[Editor’s Note: The following article comes from user Jamie Stephens (Galvanise_). Jamie is 22 and comes from England. He’s an avid gamer, and as you’ll see from his article below, he knows a lot about PlayStation Home. We encourage all of our users to pitch us story ideas for the homepage of PSU. You can do so by sending the editors messages on our forum.]
Welcome to the third instalment of my ‘Ghosts of PlayStation Home’ series, where I discuss what to expect from PlayStation Home in the future. If you read my previous coverage on PlayStation Home, then it shouldn’t surprise you that Home has a vibrant community and is constantly evolving as a service. Over the last few months, several studios announced and released new ‘freemium’ MMOs for PlayStation Home. With more developers getting involved with PlayStation Home, expect a broader range of games to arrive on the service, including shooters, racers, sports games, and detective-style adventures.
One exciting addition to PlayStation Home is ‘Total Game Integration’, which was first demonstrated with Killzone 3. In this new feature, the Home Plaza/Square was transformed into a Helghan battlefield. Home users could partake in a shooting game against waves of Helghast soldiers and even bring ammunition supplies to Home users in need. These challenges rewarded players with three unlock points for the multiplayer component of Killzone 3. Yes, we now have the ability to directly enhance the games we buy at retail by being an active member of the PlayStation Home community. Naturally, Sony is going to try to make a buck or two off of such ventures: Home users could choose to purchase Killzone 3 from Amazon.com and receive an exclusive Home avatar costume (Helghast Jetpack trooper).
Now being a Home user can enhance the way you play PS3 games
Given the extraordinary line-up of PS3-exclusive games Sony and its publishing partners plan to release this year, we can surely expect more of these fantastic cross-promotions. Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, Twisted Metal, Resistance 3, and inFAMOUS 2 are all prime candidates to receive special Home treatment leading up to their respective releases.
Since the last update to this series of articles, Sony announced the successor to the PlayStation Portable. The Next Generation Portable is taking steps to being a truly socially connected device (you can watch the entire PlayStation Meeting at which the NGP was announced at here). As the NGP will support Wi-Fi and 3G Internet connections, gamers can check their trophies, jump into games with people nearby, and follow what their friends are doing all from their handheld.
The NGP could change the way we interact with PlayStation Home forever
Sony toyed around with the idea of releasing a version of the Home client for the original PSP at one stage. SCEJ also had a less ambitious ‘Room’ service planned for the system. Both services were eventually cancelled, likely due to hardware constraints. As the NGP games could easily be mistaken for full-fledged PS3 games on its beautiful 5” OLED screen, it should come as no surprise that PlayStation Home could have a bright future on the device. Home users could turn on their NGP at home, on the bus, or in the park, launch PlayStation Home and socialise with their friends or play the increasingly high-quality PlayStation Home games. The NGP would make it possible to have a Home away from home.
So what other new features can we expect from Home in future? Aside from speed increases, bug fixes, and Anti-Aliasing (AA) enhancements, the biggest improvements will come from increased developer participation and creativity. We can now have companions following us around — imagine Daxter, Clank, or Bentley following you around in Home!
I also expect PlayStation Move support to make its way to Home before the end of the year. Obviously shooting mini-games would benefit hugely from this inclusion, but I think the most interesting use might stem from co-op based gameplay experiences. LittleBigPlanet 2 allows DualShock 3 and PlayStation Move users to dynamically change levels and help each other complete tasks, and I think this style of interaction would be an excellent addition to PlayStation Home games. Plus, browsing the menus, inputting text, and simple navigation could be much more engaging when using PlayStation Move.
Move it, Move it in PlayStation Home
Those are a few of my thoughts on where PlayStation Home might be going. If you have any other ideas, feel free to tell us in the comments section. You can even join our forums for free and become a member of the largest independent PlayStation community on the net. Let your creative juices flow.
I’ll be back with more articles about PlayStation Home in the near future.