Home finally living up to Expectations?

Scruffy from PlayStation Gamer UK Writes: "Sony's PlayStation Home has been by far the biggest disappointment of this generation. Originally being marketed as an add on feature for what would be the great PlayStation Network experience over time, it was brought more into the spotlight and became a major part of what people believed Sony was promising. While the PSN has lived up to expectations and is a huge step up over the last generation, Home is another story."

[Genesis5]

Maybe it didn't live up to all the hype but is hardly the biggest disappointment of this generation. There has been other things that have disappointed a great deal more.

[WildArmed]

True.
I mean, they said it would do 'this and that' but it could do nothing when it came out.

Big deal, they are working on it, and it looks like a bright future 4 home. (3 new spaces each month? woooo!)
I'm not much of a Home user or fan, but where this is leading is getting interesting

[whothedog]

i think home is starting to get better, slowly but surly...and dont call me surly.

its somehow the biggest disappointment even though it will probably never be done making, new spaces, ideas, minigames, ect. So many good ideas can come of home but it depends on how they utilize it, and from what they are talking about and doing lately it seems they are in the right direction. I thought i would of lost all interest in Home by now but i still pop in every now and again. Time will tell, but for a FREE program i dont understand why people complain.

EDIT@Breakfest

You fkin crazy man, you sound insane

I think you need to prove yourself right first

[Breakfast]

As we all know, its a far cry from live. The ONE thing the ps3 is missing, that the 360 has, is a good online component. Home was supposed to bring that, and Lord knows that it didnt. Infact it stole the development time and money, that couldve easily went to adding simple things, like private chat and game invites.

Besides MGS4 :) id definitely call it the biggest disappointment this generation. Its just a big waste of everyones time.

Disagree? Prove me wrong.

[GrammarPolice]

No need, you've proven yourself wrong.

[GrandTheftZamboni]

@Breakfast

Aren't Home avatars better? They are 3D, they move, you don't have to use them if you choose not to. That's a step up. No?

Game invites work at least for Warhawk.

[whothedog]

did you play home when it first launched?
Most of those things you talked about happened months later after it launched. at the first 2-3 months there was not much to do other than walk around and talk to people, play the games in arcade and watch trailers.

All i was saying is that it had a slow start and starting to show good ideas

You dont have to get all irate and throw a hissy fit

and on some of your points.....

OOOo movie trailers... when i see a movie even if its old i will be happy

and most spaces except the main ones and a few 1st/3rd party spaces are not that exciting

EDIT@ below now :)

Even though that has nothing to do with anything sure, not talking about people, talking about things going on in the world of home

EDIT for AGENTXvi whatever

Its sad that people like you exist :(

[Agent VX]

Home has bombed, and has been a massive failure. Very little so far has happened to even make it remotely interesting. Oh well, at least online is free.

[HDgamer]

Mr. Fanboy home made more money that you will ever make in 5 reincarnations of your life. Stop being such a fanboy or just go back to the open zone. You're not a gamer just another fanboy pretending to be a gamer.

[PSGamingInc]

It is easily the biggest disappointment for Sony this generation. And lets face it, Sony isn't exactly short in the disappointment department this go round going from complete domination in the industry to a laughable third.

Funny thing is, as bad as Home is it is made even worse by the very fans that will defend it to their and its death.

[HDgamer]

If it failed why is it so populated each day? I'm sorry you must live in a delusional state of mind where as if it fails in your own eyes it means that the public and the people who use home are just tools but then again that doesn't make any sense.

[Breakfast]

Still no one has proved me wrong on Home being the biggest disappointment this generation. 16 disagrees, and all you guys have said, is that i proved myself wrong. Which to be honest with you, makes little to no sense.

Let me remind you all...it did nothing for the betterment of PSN. All it did was make a new venue for micro-transactions, and a new way for Sony to promote, and make money off ad revenue. The multiple years developing Home, couldve been used to make PSN a great counter to xbox live...at a free cost!

No one benefits from Home, except for Sony, which is ok...but we still dont have cross game invites, and a party system.

[SiLeNt KNighT]

I have a better idea Breakfast, why don't you tell us why it has failed? You didn't prove anything in any of your post. All you did was claim it was a failure, no valid points. Failure to me is a person that makes claims about something that they have never even played and loves a certain console so much they have to convince themselves how horrible something is they've never even tried. At least Home is something new and interesting, NXE is a lame Wii rip off.

Your name is kind of ironic. Ever read Green Eggs & Ham? Try it Sam I Am.

