[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 in the forums. We’d like to thank Jamie for covering an often overlooked part of the PS3 package.]
The Ghosts of PlayStation Home’s Past
By Jamie Stephens
Christmas is rapidly approaching, and in keeping with that festive spirit, we have prepared a set of informative pieces based upon Sony’s PlayStation Home platform. Put on your slippers, light a few candles and prepare to go on a journey with PSU as we explore PlayStation Home past, present and future. Up first, we explore the ghosts of PlayStation Home’s past.
Part One: PlayStation Home past
What is the first thing you think of when you read the words ‘PlayStation Home?’ For some people, Home is merely an icon that sits under the PlayStation Network column of their XMB. They are unaware of the thriving online community hidden behind the sleek façade that greets them as they turn on their PS3. Some may wish that Sony was not wasting their time and money with the service, while many others spend hours and a lot of money in Home every week. To date, PlayStation Home has more than 17 million users, spending an average of 70 minutes per visit inside the service. That’s right; Home has more users than the best selling PlayStation 3 game.
For the uninitiated, PlayStation Home is a free service that allows users to create an avatar and socialise with other PlayStation gamers in an interactive 3D world. There is nothing else like it on any other gaming console. Users can interact with each other using voice and text chat in addition to playing games co-operatively and competitively with other users. It’s a rather marvellous service.
Home began life as a 2D online lobby for the PlayStation 2 SCE Studio London game, The Getaway: Black Monday, and was initially known as Hub. The online community for the PlayStation 2 was, to put it bluntly, tiny, so Sony started porting the code to the PlayStation 3.
When it was first announced at the 2007 Game Developers Conference (GDC) by Phil Harrison, who was President of Sony’s Worldwide Studios group at the time, it was seen as an exciting and innovative endeavour for a platform holder. There was a large amount of hype and buzz with regards to the possibilities of this service and many people were excited when they discovered that Home was set for an October 2007 launch on the PlayStation Network. Home was in development by SCE Studio London and SCE Studio Cambridge.
Home was eventually delayed several times before its public beta release on the Dec. 11, 2008. Sony Computer Entertainment president Kazuo (Kaz) Hirai explained the reasoning behind the delay, saying: “Spending more time on the development and on the Closed Beta testing reaffirms our commitment to bringing a quality service.” Since then we have learned that internally at Sony, there were concerns regarding the actual content of Home. In a 2007 edition of the Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu, Hirai said, “I personally am not satisfied with the current version of Home.” Other people connected to the platform have since stated that there was focus applied to the wrong aspects of Home. Sony was spending too much time putting in features that would enable a high volume of advertising instead of developing features that would appeal to gamers.
Since PlayStation Home has launched, however, we have witnessed a large transformation in the service. In March 2009, an ARG (Alternate Reality Game) Home Space named Xi caused waves of intrigue to spread throughout the service. This service used the Internet in combination with games inside a Home space to get the home community to interact. Developed by nDreams, this game, comprised of twelve spaces, asked Home users to find clues, solve riddles and gather fragments necessary to advance the plot of a story.
The Xi Home space kept gamers guessing for weeks
In June of 2009, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Home platform director Peter Edwards revealed that Home had more than 7 million users. By September 2009, Home was revealed to have more than 8 million users. A month later, SCEA Home director Jack Buser proclaimed that "the vision of Home has evolved." He explained that Home was evolving from a social network for gamers into a game platform. In December 2009, Sony released the first MMO for Home, Sodium One, developed by Outso.
Fast paced Salt-shooting action in Sodium One
This fun MMO is made up of several games including the fast-paced tank shooter game called ‘Salt Shooter,’ a scorpion stomping game and a bartending game where people make drinks to order for other Home users. Several levels of the MMO are free to play and users have the option of purchasing clothing items that unlock further levels. Sodium One has been a massive success, with more than one million players worldwide. In fact it has been so successful that a sequel, Sodium Two has been announced and is due to launch in Spring 2011.
Other memorable game spaces that have launched include Dragons Green, a mini-golf game where the first three holes are free, with the rest acquired through pay-to-play elements. This game was developed by Hatchback Studios.
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Enter the Dragon’s Green
The most recent addition to the PlayStation Home game initiative is Novus Prime, developed by Hellfire Games. A free-to-play multiplayer game, Novus Prime can be played as a single player or in a group of four where the aim is to destroy massive fleets of enemies. Players can purchase new ships, weapons and upgrades to enhance their gaming experience.
Novus Prime really is impressive
Join us next time when we delve into PlayStation Home present, where we’ll discuss what users can expect to see and do when they fire up PlayStation Home on their PS3, including game spaces, shopping spaces and the movie theatre. There is a whole other world out there to explore.