News Picks: March 7, 2007
Sony's Home
While interesting, I'm a little under whelmed by Sony's Home; this is the problem when leaks occur. I had a preconceived notion of what it could be and unfortunately the real thing didn't live up to those expectations. Next week I'll post a follow-up with what I was hoping for.
What I liked:
- Driving a sense of community in a much more interactive fashion than other platforms.
- Having a private space that I can customize and have others join.
- Social based mini-games.
My questions:
- How much can I truly customize and own? Can I create public or private spaces beyond one house and is money required to do so?
- Is any form of user based scripting accessible?
- Phil mentioned live streaming HD content, but how realistic is that? What are the bandwidth requirements? This seems unfeasible, particular when we are talking 1080p and/or when there are multiple video streams in a single space.
- Can I allow people to enter my private places when I'm not online?
- Are the trophies/achievements only viewable while in Home or can I easily see at least something while in the XMB dashboard.
- Is the Home network international? Can I visit user or public spaces that were designed for or located in different geographic regions?
- Phil mentioned clans. Is there going to be a clan system coming or will I need to individually invite a large group of people?
What I disliked:
- The graphics seemed uninspired particularly after seeing LittleBigPlanet.
- Spaces didn't really appear to be connected; a sense of exploration is missing.
- Home is a separate application which means I'm fully disengaged from my gaming experience. It would be great to see more of a connection than unlocking items.
- It came off more as a means to advertise or make money via company shops, billboards, premium clothing/housing purchases, etc. I suppose I'm not shocked given today's audience of developers and publishers. Just seemed more like a big ad than a place I would want to hang-out.
There is no doubt there is huge potential here but I'm not sure this approach will help sell the PS3 beyond the hardcore gamer, particularly at the console's current price.
The Amazing LittleBigPlanet
This 'game' is absolutely stunning. For those who haven't seen it, I'm not going to use words. Just watch this:
This is an example of what Microsoft and Nintendo should be afraid of. Using flOw and LittleBigPlanet as examples, Sony is willing to take a more avant-garde approach to games.
As seen with Capcom's Clover Studio there is risk that this approach won't prove commercially successful. However, it is great investment; it will paint Sony as a company willing to engage creative people and companies.
I personally believe games like LittleBigPlanet are more likely to help sell the PS3 than Home.
Wow. Cool "game". One real longterm question would be -- is there a potential to create an "open-source" gaming community initative? The whole homebrew movement is very reminiscent of old BBS' where people would collaborate and share ideas. Gaming reaches out to people in a variety of niche markets, but there may be enough force now behind it to create a collaborative initiative here.
This already has a few caveats though -- 1) most people that get to a level of success are more interested in commercializing their work 2) there is still a need to build something that is extensible and that users can evolve or customize to their own liking. Opensource is really successful when every developer is able to tinker and contribute in a meaningful way.
That said, I could think of a few immediate initiatives:
1) A virtual world (ala second life, or even WoW) -- users could customize within a world, or write new worlds as they go.
2) Mini-games -- think of something like the olympics where developers could build their own events using a common graphics library and set of user characteristics (strength, agility, etc.). You could extend this even further to create a concept of nationality / teams in the gaming community.
I'm sure there is plenty of fodder available, but the main focus would be to collaborate on graphics libraries, textures, etc. so that everyone in the community could focus on what they are best at and maximize their contribution.
... so said 'Ming' on 03/08/2007 @ 12:02:01 PM [Direct Link]