Opinion: Sony's oft delayed Home sure to disappoint PS3 users

Jonathan Schlaffer from Gamer.Blorge writes:

"We all know that Sony's Home online service, similar to Xbox Live, isn't all that it's cracked up to be. The Home service is plagued with performance and security concerns. In this guest post, Buckle Gross gives us his thoughts on the matter."

[crunchie101]

I'm not quite sure what possessed this Jonathan Schlaffer to write such a pessimistic rant based on insider rumours from some beta testers, but suffice to say this article is really a waste of everyone's time.

Why don't we wait until Home's out till we judge it, hmmm?

[sonarus]

i may be overly optimistic about home but i honestly do believe it will succeed. It may not sell consoles but as long as it has the support of 3rd parties it will fly. I really cnt think of a better way for 3rd parties to get accross to gamers than home. Even without a headset walking around in home square and viewing trailers for the newest games is enough. Home will offer a lot of advertising which is how sony plans to pay so hopefully there will be a significant amount of free stuff especially from 3rd parties trying to promote their games. The potential to fail is there and so is the potential to do well. I don't expect to spend much time in home but if sony could do it so as soon as you turned on your play station it launches straight into your home apt(optionally) and the xmb can then be accessed with the virtual psp then that would be great. Honestly headsets arent that expensive and if you play online and still dnt have one its because you dnt want one. Everyone has bluetooth headsets i have at least 3 of them and i didnt buy any of them for ps3. Maybe sony should consider bundling this in the higher end ps3 model. Also it was my understanding the not all xbox's come with the headset only the pro xbox but not the basic one. but i could be wrong i got the pro so i dnt knw

[Buubar]

Why the hell did Dusty approve this rubbish? Its not even an article and it failed approval with loads of reports.

I seriously give up with this site..

[redninja]

To me it looks like a barrier to online play. Home seems almost counter-intuitive. You have to create and navigate an avatar around an expansive world, when all you really want to do is play your game online. I'd much rather have a quick, easy to use, menu-based interface.

[DrPirate]

RedNinja.

You can. It can be menu based.

Home is intuitive for either clan matches (going into a lobby and meeting random clans that also want to match up), or finding a group of people (Like ringing, or a PUG (Random members acting as a clan).

@ no one in particular: Who the hell is disagreeing with every single one of my comments? There's nothing to disagree with... Not that it matters but I prefer indications that I'm actually helping people understand something. If I'm offending you, I'm really sorry. PM me.

[mikeslemonade]

On release Home isn't supposed to beeat XBL. Both services are growing. However I rather have a service that is just little worst for free. Microsoft needs to think it over about charging $50 because the casual market will not tolerate that because they're already paying for their ISP.

[gamesR4fun]

Sorry to burst the bubble but hey if you want to share opinions we've got a great forum.
This is just some user submitted story not news.

What really burns me tho is I put up a relevant gamer story that really should b news to anyone playing Mass Effect. You think I can get it approved? The only crap that flies here is either flame bait or put out by someone with a few friends/accounts.

heh many thx to the poster of this story Mr_Kuwabara for taking the time to help me fix my post. And sorry for the rant just feels like all we're getting is flamebait lately. That and my stories keep flopping :(

[Lord Anubis]

what a bunch of crap, this kid knows absolutely nothing about home and is more of a xbox is better than PlayStation rant.

as for the abuse, anyone in home will be able to report any incident among other options that I will not reveal.

this is more of a forum post than anything informative.

[MikeGdaGod]

WTF IS THIS GUY TALKING ABOUT!!!!!

i AM a beta tester and voice chat has been there since the beginning!

this whole article is BS but to read that really pissed me off. this guy has no f*ckin idea what he's talking about.

[Sayai jin]

@mikeslemonade-Do you have XBL as a service? If not, you are commenting on something you know little or nothing about at all. A little worse? Home is not even out yet, so we can not judge it to be better or worse. I hope it turns out to be stellar, be cuase I want to use the PS3's online features more, but at this time the PSN does not do it for me. Oh, 10 million plus suscribers who diagree with you last comment.

[Mr PS3]

That when negative news or BS stories come out for the PS3 its all based on rumours or and inside nameless source's and that basically the story has no foudation !!
Just goes to show really how well the PS3 is doing

How the hell can anyone judge HOME yet when it aint even out yet !!

