What's Sony up to? Community websites abound!

Though Phil "Game 3.0" Harrison may have moved onto green ... err, different pastures, his flock of PlayStation 3 developers haven't forgotten his lessons. After taking a handful of upcoming PlayStation games out for a spin last Friday during Sony's Pre-E3 Judge's Event in LA, I noticed a recurring phrase in my notebook: community website. Think Halo 3 and Bungie.net; a game-specific site chocked full of additional ways to engage the title. It's like ... Web 2.0 plus ... Game 1.0 – wait, we finally got it!

LittleBigPlanet – While they're "not decided yet" on exactly how to integrate the game into a community website, if any mechanic seems ripe for such a project, rankings and stats for LBP's user-generated content seem like a sure bet.
Killzone 2 – There already is a my.killzone.com site for Killzone: Liberation, but adding "rankings and statistics" for Killzone 2 is the plan.
SOCOM: Confrontation – They plan on launching a community site – think "My SOCOM" – on SOCOM.com. There's nothing there now, and MySOCOM.com is taken.
Motorstorm: Pacific Rim – The Motorstorm representative wasn't very interested in providing any details, but she told us that they would have a "community website" as well.
Resistance 2 – Insomniac has perhaps the most ambitious plans for community content, dedicating an entire development team to the task. They're "overhauling" MyResistance.net, adding things along the lines of "facebook-like features."

Sony obviously thinks gamers want community websites, and the most visible example to date (the aforementioned Bungie.net) is a brilliant extension of an already robust multiplayer game. So, is the PS3's proliferation of community websites enticing to you, web-savvy gamer?

Reader Comments (27)

To have these on all different sites is kind of lame.
I'd perfer MyResistance.Playstation.com and MyLittleBigPlanet.playstation.com

To have everything under one group of things... like a network, no?

I agree, and I think they should reexamine their focus on communities as social networking fatigue is here and rapidly growing. I'd also recommend shared overall site architectures and a smart taxonomy. Little if any proprietary methodologies. One should be able to seamlessly bounce from one site to the other.

thing is that they are all different developers, and only Guerrilla and Evolution are owned by Sony...still tho, it would be great to see how Sony tries to get them all together

It doesnt matter that they're published by different companies or not
They're all processed through Sony.
And being released on their system would obviously give them the right to create a community for it.
Unless the developer/publisher doesnt want it...then I can see it becoming a problem.

"seamlessly bounce from one site to the other."
This is a must.
I'm sure sony hasn't planned this through and it will eventually fail.

Sony can create a community for them, if by community you mean a website as Home is supposed to also be a community.

Anyway, you prove my point, Sony can create a community, but despite some are working on Sony property, most of them are not owned by them, so it doesn't necessarily mean that they will join as they might (they are) want to follow different paths.

"And being released on their system would obviously give them the right to create a community for it."

the fact that it is being released in the system doesn't give them such right, yes, it is welcome to see the company giving a hand to the developers, but it isn't something that they have the rights over, like Resistance, Sony can't really touch it....

so why not just my.playstation.com? which will feature like every game? instead of a link for every game?

"so why not just my.playstation.com? which will feature like every game? instead of a link for every game?"

question of the year.

WTF!! 'Pasific rim' Sounds like a gay porno site.

my.killzone.com? Jack Thompson was right all along!

WHAT ABOUT IN-FUCKING-GAME XMB?

And no I am not hopped up, just wondering where is it?

There's other games coming out, not just GTA IV... 93.33% complete... :-P

If ONE more site copy and pastes that "Motorstorm: Pacific RIM*" and doesn't fix it...

Do you think they care?

I am sure it was like pulling teeth to get one of these bloggers to post anything remotely positive about the PS3 et all ... wait ...

*"Sony obviously thinks gamers want community websites, and the most visible example to date (the aforementioned Bungie.net) *is a brilliant extension of an already robust multiplayer game.* So, is the PS3's proliferation of community websites enticing to you, web-savvy gamer?"*

Thats what I call a back handed compliment

John,

lmao you're right.

idk WHY I expected anything even slightly respectful towards Sony from Joystiq

I guess they have to stay consistent XD

very very nice, I like this type of community development as well as home and game integration into home, and when in game xmb is added this year. Very nice , This is what will make psn a AAA online service. Along with dedicated servers, innovative MP online games like Resistence 2 and Warhawk, and most importantly to me, user generated content, ala home, Little big planet, echochrome, UT3, ect.

...when did you expect Sony to issue you a check for that rundown?

Did they post a head of marketing ad someplace that you are warming up for?

It's actually Motorstorm: Pacific RIFT...

Instead of creating websites for each individual game, why not release Home and be done with it already? This method of online communities is a bit redundant.

This is really cool, though i won't be using the feautures that much, i didn't user my resistance much at all only to check stats. Ill have to see what else they add.

I think this is a little overboard. Why have individual sites when they could of had just one like Rockstar is doing with their Rockstar Social club.

>>They're "overhauling" MyResistance.net, adding things along the lines of "facebook-like features."

>>adding things along the lines of "facebook-like features."

>>"facebook-like features."

>>facebook

Excuse me, I think I just heard some shit hit a fan.

To answer Joystiq's question: NO!

(quick, buy up all the redundant my*.com sites like gta4.com sites et.al. before someone else does ... and hold the domains hostage until sony releases HOME or an ingame XMB, or simply buys you off)

wouldn't this be far more constructive if it had a central ID, i.e. a my.playstation.net or something similar ?

Please don't repeat MGSO catastrophy. Damn Konami, they must be working for Microsoft. At least they got a good star at Sing Star for PS3 in US and Europe.

While the concept of these community sites is nice, they lose my interest really fast. Console players generally play more games at a time and so they would have to check more than one site to be involved. I don't like bouncing from game site to game site myself. (Going from the GTA site to the COD site to the Resistance site...etc.)

I agree with those that think a better solution would be a Sony site that had different games sites built into it. That way it could use one player name/password and allow people to seemlessly interact with each of the games they are interested in. That would be a more forward looking step to me.

I really think that they should be focusing on actual games and maybe Home, if that's your thing. This seems like a diversion of necessary resources that could ultimately make games even more expensive (to develop for and -more importantly, play).

i think the minute sony releases home they will blow microsoft away sony rules microsoft sucks

What's Sony up to? Community websites abound!

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