[Omegasyde]

I took your bait.

Reason : Xbox Live is more like a User Interface. Home is like a mini-game. I also disagreed with your comment, flattened your tires, and punched your dog in the face.

FYI Home development $$$$ should of been added to the Socom: Confrontation Budget. Thats the truth.

[dericb11]

I will say they showing us signs of the right things Home needs.
Last night I tried the Guitar Hero Space. I will point out that I
never played the games and most like won't. Anyways I can say I really
enjoyed the space. They have a mini-game(Which is really fun) and
previews for the new one coming out. It has the back stage feel.

Next I tried the Rez Evil space. While unfinished it looks to add
some new things unseen in Home. Add those to the Warhawk, Farcry,
Red Bull, Etc. and you have a nice place to relax.

Lets not forget the upcoming EA Sports Complex which will be a
new standard for how Home space will be and you can see why Home is
nearly complete.

[Thoreau]

you typed that mgs4 a disappointment? man, you must want to create a new n4g.com account. i don't click on avatars that have one bubble. mgs4 has an awesome multi-player, and a solid story/game mode(no pun intended) with elite graphics. what is that sh!t you smoke, cause you can pass it over to me.

[SlaughterMeister]

I wasn't disappointed because it sounded like a stupid idea in the first place.

[In-cognito]

I went to the new Guitar Hero space tonight. It felt the same as all the other spaces. Empty of things to do but full of people.

I will say this.......
Every space I went to tonight was full of people.

It's been that way for a long time and there has been no slowdown so just on that note alone I think it's successful.

If Sony builds it, they will come.

There isn't a lot of action, but there are a lot of people in Home just interacting with each other. I believe that is what Home was meant to be. A place where gamers can interact with other gamers and then Sony will build on that idea. Slow, over time.

Home isn't dead.
Home has just begun.

[LeonSKennedy4Life]

The HUB is just the beginning. It's such a cool project too! I can see it turning into a psychological thriller.

Keep in mind, people, that this stuff is all free! We've been strung along on a mysterious journey involving a cryptic robot, real people, some type of beast, and a possible kidnapping!

What do you say to that but "Holy crap, this is cool!"?

Home really is the future.

[ApocalypseShadow]

but in the end,home is a success.

it has communities and is always expanding as sony said it would and still be a **BETA.**creating new things and spaces takes time and doesn't happen overnight.only haters expected home to have everything at launch.

seems to be the same thing over and over with the 36.....um...haters

expecting day one sales

expecting all things at launch

expecting home to be sony's attempt to beat XBL when home is it's own thing.they seem to not be too smart in seeing that PSN and HOME are two different things.

but then they defend microsoft's poor attempt where all you do is change clothes like barbie dolls.and you have to BUY 2 games to have them do anything.

home is not even 6 months old.and the haters soon enough will see that it will grow beyond even their limited minds.

apocalypse................

[JuJuRMJ]

Yes Home is a success, and the biggest disappointment are the people who still don't understand it..I mean Home isn't a game, what I read from haters as to why supposedly it bombs, it's like they want to play a full retail game in Home but the haters opinion as to why Home fails are never clear..Hmm.

Home is a social application kinda of like N4G but with customizable avatars that you control and interact and socialize with other gamers..It is a social application first..And it succeeds..Immensely!!! There is nothing else anywhere like Home. What's great about it is that it is expanding with game-themed places that centers on and revolves around discussion whether about that specific game or becoming a new friend on the list, etc. Not only games but other types of media like film and music to clothes, etc.

Home already has a its following, it is really popular as can be easily told by the 14 or so haters on this site. I'm still deciding whether the people that hate it are just anti-social or really expects to kill zombies in Home and still doesn't get it.

Now I visit Home at least once a week, I socialize, I make new friends sometimes, I check out a new space or a new activity. Then I won't visit again for a while but that doesn't mean its failing because I'm not uber-glued in Home 24-7 and really there are many who do. It's a virtual place to visit with friends, socialize, play a mini-game, check out a new game space..That's all.

[rmedtx888]

Well, I'm fascinated with Xi, from the way it introduces you to what it is to the ways of interacting in it. It totally rocks. I'm sure more and more cool areas will be coming to it soon.

[madpuppy]

Personally, I feel replacing my 360 Two times so far was just a little more disappointing.

I nominate the RROD for that honor.

