Home items selling like hotcakes

by Jem Alexander on Dec 23rd 2008 3:30PM

We're not sure why, but it seems that quite a few of you out there are buying Home pay-for content. In an interview with Silicon Alley Insider, Susan Panico (Senior Director of the PlayStation Network) says that content in the social networking service is selling tremendously. In fact, in the first four days of the open beta Home produced more money for Sony than the video download service did in its first week.

We're disheartened to hear that one of the biggest sellers is the ridiculously priced Santa outfit. So if you went ahead and bought a £5 Santa suit: congratulations. You've just told Sony that it's okay to charge 79p for a pair of virtual gloves.

Panico says it's "a classic 80/20 model, where 20 percent of your customers create 80 percent of your income." Makes sense to us. There's already a very vocal pro-Home community. We'll be happy to join in next month when some of that promised content starts to drop.

[Thanks Nav]

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Tags: home

Reader Comments (155)

I'll stick to the free stuff.

Precisely. He forgot the 70% of us that five years from now will still be wearing what we've been wearing for the last week. (Just like some people in real life) The other 10% will spend about five bucks on one outfit or something for their apartment, then kill themselves.

@Dark Trooper and Joe...

Selling Consoles should not effect how well games are or Sony does. Sony gets their money from Software and the amount of people who play those games says how well these bigger and better games for Sony come to be I.E Killzone which led to Killzone 2. Hardware is not the problem for Sony. I do not think any of us have a problem finding a server to play on in a already popular game.

You are making a wild presumption...It is only how well a person responds to a certain game from ethier do you have more people playing online in that certain game. Sony is not selling consoles like the Wii so it is safe to assume that Sony is not at a loss or interest of stopping Home it if they are making money ,as they said, with it and not moving more consoles.

way to go, whoever you are. my only question is.. why?

Instead of asking "why?" you should be thanking those people.

There are three ways Sony is off-setting the cost of Home: Premium content, advertisements, and sponsorship type opportunities for game and non-game brands.

The latter two are not enough to keep Home free for the amount of users they anticipate.

It's fine if you don't want to buy premium content (I don't either), but don't ridicule those who do. It's their money and it's keeping Home free.

i agree with the post above this will mean that other companies will look at HOME as a good place to sell more things than look games. Thus will give Sony a chance to better improve HOME and add more free stuff for everyone to have

keep telling yourself these people should be spending hard earned money on virtual shirts. let me play the impoverished-children-need-real-clothes card. bam!

honestly, i don't mind people buying this sh!t. you're right. it is their money. but really, sony lost BIG this holiday season. money being spent on an app like home is frustrating to me. home isn't a seller of systems. i want exclusive games and multiplatform games all with available dlc on the ps3. but if the system doesn't sell, software will have a harder time selling. and without software, i get no games. home is not a substitute for games. i just think sony should've put their money in something else.

@rohan: i don't want more advertisements, chargeable content, or even free content in home. i just want companies to be making games and offering dlc.

Well Mr. Joe, if you want that, go move back to your perfect world, where everything is free! And nothing has a cost!

@ice: what does that even mean? i was talking specifically about sony wasting money with home when they should be focusing on capturing games and selling consoles. and last i checked, the only free game i got on the ps3 was pain cuz i got that voucher with the purchase of the console. what free stuff are you talking about?

@gunegune

I have to agree with you. Its sad that people go around paying $50 + a year for Live, but complain when PSN charges for something. I think from the get go, PSN should have charged for online content so people wouldn't get so spoiled. Seriously, if you dont agree with someone then its your right, but dont bash on others for doing so. Sony HAS to get money from somewhere to give us things like HOME for free... Kinda like Microsoft makes gamers PAY for playing online....

@ Adis

It's not THAT they're charging for items, it's WHAT they're charging for items.

$1 for 1 shirt = rip-off
$1 for 20 shirts = reasonable

So you would rather have Sony spend more money on selling consoles, which doesn't affect you at all, rather than improve your Playstation experience? OK?

@anthonyjh,

Actually it does affect me, The more consoles people buy the more people could be potentially playing online, Which results in more and better games :)

thank you, dark trooper! finally, somebody gets my point. more consoles being sold affects us all.

But you make it sound so easy, Sony has competition in case you're forgetting, this in turn makes it more difficult to buy third party exclusives, which means, at this point in time, the main things being bought to get a 1 up on competition is DLC, but exclusive dlc unless its GTA hardly does very much to help PS3 sales.

Sony has to recoup the losses it is already making and yes, while the PS3 needs more games, it could be asked 'how exactly can this be achieved?' its not about throwing your money at third parties and bam, they'll make great games for your console and your console alone, that game could still suck, the money spent to keep it exclusive would be a waste and the time spent would be a waste.

Gamers make it sound like an easy thing to simply demand more games, but there is more at play here and things to consider and there are reasons behind every action that is taken.

I promise you it is NOT me buying this stuff. Maybe if the experience was more fleshed out, I would spend more time in there and thus buy some things. When/if that day comes, and if the item is reasonably priced, then maybe I will.

Well that article was mildly biased.

I haven't bought anything...and I went until I have a reason to spend more than 10 minutes in there.

