DailyTech - PlayStation Home Delayed Until Spring 2008

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Software PlayStation Home Delayed Until Spring 2008
Marcus Yam (Blog) - September 20, 2007 10:15 AM

31 comment(s) - last by afkrotch.. on Sep 21 at 11:25 PM

Global lounges allow you to chat and interface with others (Source: SCEE)

PlayStation Home gets pushed back from October to unspecified time in spring

While the Sony-oriented keynote at the Tokyo Game Show held mostly positive words with the announcement of the DualShock 3 and new PSP Remote Play features, one piece of disappointment for those PS3 gamers wanting a different online experience is that PlayStation Home will be delayed until spring 2008.

Hirai apologized to the crowd for the delay and said the reason for the added wait is the makers of Home wanted more time to further develop the user interface.

The delay may not be a big surprise, as an anonymous report from a PlayStation Home beta tester indicated that several features were behind schedule. According to the report, published late August, none of the features promised during E3 were ready for the beta.

PlayStation Home was first unveiled at the Games Developer Conference during March. The service is currently operating in a closed beta and was originally slated for launch this October.

Under development by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, PlayStation Home is thought to be Sony’s answer to Microsoft's Xbox Live service. While the current PlayStation Network and PlayStation Store offer gamers friend lists, a place to download demos and ways to purchase additional downloadable content, PlayStation Home will add community features such content sharing and game trophies.

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Compared to XBL?

By Locutus465 on 9/20/2007 11:03:59 AM , Rating: 3

I'm not sure how well this will compare to XBL (admitingly I have zero user experience data). Just sitting here at my KB thinking about it, it just seems like it would be less convinient than the much quicker XBL expereince of flipping through tabs and drilling down to the content/features I want.

Want movies/tv? Just flip over to media tab, go to video market place and find what you're looking for, check out your game profile? several tabs have a button that shows your stats, press "A" and you get all the details you want etc. Assuming Sony wants to integrate all these features into home (video DL etc) I hope they have some quick way to "warp" to where you need to be, rather than making you "walk to the video store" :P

RE: Compared to XBL?

By Marcus Yam on 9/20/2007 11:37:03 AM , Rating: 4

You can take advantage of all of Home's features without the whole "Second Life" thing. Rather than having to walk or even warp to a specific area/feature, you can just pull up a GUI that looks like a PSP to jump straight to what you want.

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RE: Compared to XBL?

By i4mt3hwin on 9/20/2007 11:38:56 AM , Rating: 2

Sony already stated that all the information in the World of Home will also be accessible through the XMB.

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RE: Compared to XBL?

By h0kiez on 9/20/2007 11:42:03 AM , Rating: 2

Which is what people will do...which is why the "Second Life" thing is worthless. Given the stats that came out semi-recently that highlighted the number of PS3 owners that were completely unaware of so many of the console's capabilities (Blu-Ray, media center, etc.), I doubt another half baked "feature" is what's gonna move consoles.

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RE: Compared to XBL?

By afkrotch on 9/20/2007 8:53:57 PM , Rating: 2

You're stupid if you really think it's worthless. Nothing is worthless, depending on who's using it. Is Linux worthless, since the majority of ppl are using Windows? No. It'll be the same with Playstation home. Some will use it, some won't. It's no different than with the 360. Some ppl use Xbox Live, some don't.

Course, I hate Xbox Live sometimes. Like how some of my damn game saves are tied into Xbox Live, so if I don't have an internet connection hooked up to it, I can't get to play off my saves.

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RE: Compared to XBL?

By Alexvrb on 9/20/2007 10:11:05 PM , Rating: 2

What game saves are you referring to? I can't think of any examples where I can't load an offline game save if I don't have internet. Unless maybe I was roaming and was using my HD on someone else's XB? Even then I don't recall generally needing internet access if I had my entire HD (profile, save data, patches, etc).

I'm curious to know, because I am wondering which developers do this, and if they do it for online-enabled games, or even for offline game saves that contain no online-obtained content licenses.

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RE: Compared to XBL?