[rmedtx888]

All these people talking about how Home has failed have never even played it; they probably don't even own a PS3.

madpuppy, I totally agree with you. 5 out of my 7 friends that own a 360 have had the RRoD, one of them has gone through 7 different Xbox 360s. By the time I was ready to by a Next gen console. 2 of my friends that have 360s had problems with them. That's why I decided to by a PS3 instead.

[MakoXL]

Home is fun to pop in once and awhile. Once more spaces release with games within them it'll be great. I'm looking forward to EA's space with the poker and whatnot.

[Z501]

RROD

First next gen console on the market, and they start dying within the first month.
Fast forward 3 years later. They're still dying.

Sometimes denial is really sad.

[itsalive]

if you live in a world where building a reliable network with an extensible/adaptable/evolving/ growing 3D environment software solution (again reliable) occurs in a version 1 release. I'm sure in this world, all 1.0 releases are perfect also, and require nothing further.

In my admittedly demented world however, Home cannot be measured in this manner. If Sony didn't believe in home, then yes, they could release it the way it was, make it pretty, dump a lot of crap in there and have everyone go play in it. And it would die miserably in a couple of months. If however you have a vision of something more for Home, then you take the time to get it right. You build the best network infrastructure you can. You then design your software solution (Home) in a manner that MUST be extensible, and allows for a viable non destructive (you won't loose what you have) method of growth and change. All in a 3D environment.

Home is a growing/evolving dynamic environment, and anyone that views it as easy to do something like this in a 1.0 release, has set their expectations a little high. If the network is not reliable with Home sitting atop it, or if Home doesn't have all the necessary hooks in place to allow for future growth and expansion to meet FUTURE needs, it will crumble under it's own weight. So far Sony has introduced Home slowly, in small steps, which to me says they are 'proofing' the Home architecture and are optimizing as need be. Once they have solidified the architecture, you start to introduce more content. Which is what they are now doing. Once the mechanism for the addition of content is proved to be reliable, meaning Home doesn't crash and people are not loosing data/content etc, you will probably see more than the 3 areas per month. As some Sony speaker had said a couple months ago, Home will always be in beta.
And to be honest, there is no other way of doing home. It has to be done live, even with all the risks that doing so entails. Because there is just no other way of proving a system works as desired, unless you put it out there in the REAL world. No testing systems will ever match perfectly the real system. So no Home is not a failure. At least in a world where expectations are within reason.

[dash--]

Home is starting to take off. I wouldn't say it's the biggest disappointment the gen though. IMO my biggest disappointment this gen is when I got my xbox 360 ,2wks later I got the RROD.

[XDF]

It is pointless in a gaming console. If I want to play a game or d/l games, movies, demos, etc...Why do I need Home?

I try it for like a week and haven't touch it since. Common, paying for a virtua Sofa is a rip off.

Biggest disapointment??? Morganfell, he is the leader of the N4G PS3 support group movement.

As expected, RROD is bought in into the conversation, even though we are talking about HOME....LMFAO...N4G never fails.

[madpuppy]

If the article said that Home was a disappointment and left it at that then we could argue just the merits of Home, because the article stated that it was the BIGGEST disappointment of THIS generation, That made it fair game to point out something that is FAR MORE disappointing than some piece of software that you could use or not use as opposed to The COMPLETE and continuous HARDWARE FAILURE of a 4 year old console.

[cliffbo]

for fuq sake people. HOME will live up to expectation in the same way that PSN finally did and PS3 finally did. stop thinking things should be exactly what you want in the first few months. HOME is going to be around for 20 years or more

[XDF]

HOME foreclosure is what I see coming. It is a gimmick at best and not needed for gaming period.

[Figboy]

when it launched, but it met my expectations (which was pretty much limited to a 3D chat room in my mind).

the fact that it's improving on a monthly basis was a no-brainer to anyone who doesn't suffer from "knee-jerk reaction syndrome" *cough*kotaku*cough*joystiq*co ugh*

HOME is what it is, and as the community grows and makes it's opinions known, the feature set will improve and cater more and more to gamer's tastes. this has been obvious from the start.

did people actually think HOME would have you jacking into the Matrix or something? that's so 2001...

[commodore64]

Short answer: no.

Long answer: definitely NO.

[PirateThom]

If anybody even had the faintest idea what Home was, it would have damn exceeded all expectations.

It's a place to meet like minded gamers to play games with, nothing more. Everything else, the games, Xi, trailers, it's all just additional content to bring more people into it, but it's still a 3D chat room.

Anyone who is "disappointed" by it, must have been expecting something different to what was being offered.