Microsoft says Sony 'underestimated' Home challenges

Microsoft, please butt out.
Sony, just continue working on Home so that Microsoft can FINALLY start bashing your ass normally when it comes out.

Why is it the UK bosses of Xbox and Sony are always the most talkative?

Breaking news: Competing companies don't like each other!

Why do people care so much? The thing is delayed a couple months to put more stuff in the final product...big deal. PS3 owners will still get a chance to play around with the beta in late November/December and they'll just have incremental updates until the final version is released which won't be a big deal because everyone will have already downloaded the thing. They've said it hundreds of times before, they want to have a beta program like Gmail; they just call things beta until they have a finished product but consumers will act as the beta testers. It's not that serious because the thing is free which is more than any other console can claim. I don't see Microsoft or Nintendo giving this level of programming away for free. The thing has games built-in that systems would happily charge you $5 each to play. People are just really sad when they try to make a delay of a FREE product sound like the end of the world.

Here is why home as a matchmaking thing is kinda weak in my opinion.
I log on, find my friends, then I interact with them a bit, we shoot the shit, and decide what game we want to play. Only, not everyone wants to play or owns that game, and some people just want to screw off in the home area... Then I have to get up and put the game in anyway, and then still change games out... It would be cooler if I could run any game I have, sorta like gamespy or something.

Live's thing is a lot better because you look up your friends and see who is playing what, and join the appropriate game... That is unless I have it wrong how it works.

I mean the virtual world part sounds awesome, but the matchmaking, not so much.

And one thing about live... What ever happened to the user generated content on the marketplace that was bandied about before 360 was launched? MS should get that shit working before commenting on home.

I was a bit disappointed with the first beta version, but the latest update really changed things. They're quite actively listening to various suggestions and complaints, and more importantly, making improvements.

In the roadmaps themselves, though, it's explained that features might actually being given on a region basis; localization might be a factor they didn't really consider given the universal nature of Home.

I didn't realize those in the beta were so exclusive, though. Makes me feel all fuzzy.

Microsoft: Why don't you just take care of your own business?

This is childish and stupid.

I believe the disappointment from the MS side is that you cannot compete with something that isn't really real yet. Sony made this grand announcement about Home and gained a lot of mindshare but when it comes to actually making it a reality they faced some serious problems. MS probably already knew that such a project will cost big and getting it right the first time probably will not happen.

Also with the cost of the PS3 and development on Home, I really cannot see how this can be free. Even if you have advertisements within Home, I am sure the advertisers will not pay just to have a spot unless the install base increase big time. Also it's worth nothing for the Advertisers if no one visits their spot. Home will first have to succeeded on it's own merits before Sony see any money from advertisers.

For such a ambitious plan, with millions of users streaming all kinds of content, you can believe that Home is costing Sony big time and it’s still a big risk. If the service does not kick off, it could squander and then be a money waste instead of the opposite.

Thank God for the ten year life span, that should give Sony enough time to get Home up and running.

I think Home as a whole sounds great and I hope it addresses alot of the concerns I have for Sony's online service. I think its bad that it is taking so long as really Sony was promising there big online solution at launch and really they have missed that mark quite a bit. As well I dont think Home itself addresses many of the issues with the service but really Home isn't needed for many of those. Sony needs to come forward and make some standards that games can start adhering to, it can be hard to add some features if system resourse are not reserved for those purposes.

Things I want to see addresses (I dont think Home is needed to fix) are ways to see the friends list via XMB in all games(I think I have heard they are working on this) and chat with them and also some nice invite features for said games. And also a Unified setup for text and or voice communications in games. And maybe some better match making.

As it is now every thing a game does online has to be done by the developer. This isnt neccessarily bad really its what we had last gen forever(other than xbox) and on the PC. So far the developers have done a great job working with what they have though.

I am concerned how well games launch from Home, it really needs to be able to load quickly from the Home lobby and potentially go back to the Home lobby between matches etc and not be so encumbersome that you bypass Home all together.

