The State of PlayStation Home

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Hi Home Community,

As many of you know, 2009 was a big year for PlayStation Home. The millions of you that use PlayStation Home saw us transform from a 3D virtual world into a true social gaming platform with more than 50 spaces and over 100 games. One of the biggest highlights of the year was the launch of the popular Sodium One space, which has redefined what a social game can be by combining massive action, stunning graphics and social experiences in a way never done before. PlayStation Home has become a leader in the evolution of social games from simple 2D web games to immersive high-definition 3D experiences made possible by the tremendous horsepower of the PlayStation 3.

Home Sodium Store

As we start the new year, we are not slowing down. We are adding new spaces, community events and virtual items each and every week, with many of these updates based directly on your feedback. Last week marked an important milestone in our evolution with a new iteration of the Mall, which was heavily influenced by our community’s request to have a more streamlined shopping experience. The Mall now features stores from some of our closest partners, including Loot from Sony Pictures who brought us all of the awesome Ghostbusters gear, our friends at Lockwood – creators of Sodium, and of course EA Sports, who have been among the strongest supporters of PlayStation Home since the earliest days after launch. One new face to PlayStation Home is LucasArts, who brought both Star Wars and Indiana Jones to their new store in the PlayStation Home Mall. I for one will be rocking the Imperial Stormtrooper outfit for the foreseeable future.

Home EA Store Home LucasArts Store

Home Exclusives Store Home Loot Store

PlayStation Home is based on a “freemium” model, which allows you, our community to play games, meet friends, explore and discover rewards – all for free. In addition, there are opportunities to personalize your experience with virtual items that allow you to stand out from the crowd, or even play your favorite games in PlayStation Home better (thank you Stomper Boots!) Whether you buy virtual items or just play games and hang out, I would like to extend a huge “thank you” for your support from everyone on our team.

Home Team

With all that said, this is just the beginning of what we have in store for you. Many of our long time community members have been asking for features, fixes and content that we have been secretly hard at work on, and will be rolling out over time. Rest assured that we hear your requests loud and clear (I personally use Home and read the forums daily), and although we can’t deliver everything we’re asked for, we will compliment all of these new features and content with a renewed focus on open dialogue and service. Our Home Community Managers, along with myself, continue to work on addressing your questions regarding our direction for the next year, so stay tuned to the PlayStation Home forums for what is sure to be a lively conversation!

We have an incredible number of new surprises ahead, so if you’re not already a member of the PlayStation Home community, there has never been a better time to jump in and experience all of the fun.

Thank you Home Community. Keep being awesome.

Best,

Jack

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201 Comments

7 Author Replies

  • Hi, now that I hopefully might be able to finally communicate with a Home official, I’ll leave my biggest complain here.

    Home is great, but it is not streamlined with the XMB at all. It takes like 5-10 minutes to just start it. Insert some integration, like being able to use your Home avatar as PSN avatar. Right now, Home is so shut down from the rest of the PS3 features.

    Thank you.

  • A BIG Thank you,
    I have been a daily user of Home for almost a year, And a some what daily poster on the forums. This is the first time upper management has even stepped up to give us some feedback. I may be wrong, But it’s the first iv’e seen. Please oh Please keep it up, On the blogs and the Home forums.
    Again Thank You Jack.

    signed oldcatsrock

  • Thanks for the info – its nice to hear from those who actually can give us true information – and not hear-say.
    Looking forward to all that Home has to offer us in the near/far future.
    Personally – I am on it every day – sheesh
    JPConway

  • Please bring back mic use in public places!!

  • Hope it’s not too late to expect a reply, but I was wondering about the trophy room we were shown way back when Home was first announced? I’ve got 699 trophies and I’d love to see how that would look in a massive room. :)

  • Sounds like Home is getting some great new content. I wish I could purchase a pool table and chess board for my apartment…or can I ? I haven’t been on Home in awhile so I don’t know if I can. Also I wish we could buy TVs and stereos to play our own videos and music to share with others in our apartments…that’ld be sick. Also, there needs to be a video chat option when users are in apartments…not sure how it’d work but it’s just an idea.

