Sony Playstation Home: Hype vs Reality

After a two year wait Home has finally been released. Even though HornyMelon.com has been in the closed beta for quite a while we held off giving any type of review or impression of Home until the final release. We felt that there simply wasn't enough to the beta to warrant a long diatribe over Home's faults and merits. Now that Home has been released to the masses and we have had a full weekend to mull it over, we are ready to report.

[HighDefinition]

Is GREAT for the people who want/like it.

The people who don`t aren`t obligated to use it.

[Breakfast]

Whats your REAL opinion on Home?

[thebudgetgamer]

if you find a cool group or go into it with friends its fun but if you are anti social stay away because you will be bored

:)

[HighDefinition]

It`ll be great for people who play lots of games with a clan/groups. also people who have Online Seasons in sports games. The functionally of it lays within it`s self, It`s nice to just go out and talk about games w/ other people. People will create their own functions for Home as time goes by. For FREE I think it`s unbelievable what Sony has offered people w/ this SERVICE and I think more companies need to do the same kind of ideas/things that can help their customers enjoy their platform of choice.

[jwatt]

Home may be a bit lacking but I think Home has alot of potential.

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[LokMessier]

I agree, Sony really can do a lot with what they have presented with people in Home and judging from what they stated about spaces already being bought by devs and other places it seems it's going places.

*Sighs* just want that streaming music function in at least the houses you have :/

[thebudgetgamer]

stopped reading right there

:(

[George Sears]

I agree in the article that I too find it frustrating that you have to actually wait until people finish playing pool, chess, bowling arcades etc rather than you just having the opportunity of just playing the game on the get go but there are some things that the author seems to be discomforted but at least for me, it doesn't bother me at all.

The mics are well implemented imo. Sometimes you hear people talking louder than usual but it really doesn't bother me that much, all I do is lower the volume of my T.V. The music is actually a God send at times because of the boredom that might strike for a while while roaming about. Some people actually have good tastes in music. =P

The sensitivity radius of the mic was also well made so that you hear things once you get near, this helps while you're passing by people that are talking on mics, they won't grab you by surprise.

Overall, Home does what it is suppose to do right. A virtual world were PS3 owners can talk w/e the hell they feel like it with other PS3 owners. It's a place to chill when the games drought hits and you're bored of playing the same old games. Once you log in, you think that you will stay for like 15 minutes or so until you start chatting with someone and before you know it, an hour has passed by.

[Nathan Drake]

Since when was a public Beta considered the release of a product?

[chester]

since it's available to every member of the public who has a PS3 to access to it. the "beta" tells of a work in progress, but it is released.

[ReBurn]

The beta tag isn't an excuse for the lack of compelling features. The moment that the software was released to the public the impressions were formed. The beta tag is irrelevant now. For many people, what they get now is what their impression of Home is going to be.

You only get one chance to make that first impression.

[xlg]

Thats what you get for something FREE! But hey its your favorite console, you have to defend it no matter what! Right? http://ps3.ign.com/articles...

[pswi60]

I mean, Home was promised back in 1985 by Sony and look how long it has taken to be released, and it's only beta! i mean, come on it's not like sony has had any competition with videogames or movies, so i don't understand what took so long.

Also, I was personally told by Kaz that Home would replace my existing home, meaning i could "move in" to my appartment in Home so I wouldn't have to pay for my current mortgage. Obviously, I cannot do this right now because there aren't many things to do in Home other than free Chess/Pool/Bowling/Arcade games/meeting with friends etc...I mean, what am I supposed to do!?

I guess i will just go to my local bar and drink my sorrows away, but there are usually only 2 or 3 girls that go there and almost every guy in the bar jocks the sh1t outta them so i guess it will be another night by myself on xbox live with all the other losers

/sarcasm (kinda)

[cayal]

"Thats what you get for something FREE! But hey its your favorite console, you have to defend it no matter what! Right? http://ps3.ign.com/articles...

You too stupid to form your own opinion?

[pswi60]

Sorry cayal i meant to hit agree

He's to stupid to form a coherent thought, much less an opinion...

[thebudgetgamer]

and disk scratching problems

:)

[falviousuk]

Hey a thread about sony Home and look someone has managed to bring in the RROD comment. wow do the people on this site never fail to amaze me

[Xi]

thought it was quite fitting.