By afkrotch on 9/20/2007 10:38:37 PM , Rating: 2

I haven't tested out all my games, but Idolm@ster doesn't allow me to play off my saves, unless I'm online. Which doesn't make sense to me as the game allows you to play both online and offline.

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RE: Compared to XBL?

By Alexvrb on 9/21/2007 9:42:11 AM , Rating: 3

Does it let you play the same save online and offline? If so, that's why. Reduces likelihood of cheating/hacking. Otherwise I don't know. But anyway you made it sound A) widespread and B) The fault of XBL. It is neither.

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RE: Compared to XBL?

By afkrotch on 9/21/2007 11:20:34 PM , Rating: 2

If I start the game offline and save, I can play the game online. It's just once it's online, I can no longer play it offline.

It's not like there's much cheating that can be done in the game. You raise idols (little mini-game to raise your idol's stats). Then you have a little audition you play in. Sometimes you win. Sometimes you don't. That's all there is to the game.

Shoot, your first audition is offline, even if you are online.

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RE: Compared to XBL?

By jtemplin on 9/20/2007 10:54:55 PM , Rating: 2

Right on afkrotch. I totally agree. An old favorite of mine is Diablo 2. I have always noticed that people, in almost any random chat room you land in upon logging into Battle.net will have people talking. The point of Battle.net is to find games, play games, track ladder rankings etc. But there is an opporunity for interaction, and some people seem to dig it. I have a feeling that Second Life too, will see its fair share of users from these types of gamers.
Some people get tired of gaming and I'm sure there are others who just don't get out that much. Whatever their motivations, I forsee this feature being taken advantage of.

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RE: Compared to XBL?

By afkrotch on 9/21/2007 12:47:41 AM , Rating: 2

I just started RF Online and I do a lot of sitting and chatting, when I'm too lazy to go hit up my quests. Valve just added Groups and chatrooms on Steam, where as before Steam was nothing more than a venue to list games, list servers, list games available for purchase, and list friends (recently though, as the friends server portion has been down for a long time).

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RE: Compared to XBL?

By Locutus465 on 9/20/2007 11:42:16 AM , Rating: 2

Ah, well that is very good then that they don't force you into this second life thing, otherwise I could see the system really sucking horribly bad lol. Not everyone wants to be forced into a MMRPG type situation just to download a movie lol. Though it could be interesting, want to rent Resident Evil? First fight your way through the graveyard and kill the boss zombie? Fail? Well then you have to try again tomorrow to rent your movie, lol!! How RE is that? I I always wondered what it would be like to be an umbrella corp employee...

"Johnson, in order to file your report you need to go into the library, get the rusty old gun so you can remove the golden guns and have something to put in it's place so you aren't killed by the slowly decending ceiling......"

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RE: Compared to XBL?

By FITCamaro on 9/20/2007 12:33:36 PM , Rating: 3

quote:
you can just pull up a GUI that looks like a PSP to jump straight to what you want.

And thats all thats necessary. They're doing this whole Second Life/Myspace thing just so they can say they have it and Microsoft doesn't.

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RE: Compared to XBL?

By h0kiez on 9/20/2007 11:38:51 AM , Rating: 1

But dude...it's all about realism. It should take 15 minutes to walk (or hey...maybe drive) to the virtual video store, then across town to the virtual video game store. Maybe stop at the virtual gas station to fill up your SUV.

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RE: Compared to XBL?

By Locutus465 on 9/20/2007 2:43:33 PM , Rating: 2

If that's the case they should add in the occational traffic accident to back up the roads for an hour before you can DL the movie :P

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RE: Compared to XBL?

By Alexvrb on 9/20/2007 10:22:21 PM , Rating: 2

LOL! Must... make... quotes!

"Oh man, internet traffic is REALLY backed up! Whatever you do, Steve, stay off Internet-95, it's virtual-bumper-to-virtual-bumper over here."

" Hey Jack&@$! The accelerator is the button on the right!"

"See, this is why they should make talking on a virtual cellphone while driving a virtual car illegal. I hate it when my drive Home take forever because some moron wasn't paying attention and causes a virtual 15 car pileup."

OK, I'm satisfied now.