  • The thing is, for Home to work, you hav to be able to personalise everything about your space. Therefore having the option to select personal photos and put them in a photo-frame as promised when Home was announced. Also, there needs to be the inclusion of TV screens and more free content like TV’s and furniture. Obviously, there still needs to be items that the user has to buy in order to keep the service going, but the fact is there needs to be something that makes the user want to return to Home.

    Put it this way, Home needs to be like a virtual Facebook where users share their content with everyone else(videos, photos and music etc.)

    Also, the voice chat option is one that needs to come back as it kind of defeats the object of a gaming community if they can’t talk to each other and with sufficient moderators the word will soon get round that you can’t use abusive or offensive language when they are getting banned.

  • I think playstation home should have some offline access. Any chance of this happening? I know its a social online network but, it would cool to do something right out of the box for new customers and current users especially those who dont go online yet. You could still show it off to family and friends and tell them you could take your avatar online too. What do you think?

  • I’d really like to see better clubhouse support with future updates. That’s the only thing I’d use in Home. I tried it out a few months ago, but the features were still lacking.

  • Thank You for this info. I am a huge supported of home spent an untold number of hours in there doing things and giving tours to my friends who have never used it before and are now spending hours in it themselves. I know we have “Universal Launching” but not “Party Launching”. Is it completely up to the development houses to implement that into the games or is it something that “home” can do?

    Keep up the good work and keep the spaces flowing into our systems.

  • Thanks Buser!

  • Hi. I bought my PS3 two weeks ago, after my X360 got RROD. Well I really like it “The Home Experience” is great need some fixes like “Trade Mode” (buy, sell or exchange stuff we buy between players) maybe this topic was discusss before but I guess is important.

    ..I have some critices about PS3`s crossbar comparing Xlive but “Home” is awesome, i spend more time there that playing

  • You guys really need to fix the loading. THE MORE YOU USE HOME THE LONGER IT TAKES TO BOOT UP!

    9/10 of the time I log in now, the server disconnects me EVEN IF I’M IN MY PRIVATE SPACE because it takes FOREVER to verify the content.

    While we’re at it: Nippon-Ichi Space with Disgaea 3 shirts for FREE, please.

    FREE HOME ITEMS PLEASE. I shouldn’t have to take advantage of a pricing error to get some content to change the long-stale default containers/tables/etc.

    AND PUT THOSE FREE ITEMS (noteable: Resistance Retribution/Biohazard, Resident Evil shirts) in a FREE item square in the stores. It makes finding them EASIER. WHY CAN JAPAN DO THIS BUT YOU GUYS (with more content) CAN’T?

  • I think there should be more Home Spaces from Loot. They are the only ones who actually include a lot of furniture when you purchase a Home Space. I have seen no other spaces except the ones from Loot that do that (the stage set & Ghostbusters spaces for example). I think EVERY Home Space should be bundled with a set of furniture (but this also SHOULDN’T raise the price of the home space).

    Basically, all Home Spaces shouldn’t be above $4.99, they should all come with a set of furniture, and if they want they can make a different set of furniture to purchase separately. I think more people might actually buy Home Spaces that way. I mean I am sure the Home Spaces from Loot are the best selling ones, right?

  • They should block non American IP Addresses from using Home, and all of the features of the American PSN for that matter!

  • I have been talking to a few of my buds on home. we all think it would be cool if their was a gifting system in the home stores… where you can purchase an item to gift to another user. Is there or have there been any plans on that.

  • Manchester United tshirt please , and to Jeff , Chris , Grace or anybody get the Uefa Champions League rights and put those games in HD on PSN

  • Are we ever going to get that trophy room?

  • I don’t understand the business model of PS Home. Understandably, it’s a way to sell merch to people with interest in spending money to make their in game avatars look different. However, given it’s supposed integration with the ps3 game base, I think it would make more sense to offer items at both a monetary price and also an achievement based points price. An example would be to give a set point amount to gamers based on trophies (1 for bronze, 5 for silver, 10 for gold, 25 for platinum.. etc). This would be a huge incentive for all ps3 gamers to, not only use PS Home, but also to purchase more games in order to earn these trophies.