[xtreampro_REVENGE]

i deleted it in 30mins, i did get social, but everyone was acting GAY! and stupid, and no one was responding, its boaring and i also noticed that it slowed my PS3 down (exactly as i expected), my messeges open up slower

[LokMessier]

I have yet to experience any trouble with slow messages, for me it seemed to improve the slow-ness of what I had once perceived. Then again I haven't been on home since Open-Beta, except for about 10 seconds then went back to LBP. Though I understand about the no one responding as well as the people acting like morons. Heard my friends conversation on blue tooth over the phone, some guy on blue tooth was apparently just going around saying "Doo-Doo-Dooo-Dooo-Do.&am p;qu ot; Or something.

Hopefully there will be some checks and balance put into place for this, not logging on to hear someone say that.

[xwabbit]

truth is i always saw home and thought it would suck really LOL but now i have to eat my words cus i waste about 5 to 6 hours everyday in there lollolol

[Grown Folks Talk]

According to what you read here, Sony faithful aren't racist, homophobic, sexist, stalking pedophiles. Guess they were wrong.

[xlg]

Well this its interesting how people defend HOME for many months without even knowing it 1st and NOW turns out ITS BOOOOOORIIIIIING so ... http://ps3.ign.com/articles... They put a chat system in your chat system so you can chat while you chat. LOL!

[LokMessier]

Having fun spamming the same link on each article that deals or at least states something about Home? Oh dear seems you have also run out of a bubble, since last we conversed on that other topic, though it seems that you stopped in the midst of that conversation or perhaps "debate" as I should say?

Why not stop hiding behind other's impressions of Home and give your own, if you have a spine man up and state it. Nothing worse than a gamer who will just follow the trend and not say anything about their likes and dislikes. I could agree with you IFF (If and only if for those who don't know what it means) you state your opinion, but as of yet you have not. Example: xtreampro_REVENGE's post, he stated he at least tried it and gave it a shot, stated what he disliked about it and why, is that so hard for you to even accomplish?

Also you say people defended home for months without even knowing, well which months are we talking of? There were people in Closed Beta who were defending home and giving feedback. Good that they put a lot of chat systems, now I'll be able to connect with more people far easier than I was able to on the Wii [don't have 360 so not saying anything about it.]

Yep they have Chat, Bluetooth, and Home. Pretty nice of Sony to give it all to us for free to isn't it? So wha'cha got there for yourself?

:)

[edit - Hmm, 2 agree with you and 1 disagrees with me, and yet you have lost another bubble? Is your team not working for you and are they having trouble comprehending a very basic post? If they are not why don't they simply stop with the agreeing and disagreeing and make a post?]

[Light Yagami]

Sony hypes everything and it ends up being a disappointment.

[panasonic23]

damn home suck that bad

[Nodoze]

I was invited to participate in the Home beta (closed). After reading all of the negative things about it, I was determined to go in with an open mind and to judge it based solely upon what was available. While I do see tremendous potential, I think Sony have really missed the boat on quite a few things. I was and am wholly disappointed that Sony has deemed it necessary to have microtransactions in Home from day 1. The amount of content that is released is paltry and wholly undeserving of real money. This screams nickel and dime and is frankly quite insulting. ALL of the content should have been released to all members on day 1 (just as it was to those of us in the closed beta). The profanity filters need to be altered. It is ridiculous for people to greet each other with ****o instead of Hello. Very very silly. Where are the electronics for video streaming from content on the PS3's hard drive? Where are the frames for pictures (maybe they posted them and I haven't seen them)? Also why is it that every time Sony releases anything network related, they take a week plus to iron out the kinks? Do they not have a competent network team at Sony? I mean Warhawk, Socom, LBP, Home etc etc all suffered from teething pains. In the case of Home the authentication is a pain in the ass.

Where the hell is the trophy cash system that has been hinted at? I will NOT pay real money for any of this sh1te.

Also the random disappearing items needs to be addressed. I lost all of my Ice Breaker, and Echochrome bonus content and had to replay them to receive them again. That is flat out inexcusable.

Please for the love of god change the streams to have more than one video. The movie theater plays the same thing over and over and over and it is very very boring.

All in all I think home has potential, but how long will it take Sony to realize it?

[Gothdom]

I like to go and play billards in HOME. I guess I like to hang there. Lots of people come and join me for a game or two and we talk a bit. I added a couple of friends that way.

Then I go back to whatever game I want to play. Granted, the censorship is extremely annoying, so is the disappearing-item bug, but I like this application nonetheless.

