Joystiq hands-on: PlayStation Home
by Ross Miller 
{ Jul 13th 2007 at 7:30PM }
We first started out in our apartment, which was pretty barren except for a few pieces of furniture and a picture frame. We first grabbed the highlighted the couch and moved it high up into the air, rotated a few times, and dropped it (none of this is actually done by your avatar, mind you). It didn't break, but it did bounce slightly and land on its side. We sat down on another couch, but there's nothing else you can really do with it. We can reportedly expand our apartment size later -- for a price, of course.
After we sifted through a library of images to put in the wall frame, we activated our in-game PSP and viewed the options. You can teleport to the popular locations -- lobby, game room, theater -- as well as any of your friend's apartments if they are home. Calling your friends is also available, as are invites to your place. At this point, the front door in the apartment was locked and unusable, so we instead teleported down to the lobby.
Gallery: PlayStation Home
As previously discussed, each instance of the lobby is limited at 64 people. A Sony representative said that there you will be able to teleport to wherever your friends are to locate them. Since we were the only person in the lobby, the area ran smoothly. This lobby is not like what you've previously seen and has yet to be rolled out to the masses, but it looks good. The area is brightly lit and wide open. There's a few chess boards in the middle, and each of the three other areas (lobby, game room, theater) are easily accessible. We were told that frisbees could be brought here and thrown with other people, but we weren't given any elaboration on how (or why we'd want to, for that matter).
The rep told us we won't be able to add or alter anything to the lobby ourselves due to it being a public placement. The public theater we feel also suffers from this issue, as we can enter the theater to watch a film but have no option to join a chat room and talk to others. Sure, most of it will be garbage, but what about riffing with a fellow stranger on a crappy trailer we stumbled in on? Sony reminded us at this point that, should we want to have a Rocky Horror Picture Show party with crowd participation, we could do so in our apartments. But we won't have many costume choices, of course.
On a positive note, we were told that in our apartments, we will be able to watch anything we want that's on our console's hard drive. Yes, anything, since it's a private location. Public theaters will serve their purpose to watch the latest trailers, and there is discussion about have premium content, such as feature-length movies, in the future. If that's the case, we hope there's an option to remove the aesthetic movie curtain that takes up 20% of our television screen while in the theater.
The game room is modeled after a bowling alley. There was a trailer for God of War II streaming, which was a nice touch. We saw bowling an arcade machines, and two other avatars actually in the room. Wow, (virtual) life! We tested out a few of the arcade games, nothing special, and headed back out to the lobby.
What's missing from our impressions is interaction with other people, which is key to Home's success. From a technological standpoint it looks good, but we're going to have to reserve final judgment until we see what the community can do. Home is still planned for a launch later this year.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Vince UK @ Jul 13th 2007 7:36PM
Cheer up.
Fernando Rocker @ Jul 13th 2007 7:38PM
You skiped Metroid Prime 3, but not Home... mmm...
Heres the IGN Metroid Prime 3 Hands On...
http://wii.ign.com/articles/803/803978p1.html
The best console FPS control scheme... ever, really... according to IGN.
BulletToothTony @ Jul 13th 2007 7:38PM
the main thing about home, for me at least (beta tester) has been, to meet people.. i have made some good friends and play with them later on, then you can trash talk cause you already know who they are..
the idea is not to walk around but to meet people, which home does great..
it might not be a system seller but it sure offers something great.. that way you don't only talk to people during them 5 mins of gameplay.. but during those 20 mins of bowling or whatever.. it's great.. everytime i log on, i have a good time
Evan @ Jul 13th 2007 9:10PM
So Home is about meeting people. But Sony throws you into a lobby with 64 semi-random people. If you can't express yourself through cosplay, and you can't customize any part of the public world, then how can you identify strangers who have compatible interests?
Jitty @ Jul 13th 2007 9:20PM
Evan, lobby is specifically for meeting semi random people. If you wanted to actually talk or play with someone on your friends list, you could simply invite them to your home or maybe in the lobby that you're in.