    If PS Home is in itself a separate project and wouldn’t see recognized income from increased game sales, you could always subsidize the loss of micro transaction money with advertising, especially given the large increase in Home users you would have.

    Unfortunately, almost every independent ps3 based project I’ve seen Sony put out has been filled with potential but lacking in execution and PS Home is no exception. I believe the developers working for you are somewhat short-sighted.

  • Wow Home is the longest BETA ever and seems to be getting very boring to use…and @ 3 “You guys should have spent that money on keeping FFXIII, GTAIV, DMC4, and Tekken 6 secure.” this is BS, it isn’t up to Sony it is up to the publishers..

  • WILL HOME EVER COME OUT OF BETA?

    LOADING TAKES FOREVER, IT TAKES LIKE 10MIN FROM THE MOMENT YOU PRESS X TO START TO THE MOMENT YOU CAN CONTROL YOUR CHARACTER.

  • wow, what a notion; to actually communicate with your customers and the supporters of your product.

    While I want to make.believe what you say, I will hold my judgment until things actually start happening.

    I did believe in Home, long ago. Then I waited, and waited, and am still waiting for this great “SOCIAL COMMUNITY” that I keep hearing about. How can there be any kind of social community when I can’t even say “Hi” to my neighbor. I used Home more in the week it released (before public voice chat went bye bye) then I did this whole past year.

    Make Home integrated better with the XMB, reduce load times, and bring SOME form of public voice chat back.

  • Home lacks focus and as a result I have always felt awkward when using it.

    Given as the goals aren’t expressed clearly and it’s been in development for so long, I see no future for this being a viable attraction for potential customers.

  • Hey Jack, Since you’re an Obvious TRON Fan. When’s the Tron 1.0 and 2.0 space coming? Outfits and all? A Disc’s of tron mini game perhaps. Lightcycle game? Oh and yeah How about MY Idea for public voice chatting: http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/board/message?board.id=ps3home&thread.id=507767

  • Suggestions:

    – The loading times need to be hugely reduced if not completely eliminated

    – Home needs to be on in the background. You should be able to go to your apartment in a split second from the XMB

    – Public voice chat needs to return immediately

    – Home needs to be integrated properly with the Playstation 3. There is no incentive to really use it. It’s too much hard work.

  • Love Playstation Home Jack. The only thing that I don’t like about Playstation Home is that when I am talking to a group of my friends in a personal space with the headset you have to hold R2 to talk. Is it possible for the future to make voice chat on home without having to hold R2 like there is in a voice/video chat through the XMB menu?

  • Hi Jack.

    I really wish I saw this earlier but it’s been a real busy day. I just wanted to say that I’m encouraged with your comments relative to more communication with the home community. It is really important to let us know what is coming and how you all plan to address many of the issues that are on everyones mind. We want to be part of helping to mold what will be a killer application for the Playsation 3. :)

    So good to hear that you read the forums. I would be awesome to see you post there. Wow, now wouldn’t that rock the place! Woot!

    regards,
    Joanna

  • I said I’d try this once there was some kind of fashion show feature where you could easily see other peoples creations, or models or whatever they are called. Has that happened yet?

  • FunkyTable.

    You could check out the Ladies Fashion Runway and the Mens Fashion Runway over at Home General. We even have a thread that deals with Home and Decor Fashion.

  • You know what I don’t like about Home? that you have to wait in line to play arcade games. I understand having to do that for bowling and stuff, but I find it annoying to have to wait in line in a video game.

    I do enjoy it when I get a chance to play those games, though.

  • LE GOD OF WAR III PS3!!!

  • keep up the good work, Home is comin along nicely

  • ANNOUNCE IT!!!

  • I absolutely LOVE Home, use it almost every day and support the service by buying stuff. There are very few things I think are complaint worthy unlike so many other people. Some things people cry about are rediculous imo. Like did someone really say “we shouldn’t have to re-download spaces when you update them”? Wow. That’s facepalm worthy there. There are some things that need to be adressed though to make the service near perfect for my tastes.