Also, the shirts I've unlocked by playing the namco beta are way better than those you have to pay for.

Hate it all you want, but I really don't know what you thought you would get.

By the way, about the IGN article, I don't know what happened, but they said the closed beta was awesome and they couldn't wait for everyone to try it. Then it's open beta = 6/10. Are they bipolar or something? The open plaza is way better than what we had for the closed. The rest is about the same, plus a couple of stuff. Go figure.

[tatotiburon]

Home = EPIC FAIL

I bet Home will be BETA for so many years, the perfect excuse for Sony and loyalty fanboys.

[BreakfastII]

i am BreakfastII. I think Home is great, but its too quick to judge it, becuz the whole thing is still a beta! the full thing will have more stuff like ur own trophy showcase, which is really my main reason for Home.

[NewScratch]

enough to the beta to warrant a long diatribe over Home's faults and merits."

great, hold then... its not like your opinion is original and worth noting.

personally, i've only found fun so far in getting the HK arcade machines in my house/club and also creating the ugliest dude ever and dancing salsa. lame sounding or not i laughed my ass off for at least 20 mins. beyond that it wasnt a waste of time to check everything out and be ready for when other features are added.

then i played some games. i left it b/c i dont HAVE to use it. get it?

[jack who]

nothing new here just sony been sony

[N4GayFanturds]

Sony fans never come on here & complain or disapprove of PS3 features/products! This has to be a first.

I still can't believe Home is out before Killzone 2.

[dukadork]

and that's a great motivation that's allowed me to discover some cool features like arcade games, avatar customization, and having my own space where i can invite my buddies and launch games from there

there are rough edges but the huge potential is obvious and that's why it scares the competition sh!tless

[Death]

First off, it's an application to access an application. This has never made sense to me. Either Home is Sony's premiere online service or it's not. I don't see the benefit of launching an application in order to meet with friends to launch another application. For gamers, it's much faster and easier to go straight to the XMB and bypassing Home alltogether.

This leads to the second problem. If it's easier for gamers to launch from the XMB, they will. Without any benefit of going Home first, people simply won't do it. If people do not regularly visit Home, advertisers will not spend money in Home and devs will pretty much ignore it. The best case scenario is marketing people will push microtransactions for completely worthless items. It would be ideal for Home to be a place to reward users with free items to push their products, but it's not looking like this will be the case.

The biggest problem with Home is it serves no real purpose. You can "socialize" with others in a virtual environment. Why? If you aren't using your PS3 to play games you are pretty much sticking it to the devs. They are kinda under the impression people buy PS3's to play games. If people somehow manage to enjoy the socializing aspect of Home, this is time away from playing games. It's bad enough devs are fighting for time with Blu-Ray movie playback.

Home isn't making the PS3 experience more enjoyable. It's distracting and confusing people more than anything. Sony needs to focus on making the PS3 the best game machine on the market. Home isn't doing that. Home is giving people a place to go instead of playing games. Home is in beta because Home really has no place to go. It doesn't help sell PS3's and it doesn't help sell games.

-Death

[Asher6]

ive never heard more cry baby nerds complain about something that is givin to them for free. i honestly enjoy home A LOT. i have met many new friends that i usually would have never got a chance to. if u dont like it, dont use it. by the way, u all knew what HOME way before it came out, so what did u expect???

[IWentBrokeForGaming]

it will fizzle. It has been in BETA long enough, we should see additional content for it early next year... no excuses. Or else it will be remembered as over promised and under delivered!

[JD_Shadow]

And trying to use the "no stone unturned" tactic while you're at it, all without checking up on anything they are saying. The "loading" takes all of about 30 seconds if that, it's an Open BETA, it'll constantly be expanding, and it's a great way to meet new people to play games with.

But it's no surprise that HM is on here again saying things against something that is good for the PS3.

[sak500]

Oh what about "bu bu but the Home will kill 360"? Long list of sony false promises:

Afrika, Getaway3, Haze, Socom, Lair, HS, Home, R2, LBP, PS3

[DJ]

It's optional.

It's free.

It's a place to go if you like socializing with fellow gamers.

If you don't like meeting up with people and relaxing, that's cool. No one's forcing you to use the app.

[panasonic23]

to all sonyfans

[ForROME]

Sorry no doubt, HOME is just plain weak, and under delivered, beta or not, its not going to be dramatically different, its weak. I am 100% disappointed.

[JD_Shadow]

I take it you're not a fan of Home, then?