ripspinner

AlMarshall

OK, I can spend 1min+ loading up a program that is like a sims online chat. Once I have done that and spent a couple hours designing my virtual house then what? I am a huge Xbox Live user and one of the things I like about the service is how accessible and fast it is. If I am in the middle of a game I can receive invites from my friends in other games, join clan matches, download videos etc. in the background, or even private chat with 4-5 people at the same time. The point is all this is done pretty much by clicking 3 to 4 buttons and in the span of 30secs.

Home just seems a little too robust. With Live my achievements are posted right next to my gamercard. I don't really see the point of inviting my friends to my house...load...then come over to my "entitlements" vault...load...watch a 5sec video of me playing a game.

There are some cool things though. Home does open up a lot of possibilities and for friends to get together they could incorporate the Eye Toy for videochat...then again that would defeat the purpose of the sim people. I'm sure there is something cool in there somewhere, probably.

Initially I would probably have a lot of fun with Home. However, I can definetly see it as an annoyance or something to avoid later on as all I really want to do is play games online. A neat idea I just don't really get the point.

CptBoomstick

None of the flash, an uncomfortable amount of real-life hipster imitation and advertisement, and
none of the great unique avatars or vehicles.

I remember sitting in high school talking with a friend about making "Life" the game. An exact imitation of life, where you are born, live, and die. It was a joke of course, just as I find this to be about as funny as well. But the real kicker is people are already willing to toss money into this, even make $600 console purchases over it. Makes this all the funnier!

*Yawn* Habbo Hotel, the Sims, etc. indeed!

Glaeken

Go outside people, there are some awesome things you can do in the real world, and you don't need HDTV to see it.

error603

You seem a bit upset about this. Are you really that bothered by online social communities? I play WOW, I love it, but I'm not fat and lazy. Most people can balance their lives and do outdoor activities, too. You need to lighten up, man.

Or is it that you are or feel like one of those "pathetic, fat, ugly losers who don't have a social life at all to make themselves look good by pretending to be somebody else"?

James

ps3ftl

Little Big World looks totally sweet, but this chat lobby thing just looks like IMVU.

kibibu

pandapants

That said, i see PSHome as a good thing, if it gets done well. The ability to interact with friends and chat with random people is kinda nice. Say what you will about idiots chat spamming in WoW or other online games, there are times when a good conversation starts up and its nice to to just talk about stuff. As long as they limit transportation times (possibly allowing you to instantly teleport to a friend's location), and allow you to ignore chat from other players it could work out really nicely.

Snooder

Digital_Sky

Turtle-Wax

Yes I did, I didn't see your post earlier, but yeah, it reminds me of Balamb Garden alot. Waiting for it to take off... If i ever get in home (if i ever get a ps3, lol), I wanna make a SeeD outfit.

Scazza

Any way this is cool yet not 600 dollars cool yet.
All I want for x mas is a die-shrink and a cost effective blue ray solution then I'll even rock some PS3 shoes!

Runna

That's the same thing PS3 will be to me when I buy one in 2009-2011 or so. The catalog will be great, the best early games will be cheap. The exclusives too. That being said, Playstation Home is the FIRST thing I have seen that makes me want a PS3 a lot. Sure I know that when FF XIII comes out, I'll have a tough time not dropping 600 on a PS3. News of another Chrono Trigger would practically make me run out and buy one. But I can wait for that. So Sony is doing the same thing to me with the PS3 that they did with the PS2; they'll release more and more things over the next 2-4 years that I simply WANT, until it's enough for me to validate a purchase of such a expensive machine. I'm content to wait it out and enjoy all the wonders of 360 and Wii in the years to come, knowing that someday I'll make a very smart decision and buy a PS3, but that day is still a ways off and SONY will need to keep doing things like Home and keep their exclusive titles (especially Square which is looking bleak) and play nicer. After the last year of feeling sick over everything PS3, I'm happy to see the first glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel.

I am happy that I've been smart enough to hold back and simply watch the PS3 until the day comes that it's finally worth playing.

blankwave

SirHamsterz

I'm afraid that this is one step closer to the virtual worlds that creeps into peoples real lives. I'll be staying away from that.

