E3 '08: Sony's Home - Let The Microtransactions Begin
At this point I think we are all a little tired about hearing how Home is "on the way." Even in his speech at Sony's press conference, Jack Tretton promised us it would be worth the wait if we could just be patient a little bit longer. So when I stormed the Sony lounge, one of my goals was to walk away having gotten at least a glimpse of this most wiley of animals.
HOME certainly seems like an engaging and interesting addition to the PS3 lineup. The fact that it's free is also a bonus. After all, social networking seems to be the cornerstone of internet communication these days. People have called it out for being a Second Life clone which it is in some ways and not in others. You already know the basic details: Each player will be given an apartment that they can decorate as they see fit and will then be able to invite people over to hang out in their space or you can go and socialize in one of the many group areas that are provided. You can chat with people, watch movie and game trailers and even challenge passers by to a game of chess, pool, bowling or other mini-game types.
One of the new features revealed to us is that there will be some social areas that are tied directly to certain games. For instance, there is an Uncharted: Drake's Fortune themed bar where folks can go and meet other enthusiasts of the game. A Warhawk themed area even includes a battle sandbox where players can go to plan out their strategies and even invite other players to join in, loading the game directly from Home. There is also a Resistance themed area although the functions of that particular area are a little sketchy. These particular bits are the ones that seem most interesting and potentially come of the coolest areas within home.
I checked out the character customization area which seemed quite robust although I was bothered by the lack of sideburns available. There can be no Fruit Brute avatar without sideburns! I was sure to let the guy showing me the game know and he took note of it. So if you see sideburns in HOME, you'll know why. I also checked out a bit of the apartment customization as well. You will have several different layouts to choose from as well as a variety of furniture, wallpapers, views, etc. I asked if the PlayStation Eye would be able to be used to incorporate real world photographs or posters into your space and was given a "no comment." I got the same answer when I asked about incorporating content from the new digital download service into my apartment.
On the surface this all seems very interesting, so I decided to dig a little deeper. As it turns out while the HOME service will be free, not all of it's content will be. That's right folks, microtransactions. Fancier pieces of furniture, special clothing items and more will all be available to you for a price. I wasn't able to get an answer on how much things will be, but I'm hoping things will stay in the $1 to $2 range. Whether this is the case or not remains to be seen. From what I could see, the items provided for free will certainly give you enough to work with and many people will not feel the need to go purchasing things for their virtual personality. However I'm sure there will be plenty of people willing to shell out a few bucks to make their pad truly special. Personally I'd rather save those dollars to buy things for the real world like food and necessities. The income of a blogger isn't exactly Donald Trump sized.
After discussing it a bit with Tiny we both agreed that while Sony's HOME looks great and has some interesting concepts, it seems destined to go the way of Nintendo's Miis. There will be a rush of interest at first, but as time goes on, less and less people will continue to use it unless they really come out with some amazing features to knock people's socks off. Hopefully they will not let it languish like the Miis and not provide regular content updates. Now don't get me wrong, there are certain aspect of HOME that I fond absolutely fascinating, like decorating the apartment, making my character and the game specific areas, although much like XBox LIVE, my interest in interacting with strangers in the main social area is rather small. In the words of Tiny Dancer, "When I turn on my PS3, I'm turning it on to play a game or watch a movie, not go to a virtual plaza to go do a virtual dance with virtual people I don't know. I wouldn't do it in real life, so why would I do it in HOME?"
Fruit Brute
Posted to E3, Hot Stuff, Video Games on 17 July 2008
· Comments (1)
Other stuff like this: e3, e3 08, free, home, microtransactions, ps3, sony
I am one of those gamers who is looking forward to getting their hands on home and I agree with your article Fruit. I'm not to keen on the micro transactions for buying new clothes or furniture but the use of having the themed game rooms is something that might come in handy when trying to get a group or clan of gaygamer.net users to play together in particular titles.
What would be cool to see them do is allowing your movie rental or purchase to be viewed with other people on your friends list that visit your home. Like having a movie night with other people, minus the people in your home home. Then you can discuss the movie with your PSN friends when the movie is finished or jump into a game.