Opinion: How To Improve Home In 2009

Sony’s PlayStation Home service has been in open beta for almost a month now, and its reception has been lukewarm to say the least. For the most, PlayStation 3 owners have not been impressed by the service, which is sorely lacking in content leaving many, including us here at PSM, to wonder just why we would want to walk around Sony’s virtual world. Of course, the potential is there, and we’re hoping that Sony is able to eventually turn Home into the compelling killer app it was once touted to be. So let’s take a look at some of the things that need to be done in order for Home to be worth your time.

The biggest challenge that Sony faces is giving gamers a reason to want to enter Home. For most of us, a virtual 3D chat room simply isn’t enough. What would make players actually want to enter the world is if it was more event driven. Similar to the techniques used by many MMOs, special events can be used to attract players. Instead of repeatedly showing trailers for Twilight or some other movie, the service could host premieres for the trailers of big games, like say God of War III or Uncharted 2. Show them at a specfic time, at a specific place within Home, and dedicated fans will come. There are other types of events that could be used as well, such as in-game item giveaways, but the point is you need to give users a reason to want to use Home.

Another area that is in dire need of improvement is the game-specific areas. Sure, walking around environments from Uncharted and Far Cry 2 is cool, but it grows old quickly. Like the rest of Home, there needs to be more to do. The game-specifc areas should be tied to some sort of content, be it a demo, mini-game, or even a theme or Home t-shirt. These areas could also include the occasional event as well, such as chats with developers, or something else along those lines. Game specific spaces certainly have the potential to be really cool, but they need to have more to do with the game that they are promoting than simply looking like it.

It’s also important that Home becomes more integrated with the rest of the PS3 experience. Prior to the service’s launch, we were told that we would be able to invite friends over to our apartment, launch games from Home, and even form clubs made up of like minded gamers. If done successfully, these ideas could give the PS3 a truly unique social aspect. There are many gamers who would enjoy getting together with their friends virtually inside Home, and then being able to decide what they want to do from there, and simply do it. Of course, it’s also important to make this purely optional, as there are probably just as many gamers who wouldn’t want to start up a game that way. Basically, you should be able to do everything you can do from the XMB inside of Home. Be it access your videos, pictures and music, launch a game, or check up on your buddies, it needs to be a part of the service. But you also shouldn’t need Home to do any of those things either.

Of course, these are just a few ideas, and with the ever-evolving nature of Home it’s probable that we will see some of these changes soon. And that’s what’s most exciting about the service. There may not be much there now, but the potential is huge. Now that Sony has laid down most of the groundwork, a continuous stream of new content is what they need to keep interest in Home high. Be it new features, events, or whatever, they need to do something, becuase there isn’t much there at the moment. But there very well could be.