I have real friends, who I meet up with in real life. We go for drinks, meals, walks etc. We have real conversations. We form real friendships and bonds. I have a real girlfriend. Maybe I just think that this is kind of tacky.

furiku

...And has anyone else here played Dreamfall? Was the crisp woman's voice reading throughout the advert not eerily similar to that of the crisp woman's voice narrating the various evolutions of the crazed and ultimately world-dominating robots in the robotics museum?

svetlana

Sunjammer

McKack

Sure, building a virtual house might have some novelty appeal for a few days, but I would prefer to use my console to play next-gen games, not walk around in last-gen virtual worlds playing last gen pool...

Apart from the 'animated trophies', all of this seems to be almost completely alien from the actual PS3 games, whereas I thought they would at least have tried to get some sort of proper points system in there.

It's not that impressive from where I'm sitting.

G1GAHURTZ

think of the furries...

sharkilepsy

L_K_M

108

still, i'd like to be able to do these things with my miis.

crunchbot

-There are advertisments everywhere (which sony gets money for each view)

-Game companies can have their own space (which no doubt will be charged for)

-NON-game companies (like coke, adidas etc) can have space (which they will no doubt pay for)

-Items for sale, including clothing etc, MAJOR income here

-Charging for movies in the movie theatre (if this will ever work and be allowed)

People wonder why its free???

Scazza

But watch the entire press conference, check it out on IGN to see it. I got to say, although it really dosn't address the PS3s biggest problem (online gaming), its a cool social tool imo, and it could turn out great.

Mostly I am excited about the youtube aspect of it. Sony claims they will allow people to watch movies, which I think is total bull, but watching other users videos is certainly not far fetched.

What I think will be the biggest hurdle for sony is actually delivering all this promised content on a service that will be reliable. Sure right now sony's network has very little use, but the server requirements for this will be astronomical for sure. streaming "hd" content from multiple sources, ads, voice chat and custom content from other users... all at once? Its going to be a logistical and technical nightmare for them.

Like I said before, if this was SONY making this, I would have NO HOPE IN HELL that it would ever get done. However, its NOT, its actually another company in london making it for them. So it might come along well....

Scazza

It's steeped in potential, that's for sure.

Suzaku

Good luck, gents.

NameYourCharacter

I was wrong.

HobbaHobba

Good times ahead.

Ixero

Announcer Guy: Wow if Sony keeps hitting Nintendo with blows like this it's a shoe in to face Microsoft in the final bout.

George Foreman: And that's why mash potatoes are better than string peas, cause Sony has the potatoes and Nintendo had string peas...the mashed potatoes taste better with the gravy and the peas don't, so that's why Sony's got Nintendo on the ropes

Announcer Guy: Uhhh...what?

Kiros

The problem here is that SONY (just by watching the video) is follow its usual path of ALOT of promises of features and functionality....yet they have nothing to back that up.

If the Playstation Network and unified friends lists and other promised features of the PS3 aren't working up to expectations....HOW THE HELL IS THIS GOING TO??

It reminds me of one of the 1st PS2 Online Games....the one with the backyard games....

If there is no one there (i.e. PS3s sold).....where is the fun???

Sony has to focus on games and reason to buy a PS3 rather than a censored/edited version of SECOND LIFE.

And they took single player out of WARHAWK....

Yeeesh.

GoonieGooGoo

isn't that Nintendo's slogan at one point?"

Yeah! WTF?! And it's in EXACTLY THE SAME FONT THAT NINTENDO USED FOR THAT CAMPAIGN! Compare to:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v485/KevinC-11/Funny%20G...

SnowflakePillow

I'll agree with the others who've said they'd prefer a less exact avatar. I've tried to create myself in Sims 2 form and Mii form, and I'm much happier with my Mii avatar. I don't imagine I could get better results with Home.

But yes, that is all sorts of sexy.

tyjinks

fli_guy84

Tak2ulata

"I will concede that there is a market for this, and that you get more for the money, but I just don't see that translating into the same numbers as Myspace. But, I could be wrong"

Haha, you're not wrong -- MySpace is THE most popular site on the Internet. Yes, even ahead of Google. Anybody tapping into even a small fraction of its appeal is going somewhere.

Really, it's all in the execution and marketing, at this point. We'll see how Sony does with it.

RedRedSuit

Gil-Galad

The sims, nintendo's slogan, and the Wii's sports thing.