Oh i know he has heard that Home is no good and is gonna be a failure from a reliable source !! Thats how it usually goes

[Real Gambler]

Second line in the story is:

"In this guest post, Buckle Gross gives us his thoughts on the matter.
PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A READER SUBMISSION."
(Keep in mind, I didn't capitalize anything, it is like that in the blog)

So this is simply an opinion (rant?) by a reader, like any of us. This was not worthy of the NEW and IMPROVED N4G, but yet, it did go through. So basically, if any of us ever rant on gamerblorge.com, eventually, we will likely show up in N4G as a news. How cool is that!!!

[ruibing]

The quest of some to silence ambition and new innovation of others always puzzles me. Either this guy is a pure pessimist in everyday life, or he just has something against Sony. This article is more slander than opinion.

[jwatt]

I think Home will start out slow but grow into something alot more with alot of possibilities.

Imagine this scenerio... You play Cod4 and hit the highest level in prestige mode then in Home you receive a special jacket that nobody else can get unless they hit that same level. Now lets say you and your clan are walking in a game lobby in Home with those special jackets but y'all spot another clan walking with you jackets because they also hit the highest level in prestige. I know what your thinking how did one clan just happen to spot another clan wearing the same special jackets, well because the game lobby in home is a special lobby only for clans oh the possibilities.

Then the clans decide to face each other in Cod4 and this scenerio couldn't happen no other way but in Home.

[Proxy]

And, lets say Home allows you to seamlessly trasition into games.

So you're walking through Home, with your sweet jackes, then you see some rival jackets, so you pull out your RPD and start laying down some covering fire, and all the people on Home start running all over, but then the rivals set off some C4 and blow up one of the screens that Pepsi is advertising on, and it falls on your teams trophy case and sends the trophies flying, and...

Man, Home will be AWESOME! (LOL, sorry, that is just the idea that came to mind with all the talk of jackets, and COD4 rivals. Have a bubble as a sign of good will. :)

[Expy]

These guys are idiots, don't they realize it's all FREE?

[wageslave]

Its free to enter Home, but it is going to have toll-booths. It is being marketed to Sony's partners as a revenue-generating system, not just something for "free".

Dont be unrealistic. Sony's looking to Home to fund PSN through microtransactions. Do you really want to spend your time in a 3D Second-Life clone where the system is always trying to sell you Virtual TShirts of your favorite game?

Not me.

[DrPirate]

Wage, don't play semantics

The use of the service is free.

From the get-go you'll be able to join a lobby with friends and jump into a game together. The point of the service is to act as a social community tool, not a second-life clone or a game. It's an extension of the PSN meaning, you'll be able to use all the functionality of home in the operating system without the user interface.

What is this BS about being sold virtual t-shirts. All that crap WILL be in Home, but it's the users choice whether or not they want to outfit their online persona with virtual merchandise. We all know there's giant dedicated squares with advertising, but it isn't intrusive and users understand the point of it being there.

There are no tolls, this isn't X-Box Live.

*edited out offenses*

[wow14]

"From the get-go you'll be able to hoin a lobby with friends and jump into a game together."

So, everyone will meet in a 3D game lobby, then start a game?

How will you invite people who are playing games already?

On the Xbox 360, the Guide is available in every game. At all times. With HOME, this isnt the case. If someone is playing a game already, he wont have access to home. Why? Becuase it isnt running.

Unlike Guide, where when you press a button, it loads the Guide Application in order for you to do commerce, play your own music, send messages, invite people to games, add friends, snd messages to Messenger (on the PC and Xbox 360), and all kinds of other things.

THESE are the features that put PSN behind LIVE. But, HOME isnt going to implement these things in any way when you are *IN A GAME* and that is the problem.

I can send a "hey, want to play Halo 3" message to my buddies while he is playing ANY OTHER GAME.

That wont happen with HOME, because of the way the OS is built. Home isnt going to be running if a person is in-game.

People who say "oh, home is going to do for PSN what Guide does for LIVE" are misunderstanding the nature of home.

[DrPirate]

Hi wow, I'll try to do this without sounding like a smartass or in a condescending fashion. You seem really clueless on how all this is going to work. Let me try to explain it to you.

"So, everyone will meet in a 3D game lobby, then start a game?"

Yes. For example, lets use Killzone, it can be any multiplayer game with the Home functionality (It must be coded in to work of course), I (or me and 2 other people) go to the killzone 2 lobby, meet with another group, and well all launch into a game room together.

"How will you invite people who are playing games already?"

Inside Home, you can press Select, it opens up the friends list and you can send an invite to anyone that's online playing any game. They can see your message in the top right hand corner of the screen.

"On the Xbox 360, the Guide is available in every game. At all times. With HOME, this isnt the case. If someone is playing a game already, he wont have access to home. Why? Becuase it isnt running."