I do think that MS does have a little ground to say this cause at the announcement of PS3 Sony was saying we will do everything you do for free that MS does and they have yet to completely deliver on that. MS has set a standard that is being immitated, see the new Steam buddy system and Gamespy Comrade. I really hope Sony can pull off a great online service might twist MS arm to giving more of the service for free online play for silver accounts would be nice.

Lol....

I like the PS3, I must be crazy no?

Funny, you guys complain about the SDF, but all I'm seeing is the NDF and MDF on Joystiq, WTF? Don't you have games to play with your superior consoles?

You'd think if the PS3 is so horrible, this place would be full of PS3 fanboys but nooooo, just Wiitards and Xbots.

Something like home takes time, you can't just come up with an idea, and BANG, its done and its superb, very few developers can do that, look what happens to most of them...they...well...I dunno, thats the point, they are unheard of because their games are rushed and unplayable.

Home has potential but, unless Sony pulls it off correctly like many people are hoping, we can only sit back and hope, thats it.

And Microsoft underestimated what it takes to build a dependable game console that doesn't die after a brief lifespan.

no, it won't be everything Sony is hoping it'll be and it's their own fault for backing themselves into this corner. they don't have the slightest clue as to what they've gotten themselves into with "Home".

Sony has zero experience in a project of this size and scope but because no one's buying their console, they looked at what's been driving the 360's success (Live) and decided "hey, we can do that too...but better." So instead of focusing on the ps3's real problems: high price, poor library and uh, high price they panicked and announced Home back in March. And don't believe that bullshit about how it's been in development since '05. That's what they're telling their stockholders to keep them from jumping ship. I just hope that when it does finally launch it's at least a good enough to keep ps3 owners from killing themselves.

"Sony has zero experience in a project of this size"

Look up SOE in wiki or whatever.

It does suck that HOME will be delayed? but I would rather it be delayed and great..than rushed and sucky

Like, uh, dude, like look up 'how to formulate a proper argument' "on wiki or whatever."

For some reason I enjoy it when the different console manufacturers talk smack to eachother. This is one of the few industries where not only the consumers, but also the corporate talking heads get all up in eachother's business.

Village of the Damn. This isn't close to being ready. Maybe two years at the earliest. Home needs to be as humanly of a world as possible. Emotions, behaviors and expressions need to be a part of this world for it to be real. Anything less would be a major disappointment.

and why didn't Sony wait a year before rolling out the PS3? They were insecure about blu-ray, and thought if they get this high as hell priced console out that everyone would be early adopters...

sheez.. they could of waited a year, worked out the kinks of the Ps3,Home, dev kits, etc, and slashed the PS2 price to fight back the Wii.

for all your Sony lovers, that should show you where Sony's brain and heart is... not games first, that's for sure

Sony will keep the relese on schedule, I can guarantee that. Home is too high profile a counter to the Xbox Live system for them to delay it any longer. The PS3 is making no headway into the 360's unit lead and they'll need something like this to show developers the PS3 is at least catching up. If they don't, the PS3 will just lose more support and thus will have fewer sales.

Because we're looking at a console generation that is online by default, the "release now, patch later" mentality that has infected the PC market over a decade ago will move right on into the console market. Home will be released this November (along with another price cut and more fiddled with PS3 specs, further making us wonder if we should continue to wait while Sony gives away more freebies) in a highly buggy state and will sit through over a year of patching before it becomes somewhat stable. Think Xbox Live - The Early Years (starring Fred Savage). It will take even longer before Home can even stand on equal footing with Live, mainly because Live has been around longer and was developed by a company that knows networks. Sony is doing something well beyond the scope of their programming expertise, so don't expect anything amazing for a while. Once the experience is built up, I expect Home to do some great things, but probably not until the next generation of consoles rolls in.

Delay...Station...Three

Well, has Microsoft done anything like this? Not to my knowledge. And I can see that Sony is constantly making the online system better with each update. Soon, as in maybe 6 months, it'll be good as Xbox Live while being free.