It could be a huge success.

Gil-Galad

tengu925

Thunderclap

Bicro

domlolz

I will concede that there is a market for this, and that you get more for the money, but I just don't see that translating into the same numbers as Myspace. But, I could be wrong

usedtabe

RedRedSuit

Wishful thinking much? No offense, as this is a great idea (definitely a jab at those, including myself, who thought Sony was just ripping of LIVE and the Mii's), but Myspace is FREE. Thats a huge word in business. So are the numbers $599 US Dollars.

usedtabe

skobar

citizen.lambda

interstate78

RedRedSuit

I must make a very important point here. History and the PSP. We saw what happened with the PSP. People purchased it on some simple stupid points and now where is it? Graphics, MP3s and video playability don't make a good gaming system. It doesn't matter how many people buy a PS3 for this, it still won't be enough to make PS3 a success. This won't reach casual gamers. It only appeals to a very very small market.

protozoider

You might not wanna read VGCharts.org then.

XBox 360: 9.48 million
Wii: 5.49 million
PS3: 2.09 million

John Lucas

johnlucas

On topic, this seems pretty cool. As a possible future PS3 owner, I just hope this doesn't overshadow the important aspects of online play, like the games. And the multiplayer.

usedtabe

Sony why did I ever doubt you?

Barbara

1) This is definitely for the casual gamer and people that like the whole Sims, My Space, Second Life movement. However, after watching my cousins take pictures and purchase sidekicks for $400 to put pictures up on their myspace pages I am confident their is a market for this thing.

2) They didn't exactly go through how sharing movies would be implemented completely. The movie will probably play on your Bravia television in your virtual house, or I can click on it and stream any movie in your specified shared collection at the full resolution. If I have user created content, I can't simply just have all my friends from around the globe rent the movie/DVD and comment on it using a web conference. I don't see them using the movie theatre as a source to display full movies (this is DRM happy Sony and movie studios), but it does give the opportunity to show quick trailers without having to download them. Also, since this is software you can bet that it will change over time to resolve problems.

3) Half of us sit at a desk reading websites, sit on a couch to watch an imaginary person run around and shoot stuff. This is no different.

I prefer to think of this as another free game they are pushing to enhance the community aspect of the PSN. It isn't replacing the Playstation Store and won't effect the games we play. At best, this will become the standard lobby for all future PS3 titles and you'll be able to launch games into a multiplayer match from the world or go to the world after a match. The fact is that they are making this a downloadable title and not making it a firmware update, so if you don't like it, don't download it.

DBX00

Brill

If you read the posts around the internet, you would clearly see that this offers everything you just mentioned in a single package. Four million users of Second Life appreciate this, the 6 million XBOX live users appreciate that, the Sims and WoW users love their service. This offers an excellent platform to distribute user created content to other PS3 users. The fact that Myspace, Second Life, Sims are all based on that simple principle proves that the principle itself has a solid foundation. Once again, this application is by no means meant for everyone; however, there are a ton of people in the world that will eat this thing up and it shows in the comments even in this thread. The bottom line is that if you buy the PS3 for the games (fine), but as soon as your clan starts saying they are meeting at *blah blah* house, you'll be pushed to use the service. I look at this application as a shell to make distributing information to multiple people easy as well as a means to build a community. I can't imagine having to invite a group of people to chat, especially when you have people in that group you don't know but are invited from one of your friends. I think of this as an easy way to expand your friends network beyond people you have direct contact with through games or real life.

You => Your friends => Their friends => so on

In my mind, this makes voice chat and multiple voice chat a much more user friendly feature and effective way to communicate.

DBX00

Xerby

spate

erroers

Also i hate it when i do something that makes a six year old cus me out and all i can do is yell at him thus making me the equivalent of a six year old. This set up seems very prone this these types of actions. I think it is great that sony is trying and if they do it right it could be a great thing.

zdoughboyz

Anyway, this is a new feature which will attract SOME people while others will be uninterested. But that's the point: to attract those who are into these kind of interaction. And no, it won't be the only thing that the PS3 has on offer. If you just want to play the game then go and play the game. No one ask you to socialise with others using Home. But there's no point of bitching about it either since it's *gasp* FREE.