"If you can't express yourself through cosplay, and you can't customize any part of the public world, then how can you identify strangers who have compatible interests?"
That's simple; dress up any way you want to! If you love ratchet and clank and consider yourself a silly person you can wear the same getup that phil had during sony's E3 in home and do the same dance. Just like in real life what you wear and look like can be used to express yourself. Same with home. There's many different things you can look like and wear. Or if all else fails; simply just try talking to them?
Vince UK @ Jul 13th 2007 7:42PM
Fanboy spam Fernando, think!
required @ Jul 13th 2007 7:48PM
Fernandroid
Fernando Rocker @ Jul 13th 2007 7:50PM
jaja... nice... a plus for you (really)
I love Metroid, since the first Metroid, to Metroid Prime... so many memories.
eldee @ Jul 13th 2007 8:00PM
okay.. so you like metroid. What does this have to do with Home (ie: not a metroid game). You realize by spamming your garbage everywhere you give 'nintendo fanboys' everywhere a bad rap.
On topic: This 'game' looks like a waste of cell cycles. What's the difference between meeting someone's fake online avatar who can sit on your couch versus their in-game avatar in whatever else game you're playing. Whichever way you slice it, you're still not 'meeting' people in the traditional means, so it shouldn't matter if your new buddy KrakaKilla420 looks like Tony Hawk or master chief.
IceReign @ Jul 13th 2007 7:51PM
Anything when open beta is coming out?
MosquitoControl @ Jul 13th 2007 7:51PM
Sounds... dull and pointless.
A dollhouse for adults.
Like Animal Crossing, but multiplayer and with far, far less to do. Some of which involves spending money.
I know I'm alone in thinking Animal Crossing was very dull, though. This seems worse. Like the game all those Barbie games should have been.
required @ Jul 13th 2007 7:59PM
"a dollhouse for adults"
such a metaphor is applicable to video games in general, like sandbox or playground
eldee @ Jul 13th 2007 8:03PM
Yeah, but a 'dollhouse' is a better definition because it makes it sound more juvenile, which it is. If you get entertainment value out of having virtual teaparties with your online buddies, then "dollhouse" applies. Playing GI Joe in my back yard as a kid didn't quite test the reflexes like a game of Halo or Battlefield does.
WedgeTalon @ Jul 14th 2007 8:25AM
You're not. I too found AC to be quite boring with little to nothing to do. As you said, Home sounds like it has even less.
required @ Jul 13th 2007 7:52PM
I like BulletToothTon's mini preview. Ross Miller sounds really lonely.
Fernando Rocker @ Jul 13th 2007 8:04PM
@eldee
Sorry :(
required @ Jul 13th 2007 8:10PM
eldee playing a game of Halo or Battlefield is as puerile as playing GI Joe in your back yard.
John H. @ Jul 13th 2007 8:22PM
After Second Life, Playstation Home sounds incredibly bland and uninteresting, done over by the marketing department. I mean, wow. Someone should tell Sony that they'll only be able to sell virtual accessories if the service they're accessories is interesting to begin with.
Jitty @ Jul 13th 2007 9:23PM
Counter to what you think, many, many people are interested in home. Especially people who have the beta and own a ps3 ;)
razer @ Jul 13th 2007 8:34PM
I agree.. Looks boring..
But I'm not going to knock Sony for trying to do something different with the online experience. Something both MS (I know surprising since they own with XBL) and Nintendo could learn from. I would love just to have options like Sony is presenting, you don't have to use HOME if you don't want too but it's there and it's a nice bullet point on the sales sheet. With Xbox it's like checking into Nazi Germany with it's locked down interface where the only thing changing are the ad's they spew all over your dashboard. Ah, but for a nickel and a dime(MS are masters of milking) you can change a background or a 16x16 gamerpic. I love the Xbox 360, but the more Sony talks the more people are listening. Lately it seems Sony is "innovating" while MS is busy filling bags with money.
deppo @ Jul 15th 2007 7:36PM
so you have been to nazi germany lately, huh?
damn it. that is so stupid (comparing xbox360 dashboard with nazi germany). i just do not get it.
what are you? the wanker king?
yes, i am 360-fanboy.
but home looks interesting. period.
i believe a lot of people will like it.
although it is pointless despite showing cell/BE power.