Yeah, I'll be sticking to the earned and free stuff as well. Paying for a virtual dress is not at all my style. I mean, I LOVE LittleBigPlanet and I even refuse to pay for the costumes in that game even. Much less in a virtual world where I'm just going to be walking around and decorating my apartment with trophy goods and other crap.

I'm generally the same, except the latest DLC for LittleBigPlanet has convinced me to try it out. I'm not a MGS fan, but extra levels and the paintgun are just too much to ignore.

I took a look inside of home when it updated last week and like a quarter of the people I saw were wearing that Santa suit. I thought it must have been free, but when I looked in the mall, it wasn't. I don't pay for crap like that.

Whatever. I deleted Home yesterday to make room for a game install.

There's a sucker born each day. I however, am not one of them.

Lol, you sure about that? You sure you're not in denial :)

I promise you guys I am staying as far away from this crap as possible. I never fell into this trap on Pangya or any other free to play MMORPG and I won't do it now. Free stuff only.

Guilty...... =O

I kind of bought a few tops and stuff, though it was spare change anyway since i wanted Astro Tripper and i had to add £5 anyway.

Duh!

You gotta be a real idiot to buy virtual outfit for £5. I can't actually belive that someone bought it! :///

$1.50 for 3 clothing items? A handsome looking suit, slacks, and a nice turtleneck.. I really don't see why it's such a crime. If I went into a convenience store and bought $1.50 in candy (maybe 2 bars) I would probably feel more guilty especially because they'd be gone in a few minutes and I'd have nothing left to show for them afterwards. Buying items in home shows a sense of pride in your avatar, but for those who don't spend much time in home, just don't bother. It's that simple. Home is an ever-growing, user-friendly, and fun environment, and there's nothing wrong with the users showing their support.

Your work for Sony don't you....

:-)

Haha nope, but I really think that people should be supporting this awesome free service and not rag on Sony. I think it's going to be a revolution in the social realm =)

I agree, I've spent a lot of money at arcades playing DDR and other games. At least virtual items in Home will last essentially forever, although I'd probably never buy anything on it.

agreed. Nicely said. And damn are people cheap these days...gees. You want free content then SUPPORT IT! Otherwise it won't be free anymore.

who said it was a crime? its just stupid.

Sarcasm retard.

bah......it was just $2.45(US) I didnt care......I throw that away on the vending machine in the Tech building at school..........

but I do agree that the shit should be free.........how does an outfit cost half as much as a SUMMER HOME!?!?!?!? Thats Fucking RETARDED!!! Not saying they should raise rates on Summer houses......but shit........maybe lower everything to a dime.....no more than a quarter........

thats crazy that it made more money that the Vid store did the first week.....

I agree with you. It's a whopping $2.94 for the whole suit. I bought the santa suit and had some fun with it.

I got insulted a lot because apparently the way I choose to spend the money I earn is just offensive to some people. I had fun with it, other people had fun with it, I don't see the crime.

Having said that, I do think they need to include some free items along with the paid items just to have some more diversity, or at the very least allow for color choices. However, I don't think $0.49 is that outlandish of a price. If it's too steep for you, or you don't feel it's worth it, don't buy it. Just stop insulting the people that do (and that goes for the writer of this article as well - nice job on the condescension).

its kinda ridiculous, but be nice... its their hard earned money and if they want it hey let em... id sure spend $5 to get a pool table or an arcade game for my personal space... to each their own.

be nice kids, save your hate for xbotz

£5, 79p... WTF does this mean in real dollars?

Congratulations on reinforcing the stereotype that Americans don't know there's a world outside their borders!

Here you go: http://letmegooglethatforyou.com/?q=5.79+GBP+%20in+USD

Not what I'm getting at. Why should a site with a primarily US reader base force those readers to convert currencies instead of forcing the smaller group or readers to convert? Also, I think Jem is a total douchebag... but that's not the point here.

says a lot about you..

In case you haven't noticed, there's tons of updates concerning stuff about SCEE and the Asian markets. Dunno what site YOU'RE looking at...

It's probably the spoiled little rich kids with prepaid psn cards who CAN go willy nilly without any hesistation. I doubt very much that they're selling alot. I have yet to see any santa suits while cruising through home, but oh well. wish I knew much $$ sony made during the first week of the video download service?

Thanks for the generalization!
I'm in high school, and I work about 20 hours a week, and my parents don't pay for anything extra of mine. Not my phone, car, insurance, gas, or online purchases (including PSN). I understand that there may be people out there like that, but not everyone. Some people, to tell you the truth, actually buy the content because they want it and not because they have nothing better to do with their parents' money.. just letting you know.

not a spoiled rich kid........I'm married with 2 kids of my own........$2 is chump change........period..
.

i agree with leo. that was just a dumb comment.

it wasnt a dumb comment, it was perfectly reasonable. leo just saw it as a personal insult and took the defensive.

Wow paul, you make it sound like it's $50 per costume or something.

I can't even get a meal for the price of one of these downloads... and I guarantee you that I'd get more enjoyment out of the costume.

Let me put it in better perspective. Imagine no money is involved, like someone gave you a free hot dog IRL and a free Santa outfit in Home. You might enjoy the hot dog for a few seconds while you eat it, but the Santa outfit has the potential for much longer enjoyment and use.

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Home items selling like hotcakes

Reader Comments (155)

Posted: Dec 23rd 2008 3:34PM fanatikal said

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