Evo

http://nexgenwars.com/

There you go.

cringer8

CrimemasterGogo

jesusjuice

When I want to play a game with other people online, I don't want to be walking around trying to look for other gamers like me who want to play also.

primetime

What color is the kool-aid you must drink to care about anything they promise at this point?

The great thing about the Achievement/gamercard set up is it is "simple" to spread, and you can see the stats almost everywhere. It doesn't take you a ton of time to "network" with other gamers.
Sony missed the "keep it simple stupid" part of making an easy to use unfied set up that actually helps make the games better.

This just looks like an MMO tacked on as a feature.

lunaticcore

ColonelSmith

RedRedSuit

3.3 million console lead?

Last time I checked, Wii just passed 4 million and PS3 was about to hit 2 million. Hardly a 3.3 million lead...

Jim on the Wall

andrewc989

MJDeviant

Reno_NV

sweetie55

I also think that Nintendo still has a lot of things up its sleeve so I'll be waiting for PES 7 at least before even thinking about a PS3.

cmdrpaddy

Bagre

Killtacular

Keitaro

Why would Nintendo be ashamed of a 3.3 million console lead in less than 4 months, and problems keeping their unit on the shelves despite their own record production levels and Sony's supply issues?

So, a few more comments.

1. Nintendo got bashed for doing wacky things to draw in the "casual" gamer. This is a casual gamer thing whether you admit it or not. It looks well done (if it meets its own hype) but is basically something to draw in social game folks, not the so--called "hardcore."

2. To the guy who talked about watching movies with friends online - Let me get this straight, you never call your friends with free night time minutes? You don't have a web cam? Unless you are having full on conversations and/or make out sessions (which this does not solve the latter) then how is that any different from talking about a movie on the phone while both listening to a downloaded track? Which brings up a point, do you really trust an online community to keep their traps shut during a movie they walked into online? What if I want to pause the movie, isn't a DVD just as good for that?

3. Kutaragi's new catch phrase "So then it hit me, if we make gamers walk their fake selves around a while to get to the games, then we have more time to get some games to exist - virtually..."

4. Final comment. This looks really great, now I can sit on my couch to watch myself stand up and walk. I don't have to actually walk any more to get that pleasure.

BigHeadDave

Waka in Japan

I wonder if people's private spaces are being run on servers at Sony, or whether individual's PS3's are going to act as servers for this program. That's one way to do the Linden Labs one server per customer deal.

(-1 to that ad for saying "extra unique", though, despite the marketing play on words. "Unique" is superlative. Superlative!)

L33tminion

Xudus

Way to go Sony! After craploads of negative press you finally did something that really makes me want to invest in a PS3 now.

dirkxxdiggler

And for Sony taking the Mii concept... well, who cares? The Miis are quick, quirky and kinda cute. They are a simplification and a fun way to make yourself a player charater for use in multiple games.

But this Sony thing? It's trying to be too realistic, and thus it's rolling around in the uncanny valley. If IMVU, Second Life and those other glorified 3D chats have taught us anything, it's that they all eventually revolve around cybering... oh joy.

humilitybecomeshim

How many users can the network support? Is it unlimited? If not, how are people broken up: country, age, language, interest? Assuming there will be different public "zones"(perhaps by country) can I visit these other areas? How do I get there?

Will other body types/sizes be available?(everyone looked thin and white in the trailer and "customizable clothes and facial features" was the only thing mentioned) Is it possible for my avatar to not be a human? Can I have a pet or similar type of companion?

and last but far from least, What about parental controls? How do you handle griefers and other types of online harassment? What stops someone from making a new PSN account every time they get banned?

I'm looking forward to the beta, hopefully it arrives in April for all PS3 owners.

aka Bitter

This is definitely an impressive idea in that it's Sony's attempt to bring the gaming community together, but I'm not gonna go buy a PS3 because of this. Why? Because if I wanted to play Sims, I would play Sims. Would these characters be used in future games? 3rd party software? The people look pretty generic to be honest, but maybe people will go crazy like they did with the Mii's and I may be surprised.

I'm actually extremely surprised by the number of commenters that are swooning over Sony like "OMGOMG it's worth teh $599 now lolz" I thought people wouldn't have been bought so quickly.

Give me the exclusive games and then we'll talk. *checks out LBW*

xkc20d

Bando

sorry, just saying.

