Sony are launching a new service for the PS3 called “Home”. They’re taking ideas from social networking sites such as MySpace, Bebo, Facebook, etc and creating a 3D virtual world similar to Second Life. According the article, Home is Sony’s answer to Xbox Live.
I’m quite interested in seeing how this turns out. If Sony are able to create something like Xbox Live, but with 3D world added on top of the service that can be expanded by users, then it could turn out to be something quite unique. We shall see.
I don’t see how a sims/second life/animal crossing: wild world hybrid game can be the competitor of a service like Xbox Live? It seems to me that they’re grapsing at straws…
I liken this to a shit sandwich that has tons of garnish around it as a distraction. The problem is that the network for PS3 doesn’t have basic features that Xbox Live already has. You know, something as simple as an easy-to-use/read friends list, background downloading, etc.
Microsoft will probably create their own concept to compete with this, but they already have the infastructure established. Sony’s trying to offer a better service than Xbox Live for free, something that took Microsoft billions of dollars and five years to get where it’s currently at. Promises, promises, and more promises. Let’s see them deliver, and then we’ll talk.
I think the title of this topic could conceivably be a salvation for Sony. I mean XBL is already becoming it’s own sort of culture segment, in theory it makes sense to try to appeal to people on a different level, rather than attempt to convert the same userbase that XBL owns right now.
It could perhaps seem a good fit with the FF crowd anyway…
I just wonder if the average MySpace user would be prepared to pay $600 for a similar, if more advanced, experience? A lot of the appeal, I’m sure, is that anyone with a computer and the internet can sign up and make a profile, there’s no commitment like buying a console or paying any fees.
No. It’s full of weirdos, and it’s extremely buggy.
For reference, one of the ladies on there who has made herself a fortune through the game was being “interviewed” through the game by C-Net, and during the event, pranksters basically had a seemingly endless congo line of male genitalia marching in the background from where the interview’s “camera” was shooting.
The potential with the “game” is near unlimited, but as a result, it is very, very buggy virtual world that runs something terrible.
You know, after over 2 years here, I’m FINALLY coming to grips with how almost ALL doubt towards the success of ANY product usually stems from comments like
“I don’t see how (product A) can be successful when compared to (product B). (product B) came first, and regardless of the fact that it’s on a completely different game console, I can’t imagine anybody would enjoy it in any other similar iteration than what it was originally developed in.”
As if to say, in this world, every single gaming product is unique, nothing EVER follows genre/design trends, and success always comes from complete and total innovation.
You know, I think you may still have some other things to get to grips with. Like the idea that a company’s track record will eventually affect people’s expectations, even for deities like Sony. This particular track record is a story of Sony falling well short of virtually every claim for online functionality they’ve ever made, so far anyway.