Home isn't an in-game functionality program. Home is activated before and after the game is done. You are confusing in-game XMB and Home. They are not the same. After the multiplayer game is done, you can choose to boot back into home with your group to find another group to play with, or you can go back to your appartment to talk with your friends about what you want to do next.

"THESE are the features that put PSN behind LIVE. But, HOME isnt going to implement these things in any way when you are *IN A GAME* and that is the problem."

This isn't "Home"'s job. This is the task of having the XMB overlay while the game is running. This has been confirmed to be in development and rumoured to come out in April.

"I can send a "hey, want to play Halo 3" message to my buddies while he is playing ANY OTHER GAME."

Umm...Ok..Irrelevant mainly...

"That wont happen with HOME, because of the way the OS is built. Home isnt going to be running if a person is in-game."

Once again, Home does not run in the background or in-game.

"People who say "oh, home is going to do for PSN what Guide does for LIVE" are misunderstanding the nature of home."

No, Home isn't emulating the Guide feature, that's coming in April, Home takes it one step further.

I hope I could have helped you

[Frankenberg]

I just love all these folks who know exactly how Home works in every aspect except it has not been released yet. They do not have a clue. If I missed something and Sony said this is how it works I would appreciate it if someone could put the link up there.

Lets not trash home until we see it.

Come on Sony Fanboys. Stop doing all the excuse making for Sony. They are big boys, they should be able to handle it themselves.

[DrPirate]

Honestly, I didn't make all that up. Even if I could, I couldn't make "THAT" up.

I'll post here in 10 minutes with every video and article regarding home along with links. Maybe I should make it a news story since it's actually something factual.

[DrPirate]

Ok First up

E3 2007: Latest version: The Appartment: Launching into a game from the Home Lobby: Other little features. You see him launch in the game, quit out and return to the home lobby.

http://www.gametrailers.com...

Interview about Homes features:

http://www.gametrailers.com...

Little Montage and Demonstration:

http://www.gametrailers.com...

Home Announcement Presentation defining it as a Service, and you can see where it is on the XMB. You can see how he goes into the service and such.

http://www.gamevideos.com/v...

Official Japanese PSHome site showing the latest version of the Home square:

http://www.jp.playstation.c...

Phil Harrison outline the Prvacy and Security issues of Home:

http://www.joystiq.com/2007...

Misc Info:
http://threespeech.com/blog...

[Daishi]

Drpirate couldn't you have agreed with what wow said considering you did not deny anything he said you just twisted it? Wow had valid points and how did you put it "Umm...Ok..Irrelevant mainly..." You had your points but they did not discredit what he was saying.

[unjust]

Dosent anyone realize in order for Sony to run an online service it cost money to run an update servers. So trust me 50 dollars for a year isnt asking a lot. Keep talking smack PS3 fanboys I'll be the one laughing when the servers crash on Home because of too much traffic and not a very solid structure.

[TheExecutive]

YES. It could remain free forever. I am a beta tester. I am on Home regularly. I can tell you that there will be plenty of "Wall" advertising in Home for movies and games and other such things. It wont be any more in your face than regular life and all advertisements will be paid for.

The basic home service WILL remain free. I am quite confident about that. DrPirate is absolutely correct when he says that there will be an in-game xmb and that HOME is NOT supposed to emulate it. HOME goes way above and beyond the guide of XBOXlive. Its an optional place where you can meet your friends, eventually you will be able to walk into developer booths and even play demos, rent movies, buy pizzas.

Of course this all depends on how popular Home is. But the capabilities are quite endless. So, in summary, the PS3 will have in-game xmb where invites, messaging and in-game music can be played. HOME is a social forum, not a counter to xboxlive.

[Storm23]

I love how you say the PS3 is a quickly sinking system when it outsold the 360 in 2007 even when Microsoft's console had Halo 3, Bioshock, Mass Effect, ect... Speaking of sinking, let me just say a 30% failure rate to the 1% for the PS3. And with a blu-ray drive and a cell processor that are both new to the market, I will say that is very good.

And have you seen the worldwide sails throughout 2008? PS3 has been on top.

2008 has many big games coming out for Sony and there are very few for the 360. Your post is just complete bs and you should look at the facts before you write this nonsense.

I was just stating facts. I do like the 360, I have had a ton of fun with that system with my friends, but this guy is just stupid.

[wageslave]

The Xbox 360 was not outsold by the PS3 in 2007.

Can you care to provide a reliable source of this information?

[DrPirate]

In 2007 the PS3 sold more units worldwide than the 360 did.

Edited out offenses: Ignorance riles me up.

[wow14]

your just repeating the lie - why dont you provide a good, reliable source for your claim.

why dont you?