PrestoMovie

Ahhh, you can almost TASTE the denial. At least I can. It tastes bitter, like crow. We really can't believe it's this good, can we?

Anyway, I'ma stop checking gaming sites for about a week now. As a non-Sony fan the spate of good news is unbearable; I'd rather wait until things settle into their usual Sony-is-doomed pattern. It's bound to happen eventually, right?

(None of this is sarcasm or trolling, by the way, I just try to be honest online sometimes, or I'd be all, "this sucks" too).

LeGuru

Dumad

not worth $600.

no offense Sony, but I'm taking a "wait and see" approach with anything you do.

erbal

Verum

The problem with anything being hosted on "your ened" like Diablo, is that it's very easy to hack. I'm not saying that it will happen, but when given the choice to buy content, or get free content, most people will take the free content. Closed Diablo II is hosted on the Battle.net servers because of the ridiculous amount of hacking that occured in Diablo. If Sony does decide to keep your "home" on your PS3, they can expect to miss out on a lot of sales in the virtual store, but at least they won't have to spend millions and perhaps billions on some ridiculous infrastructure.

Verum

Samada

And THAT's just during closed beta testing!

Hunty

Why the fuck do I want a fake chair in my fake patio?

Sony just showed us an eye-poppingly realistic representation of how to not have a real life.

More of the same. Im not sold.

Danj3ris: man of many overlooked ideas.

No we can't seem to play nice (refer to my last post on the NY Times thread)

If you criticise you're a fanboy of a different system and if you praise then you MUST be some kind of shill.

Can't people find an idea interesting without people banging on that it was stolen/copied by someone else or being stupidly accused of fanboyism or being a Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo shareholder?... No.

KeyonSumner

This kind of makes me want to go work in my back yard and redecorate my house.

More importantly - I think I am now finally willing to pay for a Gold account on Live.

After the revelation of the rumor (minus all of the blackballing and making-up nonsense) I thought that maybe Sony was finally onto something decent with the PS3. Now that I've seen this video... all comments about lifting ideas from MS and Nintendo aside - this is one of the least compelling implementations of (individually) compelling ideas that I've ever seen.

I'm not quite 30 - but maybe I'm over-the-hill when it comes to emerging online communities. If I'm at my console I'd really like to play games. If want to play online I'd really like to quickly jump into a game with my friends. I've already got enough world to explore, space decorate, and enough idiots to avoid in everyday real life!

We'll see how it is when the service is actually live. For now - I'm not excited in the least.

niledeltadisco

I wonder how expensive this is going to be. If 50 million units sold worldwide, and each person had their own "home"... That's almost a ridiculous amount of server space, routers, and moderating. If they don't make as much money as they expect from the sales of online furniture/games/fashion they're going to be hurt.

On the flip side, if this DOES take off as the new way to social network, and they introduce advertising at some point, or they sell lots of furniture, they'll be rich.

Verum

June

I'm inclined to agree with your statements, J B Cougar. Something's fishy about all this.

John Lucas

johnlucas

People talk about trust but they it's in the consumers best interest to have PS3 successful. It's not like Microsoft is very good at handling monopolies. Do you remember how bad they've treated Windows users?

It's a good idea. Even watered down it'll still be better than what Xbox live provides. And you have to pay for Gold service.

I WILL not pay for a rudimentary multiplayer experience. I will not, Microsoft. NEVER. I rather pay extra for the console than do that.

rdun

Oh, and I am truly shocked by the way.

I think fanboys like me, especially Nintendo fanboys, are also still somewhat overwhelmed at just how good this looks. It's such a drastic change from the PS3's previous image--as a game console, a PS2 2.0--to a sort of online media hub. And that worries us, not just because we are terrible terrible people who have gone from being indifferent about the console wars to wanting Sony to fail, just because they priced themselves so ridiculously out of the competition, but also because it makes us suspicious about how it could possibly work as well as it seems to.

I mean, I know they've been working on it for a long time, but this is truly next-gen (yeah I know Second Life blah blah blah, but at the very least it's a very different train of thought for the console). We don't want to get burned again after Sony's last promises of next-gen.

And let me reiterate it once more. We Sony-haters are all in shock. Fellow Nintendo fans, just admit like I have had to that the only reason you're bothering to think beyond the initial hype is because you're looking for reasons that this CAN'T be as good as it appears to be. Hell, maybe it's not. We won't know, at the very least, until it's revealed.