360 dashboard is very straight forward and i like that.
but as i said, home will have a lot of fans.
with kind regards,
deppo
Neebs @ Jul 13th 2007 8:32PM
Are you playing Riiiidge Racer?
Nomi @ Jul 13th 2007 8:33PM
Home should offer some kind of chat room. Chat rooms are really popular and it would be nice to have avatars talking, all at the same time, much like chat rooms.
CJ @ Jul 13th 2007 8:48PM
Home has got to be one of the dumbest things ive ever seen. I cant believe anyone would actually get into that . What the hell is the point of it? People by a gaming system mainly for games. Additional stuff like downloadable movies and shows is one thing, but Home is the lamest, loserest thing I have seen yet. Sony is getting very desperate. They are trying to copy the 360 with the PS store and trying to add movies and such, and will never be able to compete. Theyre online is just horrible.
Jitty @ Jul 13th 2007 9:28PM
Are you ignorant? One of the biggest points of home is that you can join basically any multiplayer game with your friends right from home. Meet up with your friends in home, talk, and go right to a resistance deathmatch with the them from home. Doesn't sound dumb to me...
Negativecool @ Jul 13th 2007 8:47PM
Question:
Are there any plans to be able to watch FULL movies at the movie theatre, or just previews? I think that'd be kinda cool...sans the aforementioned curtain and instead having the picture fitting your screen. I suppose streaming anything but full movies in SD would be pretty taxing?
Herby @ Jul 13th 2007 9:36PM
I don't know what version of Home he was playing but you can chat all you want in the theater and anywhere else for that matter. You don't have to join you can just type and everyone in the vicinity reads it. And voice chat works the same way.
PhoenixSS @ Jul 13th 2007 9:18PM
Can you say Second life? This sounds lame as all hell. (and I'm a Sony fan at heart.)
hiberphoptik @ Jul 14th 2007 10:06AM
uhm... what is with all the people compairing this to 2nd life? have any of you actually tried to PLAY second life??? Second life is like something that was made in 1995 it looks like junk and it plays like junk.. in fact IMHO it is totally unplayable unless you like slow buggy "games"
I'm fairly sure that everyone knocking Home is a 360 fanboy wanting to say something negative because they don't get all these features with their xbox live account, or just trying to jump on any negative bandwagon they can find.. what it all boils down to is: if you don't want to use it, then don't use it.
Tom @ Jul 13th 2007 9:33PM
It would be nice to have an adventure aspect to it. Like maybe you could go offline into islands with puzzles and enemies (some friends could join you, help complete objectives, etc.) and from that you could win items like a big TV or a bigger house or something. I like the idea of Trophies, but only if you can display the trophies somewhere people will actually see them, like glued onto the outside of your house hehehe. Anyways, I've never played it. Any beta testers care to comment? Is there anything kinda like what I just mentioned?
Matt B @ Jul 13th 2007 9:36PM
It's a GUI of an IM. A graphical representation of your buddy list with areas to meet new people to play games with. You guys are looking at it like it is a place to HANG OUT. It is a place to go to see what your buddies are doing, and gaming from there whether it be games in home or launching to a game from home. Don't look at it as a stand alone App.
Home can be the killer app if implemented right IMO
Shagittarius @ Jul 13th 2007 10:38PM
The thing everyone keeps leaving out about home is that your apartment serves as a place to display your achievments...furniture, pictures, trophy, animated pets etc...can all be won instead of just points like Microsoft uses. To me this is the coolest thing about home.