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RE: Compared to XBL?

By jtemplin on 9/20/2007 10:58:07 PM , Rating: 2

Woot woot East Coast corridor son!

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RE: Compared to XBL?

By retrospooty on 9/20/07, Rating: 0

RE: Compared to XBL?

By BigPeen on 9/20/2007 1:42:01 PM , Rating: 2

omg. XBL is terrible. We were trying to play the old teenage mutant ninja turtles game that my friend DL-ed on it (remeber the arcade one when we were kids?) And it seriously took us like 5-10 minute to load it up and just play it. You have to log in, go through a million screens. We all had to create accounts and crap. It's like jesus I just want to play the game!

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RE: Compared to XBL?

By Locutus465 on 9/20/2007 1:46:09 PM , Rating: 2

Odd... Only XBL Archade games I've tried were Doom and Pac Man, both of those were fine. I can't speak for Ninja Turtles. 5-10 minutes include download time? That might make sense.

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Home Delayed?

By CRimer76 on 9/20/2007 10:30:24 AM , Rating: 2

Oh no

RE: Home Delayed?

By Murst on 9/20/2007 10:36:43 AM , Rating: 2

This really sucks. I was really looking forward to its release.

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RE: Home Delayed?

By Legionosh on 9/20/2007 11:55:58 AM , Rating: 2

..making the rounds I see..

While I wasn't 150% excited about Home, it did look kinda cool (although it didn't seem the fastest way to browse and download..thankfully the XMB will also provide the same functionality)..

..this delay just isn't the news Sony needed at this point. It seems they can't catch much of a break these days..

Kevin

legionosh@msn.com

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RE: Home Delayed?

By CRimer76 on 9/20/2007 2:10:27 PM , Rating: 2

Yeah, I've been lurking here for years, and I am really bored today.

I'd bet that 99% of the average consumer has no idea what Home is so this isn't really any kind of hit as far as I see it.

I couldn't care less about it.

Just saw a preview for White Knight Story, and that is something I care about. The PS3 will have a lot of good games to play this holiday season, and if they get a version out there at the $399 price point they will be just fine.

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RE: Home Delayed?

By mles1551 on 9/20/2007 12:55:54 PM , Rating: 2

Did this delay surprise anyone? I hope not.

On a second note in reply to the very first comment, If you have no experience with the PS3 then why make a comment about it?

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RE: Home Delayed?

By afkrotch on 9/20/2007 10:41:08 PM , Rating: 2

This shouldn't have surprised anyone, seeing as a public open beta never happened.

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Another Crappy Xmas

By Screwuhippie on 9/20/2007 10:33:02 AM , Rating: 2

Now how am I going to Lord my PS3 Game Trophy's over my step-siblings heads at Xmas time ... i'll just have to wait another year ... maybe i'll have to just get a bugs bunny tattoo or something.

RE: Another Crappy Xmas

By Gul Westfale on 9/20/2007 11:58:34 AM , Rating: 2

you could always beat them over the head with your PS3. they seem to be quite heavy.

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RE: Another Crappy Xmas

By afkrotch on 9/21/2007 11:25:20 PM , Rating: 2

It's apparent that you don't own both consoles, as they both weigh the same. Difference is, Sony keeps their stuff internal. Stupid gigantic power brick.

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Good timing, no.

By AlphaVirus on 9/20/2007 10:38:55 AM , Rating: 3

This Christmas would have been a great time to release the Home. Alot of people could have used it to communicate to maybe foreign friends or, relatives. The people who have neither could have used it to enjoy the presence of other people on Christmas day.

Hopefully Sony can hustle hustle hustle to get the job done and bring it out before Christmas.

RE: Good timing, no.

By h0kiez on 9/20/2007 11:07:26 AM , Rating: 3

What a great idea. I think I'll propose to the family this year that instead of traveling to see each other, we can meet virtually at Sony's "home".
Um...no.

And no, they aren't gonna "hustle" and get it out this year. If there was any shot of that, they wouldn't have announced the delay to 2008.

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"There is a single light of science, and to brighten it anywhere is to brighten it everywhere." -- Isaac Asimov