Myself? I can see it taking off. I would say some more stuff justifying why it wouldn't take off in the casual crowd, but frankly that was just my fanboy speaking so I got rid of it. Price remains a serious issue, and one that probably shouldn't be ignored. At a minimum, though, everyone arguing about how PS3 owners must be whining and annoyed should probably shut up right about now. Same with Sony non-innovation.

Sony has an uphill battle, but this is the first time I've ever thought they could change their course. I am genuinely impressed. Keep it up, Sony, and maybe you'll be the first to win three console wars in a row. Maybe.

(Bleh, the more I think about it the more I realize this is insanely easy to try out for myself on the PC, and the more I wonder why it feels so damn impressive when this kind of stuff has been around for years.)

LeGuru

Walshicus

Teamspeak.

thejakeman: probably disagrees with you

aden.exe

I don't anticipate every single app catering to my console goals, but I do expect it to provide something to someone. This doesn't. It attempts to do everything and therefore succeeds at nothing. Want a place to express yourself online to people with pictures, videos, and music? Myspace. Want matchmaking? Xbox Live. Want a graphical chat yiff-fest? Second Life. Personalized avatar? *Anywhere*

This doesn't offer anything except massive exposure to advertising and a chance to make micropayments and meet like-minded childmolestors.

warmwaterpenguin

Scottacus

I am also gonna say this might be like those things, but this does not mean they are stealing from the the competition this time, this looks like nothing else we have ever seen on consoles and I even after my dislike of pretty much every Sony move for a long time now am happy to stand up and applaud them for this, this might just be the functionality I have been looking for to get me to buy a PS3.

I am happy with how the 360 is going, but FF XIII and Versus XIII and MGS4 along with this puts PS3 higher in my want list then any of the games coming on 360 right now, that's a personal opinion of mine. Good move Sony that is first time I have said that in a long time, let's hope it's not the last.

-WPack911

WPack911

The release list for Sony is as strong if not stronger than the competition. You're already seeing games like Virtual Fighter 5 a couple weeks ago, Motorstorm today, and consistent release lineup until the Fall. They've displayed two more important exclusive titles today in Warhawk and LittleBigPlanet. Playstation Home is simply an added feature that some people will find useful and others won't use. It seems like Sony is doing a good job at giving a all around package for casual and hardcore gamers. It may surprise some of you, but not everyone wants to play games that you control a guy with a gun or another sports title. I appreciate that Sony is offering a diverse game catalogue and feature set, but I don't anticipate everything to be applicable to my needs.

DBX00

I like how you use assumptions and opinions to bash Sony, pro.

@J B Cougar

It is a base cost you can't avoid purchasing the system and getting home. At least you don't have to pay for it after the base cost as opposed to live.

I don't think anyone has actually said this is going to sell systems. Games will always be system sellers. It is a bonus that is all.

This is a nice extra and I can see a lot of people using it, but Sony has to actually deliver the goods, so we'll have to wait and see what happens.

qin

MJDeviant

Really! If I want to bowl, surely I'd play wii sports? If I want to watch a film, I'd watch it with my friends. If I want to walk around a pretty-looking (but slightly depressing) 3D world... I'd go outside.

It has raised my impressions of the PS3 from not seeing any reason to buy it, but only insofar as this would be a decent bonus feature to go along with 'everything else'. Sadly that everything else doesn't yet exist.

(And I love my PS2 and PSX, so that's where I'm coming from, bias-watchers!)

purplegeneral

At one point the video touts it as being better than the matchmaking experience on any other cosole (in other words, better than Xbox Live). If they set themselves up for this comparison, they are going to fail. using second life to find a multiplayer match would be a massive pain in the ass and completely unnecessary. If this becomes the standard for all ps3 online matchmaking that would finalize my decision never to buy a ps3. I can't imagine that happening, but then that's true of a lot of the dumb things Sony does.

I cringed at the inclusion of shoping malls and cinemas. When I want to watch a movie or buy an imaginary chair, I want to do so through a menu. I know, it's outdated, but it's also efficient and not ridiculously stupid. If I want to watch a movie, I don't want to first go to an imaginary boxoffice, buy an imaginary ticket with imaginary money, buy imaginary popcorn, go to an imaginary uncomfortable seat and watch a movie with my imaginary sillouhette framing the picture. Call me crazy, but I'd rather just hit ">."