    The initial boot-up is rediculous. People are comletely exaggerating that say it takes 10 minutes, but it does take 2-4 minutes from the time you hit X on the XMB to the time you can hit X to start signing in. That initial boot-up needs to be shortened by alot.

    Another is HDD music. I understand not being able to stream music into your personal space, I don’t care about that. But I should be able to use custom sountracks on my own, instead of listening to the tedious background music.

    My request is to NOT bring back open voice chat. Too many ignorant people abuse it by griefing and playing their lame music. What I DO want though, is private phone calls being able to include more than 1 other person. Like up to 6 people or so.

    Otherwise I truly love Home, thanks guys.

  • I would visit HOME more if it was quicker to load up. It takes nearly 4 minutes for me to get into HOME? Maybe it is my internet connection :D i’m not sure.

    It would be cool if when you start up your PS3, HOME would be ready? :)

  • Trophy Room! Where and when is that coming? Why is this widely popular question never answered?

  • Home NEEDS a Life size Chun-Li.

    ;)

  • A life size figure of Chun-Li … if that wasn’t clear ^_^

  • Just like PIZZA isn’t PIZZA without it’s sauce HOME isn’t HOME without open public voice chat, working TV’s and stereos and the trophy room. I’m afraid HOME will not go very far without
    such great features.

  • forgot to mention i need a whole separate account just to visit my friends Home, he lives in the UK and so do i for my Japanese friends, Damn make it were i don’t need new accounts to visit my friends home space..and Comeon how long has it been in BETA..and were are the features shown so long ago…yeah and were is the Trophy Room..

  • I’m really glad to hear there are some big things coming to home this year, but we have heard this in the past before…

    Please, if anything, help the homeless members. Members such as myself who were going to home often, bought items and spaces, won items too, have been homeless for months due to freezing at the start up window. L_S has offered suggests to fix this but none have helped, and I know for myself I made homeless after getting the Neptune suite when it first came out.

    I want to come back home – please fix the freezing issues.

  • why is it that none offensive words are banned I/E opposite because it has oppose in it it has to be banned..

  • Thank you for this amazing thing Jack! HOme is my favorite thing to do everyday. I use Home more than i play any of my other games. I’m usually on it 24/7. Hope to see you on the Home forums sometime. :D

  • Thanx for the update! I really appreciate it!

    I have an idea that I would like to toss around! I hope it gets implemented!

    The idea is to challenge random ppl in home in every space. I mean, you go to the mall and you can buy a challenge equipment. The equipment can be of many different things like star wars laser swords and out fit or tiger woods golf clubs or fight night boxing gloves and outfits. Then when you have this you go out and challenge ppl in HOME. When a challenge starts there will be a little arena that will be created around you two and ppl can watch you fight against each other. Ppl should also be able to bet on the winner. this betting money is called “HOME cash” or something cool and this can be used to get your reputation status up.

    just an idea and it would make HOME feel more alive and fun. Please respond!

  • How about make home available on the PSP :)

  • I deleted Home long ago. i did it to get my 3GB back and because it had no appeal for me. I want DA GAMES!!! thats why i bought a PS3 early, only to get short changed in the memory dept. Believe me, if i had the HD space id glady stroll around Home a little, but a transfer at this point is a hassle and of course $$$$$$

  • I love Home… In theory. it needs to be executed just soooo much better. i really want to launch (WITH MINIMAL TO NO LOAD TIME!!!!!!!) it and meet with a friend or 2, and launch a game, or go hang out (WATCH VIDEO STREAMED THROUGH VIRTUAL TV FROM HDD) together in my personal space…. WITH NO LOAD TIMES! the current load times are just ridiculous atm, and needs to be a smooth launch like the video chat. instantaniously!

    i know its in beta, but i cant stress any more, that IMPROVEMENT is NEEDED! because this is supposedly the matchmaking system of PS3.

  • no update on the trophy room? like whats keeping it from being unleashed…maybe some forumers could give helpful solutions?

  • Has there been any thoughts about upgrading the looks of Home avatars and integrating them into the XMB as to replace the PSN avatars?

  • by update I mean something along the looks of something like LBP or Modnation Racers avatars or just a better looking PS Home, but then again that’s what I would prefer

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