Lockwood Kittehs!
Courtesy of Alex Loffstadt, Outso Community Manager
This week’s Lockwood Catalogue update sees the pitter-patter of tiny paws and claws coming to PlayStation Home, in the form of the cutest kitten companions you could wish for.
There is a selection of furry feline friends to play with: a rough-and-tumble tabby, a relaxed ginger kitty, or a scene-stealing Siamese. And, while some may have ribbons and some may have bells, they’re all packed with personality in their fuzzy little frames!
So, for animal lovers everywhere, this week’s update is for mew.
Editor’s note: KITTEHS!!!!one!!!eleven!!!!!
Yes, I’m a cat lover. So I’m biased. In real life, the Norsecat is a spoiled princess who gets whatever she wants. I’ve read practically every single Lilian Jackson Braun “Cat Who…” novel ever written. Cats are proof that God has a sense of humor. Cats are awesome.
And Outso realizes, from a commercial standpoint, that virtual pets — and cats in particular — are big business. I don’t think anyone will be surprised when the March top-ten list from SCEA features Lockwood kittehs all over it.
Seriously, I have to ask: does Outso have some Font Of All Coolness supercomputer tucked away in a remote Sherpa village? How do they keep coming up with smash hit after smash hit every week?
March 9th, 2011 by NorseGamer | 23 comments
NorseGamer is the product manager for LOOT Entertainment at Sony Pictures, as well as the founder and publisher of HomeStation Magazine. Born and raised in Silicon Valley, he holds a B.A. in English/Creative Writing from San Francisco State University and presently lives in Los Angeles. All opinions expressed in HSM are solely his and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sony DADC.
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Glad to see the up take of pets on home… hope they keep expanding the portfolio. I for one would love to be able not only to have a realistic dog on home, but also be able to design it much as we do our avatars.
Designer pets…holy cow, this would be awesome. I don’t know if Home is capable of supporting such a thing, but if it is, this must happen.
With designer pets, there could be dog and cat shows in Home. Virtual pets are *big* business, judging from what we keep seeing on SCEA’s top-ten lists. Imagine a public space devoted to such things. There could be some money to be made here.
(Yes, the Norsecat is sitting on the arm of the sofa next to me, reveling in her daily pettings. She has trained her hooman servant well.)
Three words:
My Little Pony
This.
Must.
Happen.
I imagine the way Outso comes up with all these good ideas is by listening to the needs/wants of Home users and offering items that fill those needs/wants.Sony and other developers would do well to do the same,filling needs/wants of consumers is the surest way to make giant boats of cash and builds consumer loyalty by showing that they actually listen and care about their customers.
I must get this. I have three cats at house and yes as with Norse they have me trained. But the idea of custom cats and dogs would be a huge money maker. I would love to have a cute German Shepard/Doberman mix puppy playing with my cute kittens on Home.
I want the kitties. I want ALL of the kitties. Must buy! Lockwood is so darn clever at figuring out how to provide what the Home buyers want and do it at a profit. If anyone can figure out how to do ‘customized’ pets, they can. Sure, I would expect to pay a premium price for it, but, as Norse pointed out, just imagine the dog and cat shows in Home. 50 of us descending on CP to show off our variations on cat design, (I want a long-haired chocolate point Siamese/Himalayan and a grey/blue haired Korat with emerald green eyes like I have in real life.). Some of us KNOW we are crazy old cat ladies……
And imagine the dog shows! everything from Chihuahuas to Russian Wolfhounds.
Someday……
And, what if they let us have more than one virtual pet active at once?
And, what if the virtual pets sensed each other, and interacted? Whole mobs of cute kittehs and puppehs gamboling around the Central Plaza while their proud owners went into hysterical giggle-fits.
If they are not working toward this, they aren’t serious about Home monetization!
I noticed there are male and female versions of these cats. I am wondering what would happen in all that mob of kittehs gamboling about if one of the female kittehs became …. overheated? How far is Lockwood taking this reality show?
Surely they would not give us pets that had not been spayed and neutered! Else someday we’ll go into our inventory and find it filled with virtual kittens.
Yeah they might have a hard time figuring a way to set the price on kittens.Shouldn’t the cost,if any,be split by the owners of mom and dad?Also there might be custody issues,lol.
Id love to have a virtual Puppy in Home.
Hopefully they are much more cheaper to buy than our SecondLife counter parts. They cost a freaking fortune there! Although we do already have cats kittens set to ROAM (Part of a menu which tells them to wander anywhere)
I have been advocating pets in Home for a long time. They are making some great strides in this, but I wish they could take it to the next level. I want to have a petting motion for our avatars. I want to see a pet store where we have a large selection of dogs and cats to choose from, accessories to buy such as leashes and collars and possibly cute little outfits, where we can go into our wardrobe with the animal and change them out and actually have a place we can walk them. A public park with paths and grass where we can take them for a walk would be the ultimate!
What would be better than coming into Home after a long day in real life and find that you have a little animal that meets you and follows you to your couch where it jumps up on your lap and purrs or snuggles while you pet it? They would be the biggest selling virtual commodity that Home has ever seen I believe.
*wants pet human*
But it would be all furry and stuffs. (shudders)
For the Homelings, I’d advocate that there should be Sphynx cats and American Hairless Terrier dogs.
I just bought the Siamese kitten and took it to the beach. It is incredibly lifelike. And they programmed a wide range of physical activities that are endearingly ‘kittenish’. Plus I don’t have to clean a kitty litter box each day.
What ever happened to SONY’s physical-virtual pet AIBO or their never-sold-to-the-public robot companion QRIO? I would think that they’d convert the little buggers to virtual-virtual pets/companions for us Home users. They already have the designs, programming, and patents. *shrug*
Japan Home has pet pot-bellied pigs that are absolutely adorable.
@ norsegamer: it would be fantastic if Sony “implement”
some routins like tamagoshi to these pets! like washing, feed, sleep,huges….
@ keara: i got the 2, (robot and pig!^^) they are free, and for the robot, i love the way to obtain it, i mean it ‘s a gift from another owner! here is a real social activity, it’s the best way on home to obtain stuff….
kiss to all hsm staff and member!
Have you noticed that the kittens seem to have individual names? I have the male orange tabby, and his name is “Floyd”. Someone else has the same kitten, but its name is “Titan”. Or am I being delusional?
Yes, my siamese female is named ……. (I forgot). But I call her Ms. Isis in memory of my favorite pet from years ago.