My final complaint (for the time being) is the customization oprions. I know they didn't go into it much in the video, but I can't help but suspect it is going to be... limited. Everyone in the video looked like on of those tanned and perky beautiful people that Sony wants it's customers to think they are. Am I going to be limited in that way? Do I have to look like an extra from some FOX soap opera? Do I have to look young? Maybe I want to look like myself, 10 lbs overweight and scruffy. Maybe I want to look like I'm 90 yrs old. Maybe I want to look like Phil Harrison, bald, pasty white and squinty. Can I do this? I'm not convinced I can. And I know I can't do much of anything unless I go to the paydtation store and buy more options. The default clothing options are going to be worthless. And everyone is going to look the same. The only thing I like about 2nd Life is that you can look however you want. Old, dragon, 12ft penis... whatever.

There are a few things that look cool. The price is pleasing, though again, I suspect profoundly gimped features unless you buy them all, one by one. And I suspect once you buy all the features necessary to qualify this as a full featured game, it will have cost you considerably more than an actual game. So the free price is a positive, but I bet it's a false positive.

I like the idea of being able to design and decorate my own house. Well, decorate it anyway. I doubt Sony will let you design your own. I bet you have hte option of a 3-room, 1 story shithole, and if you want anything nicer you have to, guess what!, buy it. And I hate the fact that you have to buy your furniture. Will there be any way to earn furniture? Cause I won't pay for fake furniture.

Ok, so I guess my positive points were pretty negative. But just to clarify, I don think this thing has great potential. I genuinely like the idea of being able to visit other peoples spaces and listen to their music. Unless Sony ruins that somehow. But yeah, great potential, and I'm curious to see how it plays out. It could be that I'm altogether wrong, and it turns out great, which I would love. Done right, this could be fun. But that video, at the very least, was not done right.

etho

btw, at the mention of shared pic & videos, am I the only one in which pr0n came to mind?

kftgr

tsurumaru

John Lucas

johnlucas

Tell me again, how is this not trolling?

Scuba Steve

Zho

Everything about this is extremely exciting to me and I definately cant wait

XeroTrinity

I will check it out when it comes out. I have a PS3. I won't spend money on it more than once.

I will stick with Secondlife where I can make money instead of spending money. I know that the user creatable content causes a decent amount of the lag. But I like seeing new things and making new things.

acidraven

Jack Loftus

Then, once I let those dreams die, it just.. reminded me of the sims and those other virtual chat rooms that are going on online. Seriously, if I want to sit and talk to people in a chat room with virtual avatars, there's easier ways to do it. You don't need something fancy to meet up and play a game with some random stranger online.

That's just my opinion though. I'm not particularly excited about Sony's new thing, but if me and my boyfriend ever get a PS3, I'll probably give it a try, just to see what it's like.

Kotae

2) Everyone that keeps talking about Sony implementing the service needs to realize it is ALREADY in private beta and a PUBLIC beta is coming in APRIL. That's next month; therefore, sure the final version won't be released until Fall but we'll either have personal experience or previews well before that point. They're not going to want the whole PS3 universe jumping on this platform day one, they'll phase it in with the beta.

3) It's nice to see that even some of the other fanboys can appreciate a good application. The bottom line is that this thing might be micro transaction heavy, but I doubt the average user will spend more than $60 (average software price) to customize their place. Also, it really depends on how much customization Sony give you for free; most people will be happy with the preset layout and a couple changes.

DBX00

The alternative is downloading Sony Record's music, which 80% of them sucked. So they charged you $0.99 for a song where you cannot convert to MP3 alone with your $1.99 virtual boom box? Wow, and I thought XBL's microtransactions was horrific.

DJ-of-E

-

Beatseeker

Then I looked over it and realized that I was mostly saying "wow" at the graphics. The main features that interest me are the music and video sharing, and I'm curious as to how the different departments of Sony are going to feel about that (particularly the RIAA-styled one). Then I wondered why this would interest me when MMORPGs didn't.