[JVIDICAN]

sonys numbers and microsofts numbers
sonys numbers are higher than microsofts
ps3 sales higher than xbox 360 sales
not that hard to figure out...
=P

[DrPirate]

Bleh, tried looking, couldn't find it.

The closest I could have found was some articles about how it's selling in Japan and in Europe, but no world-wide figures.

My bad sorry, I just remember seeing an article with that title.

[JVIDICAN]

dont worry lol u saw it so did most of the people on this site sonme just dont like to admit it
oh and heres the link
http://www.n4g.com/ClickOut...

enjoy =P

[Guwapo77]

Here are the links you were looking for.

http://n4g.com/industrynews...

http://n4g.com/industrynews...

[DrPirate]

Thanks alot men, you're both lifesavers.

The first one was the exact article I was looking for.

Bubble and rep for both of you.

[JVIDICAN]

look at the disagrees were getting
wage cant accept the truth even when evidence is provided

[TheExecutive]

get a life wage and wow... the ps3 outsold the 360 in 2007 when it was heralded by MS as the "year to buy the 360". What does that make this year? Another year for the 360. It isnt going anywhere and there are still plenty of exciting titles coming out but expect the PS3 to stomp the 360 in sales this year.

[Mr_Kuwabara]

I clearly learned something new from some people today reporting my news story as spam/lame (in which there spam/lame reports are indeed there own personal 'opinions' on what they think of this story anyways). They just can't take the pressure from someones opinion. I don't understand why people get so sentimental when someone gives there thought on a subject.

I personally believe that the HOME feature will be successful and will triumph on Sony's side and for us PS3 owners that have really wanted this feature for a far long time; it'll do what Xbox Live does for 360 users and then some. (Yet again this is my opinion, don't get so sentimental)

[crunchie101]

I think part of the problem is that it's such a badly written and either misplaces facts, lies allout, or twists facts to suit his opinion.

[jackdoe]

I agree Crunchie. The man thinks that child predators only exist on the PSN. That is complete bullsh!t. I'm sure people remember that story about the pedophile on Xbox live who lured children through Halo 3. The thing is, no matter how much security you put into anything, predators still exist. It is a widespread problem not limited to the PSN. Sigh.

[jackdoe]

Seems like people are idiots. Sigh. Three disagrees. Do you really think that child predators aren't a threat?

[DrPirate]

I've been getting disagrees in this thread the entire time I was here.

I admit I was a little harsh on Wageslaver, but I edited all of that out.

The thing is, there's opinion, and there's fact. Then, there's people who crossed both of them together passing off what they think AS fact.

I've been presenting facts and trying to answer questions and I still got disagrees.

IF YOU'RE DISAGREEING WITH ME JUST PUT ME ON IGNORE!!!

Thanks.

And yes, no matter what online environment you are operating within, there will be predators. They know games attract kids, and kids attract predators. That's why I agree with Nintendo's friend codes system in a way. It is protective to kids who own and play on a Wii that is hooked up to the internet.

[aggh im on fire]

I take it people are going by Vg chartz when they say Ps3 outsold the 360 in 07.
Microsoft said they shipped 10million by end of 06 but only sold around 7 to 8 million according to VG. Which makes there total for 07 around 8 or so million, once again according to VG. Looking at the monthly figures the 360 outsold Ps3 monthly most of the year so no, the ps3 didn't outsell it.
These are Vg figures of course and to be taken with a pinch of salt but as everyone seems to be keen to bring them up thought i would.
Everyone knows they didn't sell 10million 360s in 06. Just shipped.

[TheExecutive]

No. They come from MS and Sony.

[AceLuby]

It's the fact that M$ shipped a total of 10 Mil consoles at the end of 2006 and 17.7 consoles at the end of 2007. Sony shipped 1.5 Mil consoles at the end of 2006 and 10 consoles at the end of 2007. That means in 2007 M$ shipped 7.7 and Sony shipped 8.5. Not rocket science here, but as you said, these numbers are misleading. At the end of 2006 M$ padded their numbers to hit their goal and while it looked good at the end of 2006, their 2007 numbers dwindled because the retailers had to get rid of all those consoles before ordering more.

[jackdoe]

Lol. Quickly sinking? Sigh. Anyway, his reports come from alpha and beta builds and last I checked you don't release a beta build as a final product.

[wow4u]

Yes, but there are a lot of reports about Home being in really bad shape.

Are they going to delay it again or release a buggy program?

[moparful99]

Whoops wrong post...

[rofldings]

Hey look, it's the same site that thinks GTA4 is a 360 exclusive.

[bozobucketeer]

I thought GTA4 and MGS4 were both 360s exclusives.

