Network now...NEWS
Reeves: Home Is "On Track"
Sony's PlayStation Home has been a long time coming. Originally introduced in early 2007, Sony said that it would release by the end of that year.
But as we cross the midpoint of 2008, PS3's virtual world has yet to arrive, suffering from multiple delays.
SCEE president David Reeves gave videogaming247 a status report at Leipzig GC Last week: “The closed beta has been expanding, the open beta will come in autumn. It will be announced by the Home Group, either in London or Tokyo. I don’t know when exactly, but they are in control of it. We’ve got more third parties on board, and as far as I know it’s all on track."
Home skipped out on a Leipzig GC appearance, with Reeves saying, “The reason is that [there] was nothing new to say. Everything is absolutely on track. I can look you in the eyes and tell you everything is on track."
Home producer Martijn Van der Meulen also told IGN that the project is going according to plan, and will launch by year-end.
Sigh. Sony has disappointed too often with new features for their products for me to take them seriously at this point. PSP camera anyone???
" I can look you in the eyes and tell you everything is on track."
Excellent. Good to know that the end of 2007 is just around the corner because, as stated, everything is on track.
I want to see this thing already!
I hope it's cool.
whether or not Home is released before M$'s Fall update is irrelevant because they're two entirely different things. Home is an entire virtual world/service whereas the fall update is basically just an upgraded GUI, not nearly as diverse or complex. so it won't have any negative effect on Sony if M$ get's out of the gate first. in fact, the only reason they're releasing it in the fall as opposed to now, i think, is because it'll conveniently give M$ something to plug to potential customers come this holiday season which is understandable.
what would be bad for Sony however is Home being delayed into 'early next year', missing a golden opportunity to make a huge splash during the holiday season. and by bad, i mean catastrophic.
Nice description but I already know what Home and the MS Avatar system are since I've had first hand experience with them both. The problem in my opinion is perception. Both platforms will have an avatar system that you'll be able to be social with and that's how most people will probably view it. My question is who will get there first and how it will affect each other. Also, I don't see the holiday being a factor for release since the product is more than likely a free download and they missed even last Christmas holiday. There are always more Christmas seasons...
so your worried that people, who aren't so informed, won't be able to tell the difference between the two? or that they won't care so long as they both have 'avatars' that'll be able to interact with others? ah,i got it.
yea, no question. there's a slim chance that M$'s little update (i own a 360) could steal some of Home's thunder in that regard but not to the point where you'll see Sony panic and make any changes or be negatively impacted. the fall update and Home are too dissimilar to have any consequential influence on each other. so it won't matter who launches first so long as both are up and running, full steam, by Xmas to impress the holiday shoppers. that's the real question keeping the Sony programmers up in the middle of the night; will the launch be smooth or will it start bricking consoles a day later? christ, you talk about pressure... but if i had to pick, i'd say the fall update comes first because MS is already well-experienced in uploading dashboard updates and it's nowhere near as complex as what Sony's trying to deliver.
having Home available during this holiday season as oppose to any other spot on the calendar is a no-brainer. Home, unlike the fall update, will actually help sell consoles this Xmas as it'll finally give Sony a real counter to Live. it'll be a huge selling point for them and you can bet on Sony constantly reminding everyone.
Only time will tell. If Home is not released before Microsoft's Avatar's (new dash update) this will look bad.