Then I realized it wouldn't. It's BRILLIANT as a hype machine, it looks fantastic, and I think all you guys dissing it as a service are just being ridiculous, but I tried hard to imagine buying a PS3 just to interact with people online, just like they can already, when they already have Facebook and MySpace and even the much-maligned Second Life to tide them over.

That's the inherent problem; it made a lot of us excited but it's NOT a killer feature in the "I will now pay $600 for you my baby baby girl!" sense, at least for most consumers. Maybe this would tip you over the edge if you were already interested in the high-quality games coming to it, but it's about as much of a system seller as Miis are. They're cute, and they help keep the audience loyal, but people still buy the system for the games. I know the trailer looked cool, but I think a lot of you are going to be seriously disappointed if you buy the PS3 for this.

This looks like a GREAT perk, though, if you're into the online deal, and if the PS3 were a lot cheaper I think people would buy it. Not I, though. To be honest, Little Big Planet excited me a whole lot more. Now THAT is what I want out of Sony.

(Also a price-drop but I think that argument's been beaten to death).

(Also I honestly don't feel the need to buy another game console at the moment, but only because my life doesn't revolve around games).

LeGuru

When is this supposed to be rolled out?

Brendar

Nex Antonius

I'd be willing to bet that, to circumvent the wrath of the media giants, the content you can stream will only be audio and video purchased in the Sony store, and the video will be crippled (displayed on a virtual screen in your virtual home).

This would also help them stop porn from becoming an issue, but ultimately would limit the users' experience.

doubtful

Variasam2

Sarcasm aside, it does look really cool. Sorta makes me excited to own the PS3 again.

Sloopydrew

Then, Sony *makes up* with Kotaku and allows them to report on "PlayStation Home (microtransaction edition)" today. People are expecting something even worse than what Sony has typically put out over the past year, as woudl be expected, but instead we get Second Life with in-game advertising, horse armor for people, and unfiltered hate-chat. When you set the bar that low, anything, and I mean ANYTHING looks a bit better than it actually is. Hence, the honestly unwarranted Sony lovefest above. Plus, some definite Astroturfing mixed in early on. ("Hey, it looks good. It's better than what I was expecting. Never thought I'd say this, but Sony did ok this time.")

Pretty Machievellian, actually. This is still an advertiser's microtransation dream though. Can't wait for the "you suck f*g" hatespeech that's sure to overrun this sausage dominated Sims bizarro world. Should be fun for th 20% of PS3 owners that sign on for it though, natch.

Jack Loftus

gixo

ch0rx

gixo

But I think this is Sony's general strategy: Beat the others on specs, not on fun.

L_K_M

maltesefalcon42

If Sony could have had this ready for launch, I think the playing field would be very different. However if this is a sign of things to come, I think Sony may very well have a shot in this generation.

cybereality

Now, let's see it on our PS3s.

RedRedSuit

bornonce

The customization and animated hall of fame seem like rip-offs of Miis and Achievements imbued with the "graFFiX = r0x0rz" philosophy, and the virtual world stuff is way more complicated than I'd every need.

Just give me easy-to-use, functional text/voice messaging, and I'm good. No wonder Wii60 gives me all I need.

EmTeeZ

For anyone that thinks this looks cool, try Second Life and see how crappy this might turn out >.<

Here's hoping it ends up as something better than the insanely over-hyped failure that is Second Life.

slacker164

Within four months, you'll be able to see the beginnings of that world in Playstation Home. Don't kid yourself, this is free only because of its value as a corporate advertising Goliath. The currently perceived 'awesome' ability to watch trailers while you jam out in the Ubisoft lobby to a Columbia recording artist is a marketing ploy, nothing more and nothing less. Keep that in mind when you're buying Adidas shoes for 99 cents that match your TOTALLY SICK Oakley shades that were a free gift.

Conceptually, this is Second Life without the user content - a page-for-page ripoff of The Sims Online. If that interests you, cool, because there is definitely a space in gaming for people that enjoy this kind of social community. And I will readily admit that some of the features do sound very, very well designed, such as the ability to jump into multiplayer games with your friends from your home, or streaming music to them. Just don't let Sony's ultimate plan deceive you, because it'll only be so long before you're asked, "Would you like to try our EXTRA BIGASS TACO?".

Dazz

and I hope I can give my avatar my sideburns. hahaha.

so geeked!

aykay

Zim

L_K_M