[games4fun]

you forgot the other 360 exclusives killzone 2,rfom 2,white knight story, ffXIII, versus, all team ico games, followed by all god of war games, not to mention microsoft bought all the developers in the world so gt5 along with all the mmo's for ps3 are cancelled and are on 360 as well they also bought naughty dog and are making and releasing uncharted 1-6 on 360 all this year along with mario,zelda,tekken,smash bros. brawl, metroid and all nintendo games as well and msoft bought sony and nintendo, not to mention all ps3's 360's wii's will now be replaced with reactor cores that play microsoft games it will blow up your house but it is definately worth the 3-4 years you wait while they rebuild it.

[bozobucketeer]

Wow, sarcasm receives a horrible reception on this site.

[JVIDICAN]

yeah for some reason you need to put /sarcasm at the end of a sacastic comment for people to realise your being sarcastic

[games4fun]

i agree i thought it was pretty obvious but i guess that means i need to be more sarcastic? :)
lol

bubble and agree for you guys

[moparful99]

Hey game4fun that was honestly the funniest thing I have read on this site. "360 will replace wii's and ps3's with reactors that will blow up your house but the 3-4 year wait to rebuild is worth the wait" Dude im in stitches right now, truly hillarious and exactly what I needed after all of the the intensity on this site... Bubbles man

**I know I screwed up the quote but I was laughing to hard**

[LeonSKennedy4Life]

Somebody a little scared of Home???

[skagrerrrr]

what's home? LOL

[wageslave]

That analysis seems pretty clear to me. People are vastly over-rating what Home is going to be. There have been 3D worlds *just like it* on the PC for 5-10 years. And, in the end, they are just a waste of time.

[Skerj]

Home isn't just a 3d world, it'll be for PS3 what Live is to the 360 so what's so hard to understand about that?

[DJ]

Hahaha

[robbo918]

SURE glad we have Wage to think for us <SARCASM>

That was a flame bait article NOT an analysis. If that is what you think an analysis is I am worried for you.

If Home is such a waste of time in YOUR opinion what is it called when you come to this thread and spew your X360 agenda against the PS3 and Home....oh a waste of time!

[Ri0tSquad]

I know a hater when I see one.

[moparful99]

Yea wage just like halo 3 was so over hyped? Point,click,shoot,ohh pretty, repeat. Dude give it up, evere weak and unsupported claim you make on this site is quickly shot down. You nor the poster of this article have any idea what home is going to be like. Sony has delayed home to tweak features in response to what the community has responded to. You see unlike microsoft when sony releases a beta they take feedback from said beta and translate it into improvements. Microsoft and their oh so stubborn outlook that everything they do is perfect doesnt cut it. You constantly spew innacurate and heavily biased opinions yet fail to back up your claims. EPIC FAIL

[Skerj]

Yup, because we all know Home is out right now and available for everyone to use and has half the promised functionality. Oh wait, it isn't out? What was that? They're still working on it so they can deliver the features from the trailer? NO WAI!!

[REPLOID24]

a freakin' blithering idiot. "quickly sinking" my a$#.

[wow4u]

This guy is an industry analyst, not a emotionally-invested member of N4G.

There is no reason to think that 2008 is going to be any different than 2007. All industry is ruled by accountants, and I can assure you that Accountants know how badly PS3 has faired thus-far.

Game reviewers see it, sales speak it, console-sales enforce it. Sony slashed features and cut prices all year just to end up falling further behind.

They've shait-the-bed, and their Home product is looking to be a monster failure. This isnt the first article to say that Home is buggy beyond reason. I'll bet they delay it again... and when they release it finally, the promised features will be "just wait".

[robbo918]

The article is from a READER, did you not see the bold print. What makes you think that "Buckle Gross" is an industry analyst??? This was nothing other than a person writing an article and twisting information to suit their point of view.

How has PS3 failed? Compare its first year sales (since its only been out just over a year) to that of the other consoles, only the Wii could claim victory at this point and its still way too early to be calling a winner.

[slpknt6sic6]

how has the ps3 failed? it out sells the 360, has better exclusives on the way 360 has none!, doesnt break down 33.3% of the time and dmc4 in the ps3 is kicking 360's versions ASS.

[Anything but Cute]

"Sony’s clone of virtual worlds Second Life"

"users of their much beleaguered Playstation 3 console"

"much more successful competition from Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii"

"The company also promised to implement their clone of Microsoft’s highly innovative and loved achievement feature. Sony plans to copy"

"find the effort a sign of desperation as Sony plays catch-up to features that have been available for many years to users of competing consoles."