The saga of Sony's much-delayed Home virtual world for PlayStation 3 has been something of an embarrassment to the company, but it seems development is on track once more, with a shift in focus. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president David Reeves has been talking about the company's plans, promising that an open beta for Home will launch in Autumn.
However, the shift in emphasis is the interesting thing, with Home likely to (initially at least) focus more on its gaming aspects. Reeves explained:
“We’ve realised that maybe we were too ambitious with the non-gaming applications within Home, getting sponsors and stuff like that. In that sense we were deserting gamers. So, we’re concentrating on the gaming by launching games in Home, and attracting people who are into gaming in first - instead of the Nike people, or Adidas people who are into fashion and not necessarily into gaming.”
I’d be interested to know whether this is based on negative feedback from Home’s early beta testers, or if it’s due to a struggle to sign up big brands like Nike or Adidas. Or, indeed, a combination of the two. Keeping Home more game-focused should certainly provide PS3 owners with more of an incentive to visit it regularly though - one of the concerns about Home’s original Second Life-like general focus was whether gamers would want to spend time there.
(via Worlds In Motion)
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