Fuego3048 @ Jul 13th 2007 11:29PM
Home looks like it could be sweet if it's done right! Is it just me or did Sony forget to tell the developers to add in the new PSP??? LOL
Omega2k3 @ Jul 13th 2007 11:09PM
Everyone keeps comparing Home to Second Life, but it looks more like There. The similarities to SL are only slight, while the similarities to There are glaring. (Also, There came first, so compare it to the original, you noobs.)
Juste Belmont @ Jul 13th 2007 11:50PM
Home is stupid. Sony going to milk so many people with this shit. Virtual Gap, Nike, Starbucks, Old Navy, Borders, Adidas, SamAsh, Ikea, etc, etc, etc
No thanks, i'll pass. My money will stay in my pocket.
hiberphoptik @ Jul 14th 2007 10:09AM
money? its free dude...
of course if you don't have a ps3 then you have nothing to fear anyway since Home is no reason to spend money on a ps3
russ @ Jul 14th 2007 12:12AM
Yet still so little information on how it integrates with the GAMES!!!
Cross-game invites? Can we go directly from Home, agree to play a game, and the system takes us all straight to one lobby? Can we go the other way, all from one lobby to one room in home?
Can we text or chat message from within a game back to home? Can we be in home and send an invite to a friend who is already playing a game, and then accept or decline it?
I fear that this will be pointless, like playing an MMO before going through the same old fuss of finding your friends in a lobby. It's so hard on PS3 to play against your friends. I usually have to phone them.
Cuja @ Jul 14th 2007 12:46AM
People who have no life now have a Home. Time consuming waste with no play value. They created this so people would fumble through this before they actually play online. That way the game doesn't lag as bad.
V1L3 @ Jul 14th 2007 12:59AM
I think a lot of people are underestimating the potential of Home.
Don't you think it'd be cool to have a massive Joystiq-themed apartment with Joystiq logos on the walls, several TVs playing interviews, etc.. And you can just roll on in, meet and chat with other Joystiqers and then launch into a multiplayer game with them on the spot?
Tom @ Jul 14th 2007 1:44AM
ooooo what if you could watch what your friends are playing?
you go to the theater and it's showing multiplayer RFOM through your friend Bob's perspective
go over to a TV, watch Joe playing Motorstorm, change the channel, and there's Alex getting his ass kicked playing Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. You've already beaten it, so you put on your headset and give him a few pointers along the way. change back to Joe's channel and press Triangle to join his game.
Murry @ Jul 14th 2007 5:08AM
Seeing as Home sold a few of my friends on getting a PS3, I guess it is a system seller afterall O.O
don_sf @ Jul 14th 2007 7:57AM
its kind of interesting what this could become.
sony are a movie company, so this theatre aspect is something i expect them to take full advantage over. xbox 360 is doing some sort of live movie streaming i here. so sony should be looking to do this.
you meet up with your friends and then all of you watch the same movie together. or you could buy movies for instance, there would be a blockbuster store.
i fear that this will all come at a cost one day, they obviously want to expand this in the future - costing them more money.
as far as entertainment goes, ps3 looks to be the best. you have your 5.1 (or 7.1) surround sound hooked up, you can setup streaming from your computer to play all those gbs of music.
sony could also easily launch a tv streaming service on home, so if they have the rights to tv stations then really all you need is a tv and ps3.
Sonic_extreme @ Jul 14th 2007 7:32PM
I feer that home will be a place that will get dumb. I mean Come on after the initial AWWW of people going oh wow we can do this. Then what.? Oh wait Since I am not in Home I can't cross talk. I can cross talk from a dashboard or any other game I want in Live. I have been able to stream music for any game I want since nov of 05, And yes you can even stream music using regular xbox games. I can stream movies that I download on my pc and play them whenever I want. I even rip my dvds to mpgs and stream that too. I am sorry but streaming a movie with a bunch of friends to view online sounds umm rather dumb (gay) if you ask me. I can already see it now. Friend number 2 saying hey rewind that part I didn't see a thing due to it breaking up. Remember not everyone has the same provider nor speed. Home it's a nice concept at first but after A while I have a feeling it will be like MEH. Just my opinion.