since been extended half a dozen times. Home’s actual launch is out there, somewhere in the unknowable vaporware-future, and thankfully so. According to any and all hands-on reports from beta testers, Home is a ghost town, empty but for a scant few trendy avatars wandering the eerie Logan’s Run-style wasteland, hunting for an awkwardly animated dance party that may never happen.
The public showings of Home’s game themed rooms, like a Warhawk battle planning lounge where matches can be launched from, have been intriguing, but still they’re still just a half-formed suggestion of a possibly good idea. Even 1up’s recent tour of a close-to-finished “Uncharted Bar”, a saloon area tied to the absolutely brilliant Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, gives only a hint of what visiting the space and using the service will actually be like. Even after considering the breadth of Home’s features – the trophy rooms, user apartments, interactive movie theaters, mini-games – I still have absolutely no idea what the service’s actual purpose is. Yeah, it’s interesting that you made this, Sony, but what the hell is the point?
Personally, I think the best possible thing that Sony could do with Home at this point is to take a page from Microsoft’s new frontend strategy, and start imitating Nintendo. Not by changing Home’s hipster avatars into cutesy caricatures, but by further evolving Home’s Second Life mallscape into something that could actually be considered a game in its own right. Nintendo’s already built the model for this move in Animal Crossing; rather than having Playstation users purchase faux-Ikea furniture for their trophy-laden domiciles, let them find things in the environment. Incorporate NPCs or even moderator run avatars that ask you to perform tasks or reward players with the best billiards scores. And if Sony wants to keep things in the trendy category, why not incentivize players to make Home a “green” space and then encourage them to power down the Playstation for awhile or even launch Folding At Home. Public interest in Home, and excitement for Sony’s online strategy, will only happen when it becomes clear that Home is more than a barrier between you and playing games with friends.
Related links:
The Strange Case of Hype
SCEE Playstation Day 2K8 Roundup: Killzone 2, Home, Little Big Planet Dated
Progress Quest: Playstation 3 Growing Up and The General Beauty of Firmware Updates
The Natural World of Little Big Planet