PlayStation Home finally closes its doors for good today, March 31, 2015, putting an end to the virtual 3D social platform and disappointing thousands of fans who have spent time and money investing in personal spaces, engaging in special events, meeting with friends and enjoying its range of games, including titles such as Sodium, Novus Prime and Home Tycoon.
There’s no place like Home
Launching into open beta in December 2008 (did it ever come out of beta?) PlayStation Home had real promise but initially struggled for content at launch, a time when he had the best opportunity to engage its audience. Nevertheless, the PlayStation Home faithful (millions at its peak) stuck by it, supported it and thanks to companies like nDreams, Lockwood and Veemee was a success for many who were involved; and fun for those who embraced its social side.
In the lead up to its closure today, Alphazone4.com has a series of interviews with some of the developers that tried their best to make PlayStation Home a success, with all sending out messages to those who supported them while expressing their sadness about its closure today.
KOVAK spoke about its proudest moment working with PlayStation Home. “To be a recognizable and a respected publisher in PSHome in such a short time, people knew that we were making quality content at a very affordable price and we are also very proud of the community we have created around us.”
Kovak’s female England kit for Home
However, it’s good to see that KOVAK will continue to press on with development on Project Nebula, a PS4 virtual world that will support Project Morpheus and feature the same level of social interaction as PlayStation Home.
Lockwood also spoke of its proudest moment. “We are incredibly proud of Sodium One. We really put a lot of time and effort into the central Sodium Hub as well as the main tank shooter game.”
Sodium One got pulses racing on PS Home
Passions are clearly running high at Lockwood who built its reputation through the provisions it made in Home. “It has meant everything to us,” they said.
“Essentially without Home we would not have Lockwood, Sodium would not have been developed and we wouldn’t have Avakin Life which we are working on now for mobile. Lockwood would like to thank the community for their support for Lockwood as without the community we would not have Lockwood either."
Veemee also took the opportunity to send a message out to those who supported its Home projects. The developer describes its Acorn Meadows Park space as their “crowning glory as a company”.
“We love you guys and we’ve had a blast making things to put on and play with in PlayStation Home”, said Veemee CEO Kirk Ewing. “This is the beginning of a new chapter for all of us – Life after Home – but rest assured, we’re only just hitting our stride.”
Responding to a comment below the interview from a PlayStation Home fan that is obviously upset at its closure, Ewing took the opportunity to remind Home users that the blame for its closure doesn’t lie with the developers.
“Veemee abandoned the Home community by switching off their Home servers for Acorn Park and other games way before Home’s end,” wrote a guest poster.
Ewing replied: “I know I shouldn’t, but I feel compelled to reply to this comment by saying as strongly as possible that we didn’t abandon Home. Like everyone else, Home abandoned us. When Sony turned off commerce on the platform we were left with no income as a business at all, yet we continued to support the Park and our other games as long as we could. When something went wrong with AM, we just didn’t have the resources to fix it. If you need to blame someone for Home closing, blame Sony, not the devs. We all did as much as we could to make it a success and we all wish it was still going forward.”
Though it’s a rather sour note to end on, it’s good to see from the interviews that those developers that did put in the effort to make Home the buzzing social environment that it was for so many aren’t throwing the towel in after such a major blow to their fortunes, but seek to come back stronger with major new projects.
PlayStation Home closes today after more than 6 years. *HUGE* thanks to the Sony HPG/Publishing teams who did an amazing job. @PSHomeEU
— Patrick O’Luanaigh (@patrickol) March 31, 2015
Thanks to AlphaZone 4 for their series of interviews. Goodbye PlayStation Home!