Details of Home 1.6 Core Client Update Revealed!
by Burbie52, HSM team writer
We’ve all heard this complaint ad nauseam: sure, Home continues to expand, but when will it improve?
The constant avalanche of outfits. The occasional new private estate, public space or gaming event. A general sense that more and more elements of Home are becoming pay-to-access or higher-priced.
And while all of this is fine and dandy, it does little to answer the requests which have been implored, begged, shouted and otherwise directed at Sony over the last two years. There’s a general sense that Home, for all of its wonders, simply isn’t living up to what was originally demonstrated. And we’re not talking about the silly, ongoing drivel about the supposed “trophy room,” either.
This is particularly glaring in light of the fact that rival virtual worlds, such as Second Life, are light years ahead of Home when it comes to the depth of their experiences. They are, in many ways, more immersive than Home. And yet Home has two unique elements to it: graphical superiority, and a lack of user-generated content. While the latter is quite a creative constraint to Home’s more imaginative users, it also does consistently maintain a high level of product quality throughout.
All of this, however, is about to change.
It’s finally coming. Everything you have been waiting for in Home is going to take place! We have all been asking for many things in the Sony forums for a long time, and after years of assailing Sony with these requests, we at HSM have learned that Sony has, in fact, been listening to us the whole time. In the next major 1.6 core update, we will be receiving nearly everything we have been asking for. Let’s go over some of the improvements, before we get too excited:
- Expanded furniture limits. All private estates and clubhouses will be able to accommodate one-hundred virtual items instead of the current fifty.
- Expanded “active item” capacity. Instead of being limited to only two active items per space, that number will be tripled to six.
- Increased friend-list capacity. User accounts will now be able to hold two-hundred friends, versus the current limit of one-hundred.
- No restrictions on region hopping. Yes, Sony America is a different company than Sony Europe or Sony Japan, but it appears they’ve all (finally) realized that they all stand to gain more revenue if they remove as many regional barriers as possible between their respective Homes.
- An enhanced messaging system. As opposed to the rather clunky mail system which can only send a message to a dozen people at a time, Home will now have a proper e-mail client capable of mass e-mailings.
- Expanded population capacity. Clubhouses and private estates alike will now be able to hold sixty-four users at once.
- Enhanced blocking features (including a banality filter). Rather than having to endure countless episodes of harassment or rely on overworked moderators who can’t make themselves visible, users can now simply make the offender disappear from their screens entirely.
Things like virtual item increases in private spaces and longer friends lists. We want larger club capacities and the ability to use more active items in our spaces as well. We have been assailing Sony with these requests for months, even years, and now it is finally going to take place.
Our personal spaces will now be able to sustain a hundred furniture or virtual items instead of fifty! We will be able to keep over a hundred virtual items in each category of our personal wardrobes as well. The number of active items that will be allowed in our spaces will be increased to six, that’s triple what we now have!
And those pesky trolls? They’re not a problem anymore. Home’s 1.6 update will not only let you block their text bubbles, but at long last you can do what you’ve always wanted to do; render them invisible. Ladies of Home everywhere, rejoice! No more lewd gestures to put up with!
As we’re all painfully aware, the clubs we own are pitifully limited as it is now with only thirty-two members allowed. This is going to be increased to sixty-four, and the clubs will be expanded upon to allow you to do that upgraded version that it always talks about when you buy the basic.
There will also be many new upgrades to some of our favorite personal spaces. We will be able to purchase add-ons to the Waterfall Terrace (like you can now with the Mansion) that will allow you to use a boat on that beautiful lake and fish from it. Also, the boat at the dock of the Luxury cabin will be usable and the gardens you so long to walk in will be accessible as well. Just think of how much better those private moments with that special someone will be, just floating in that lake, or walking and talking together – alone – in those gardens.
All our friends lists will be doubled to two hundred! You heard me. Two. Hundred. No more creating a second account to handle the overflow from your main account.
But best of all, the music and video streaming we have been clamoring for is finally going to be available. We will be able to download movies from the PlayStation Store and play them (for a price yet to be revealed) in our Hollywood Hills or Sunset Yacht spaces for our friends to come enjoy with us, or you can purchase the new virtual item, the Sony Bravia® flatscreen television (again, the price hasn’t been revealed yet), which will be made available in the Furniture store.
Also made available in the Furniture store will be a personal sound system, a device which, like the picture frames we already have, you can use to upload and stream mp3-format music. Now we will be able to stream the music of our choice into our personal spaces and clubhouses to enhance the parties we throw there.
How great is that? No more trying to hold the mic to the speaker of your stereo, laptop, or mp3 system and getting a cramp in your finger from holding down the R2 button for so long! Just purchase the sound system, install it into the personal space(s) of your choice, upload music to it (as you would a picture to one of your existing picture frames), and voilà, you and your friends are ready to dance the night away!
The depth of the experience of Home will no doubt be enhanced. So be prepared to spend money! And enjoy the new face of Home as this fantastic bunch of upgrades hits the markets of Home!
We’ve even gotten an advance look at the first “Message of the Day” to be displayed after the 1.6 deployment:
April 1st, 2011 by Burbie52 | 11 comments
Burbie52 is a 62 year-old published author and founder of the Grey Gamers group within Home. Born and raised in Michigan, she has lived there her entire life, with the exception of a twelve-year residency on the Big Island of Hawaii. She enjoys reading and writing, as well as video games, especially RPG's. She has one son in his twenties.
This is okay, but 1.7 is what I am waiting for. In 1.7, instead of trophies you get chocolate.
If that happened, I’d never leave the house.
…Wonder what the Platinum equivalent of chocolate would be?
Soo excited!!!!!!!! I hope you can buy from other regions too. If you buy an us psn card can you use it at the japanese side? ^_^
I can not wait for the changes!!
Is this an April Fools Day Joke? There is NO WAY Sony is going to do this. It would make sense, and, that just isn’t in Sony’s character. I’ll believe it when I see it. I hope you are right. Hehe
APRIL FOOLS?!! please tell me this article is actually serious, please
As GlowingMickeyVan and Janius asked… is it an “April Fools Joke?” Pwease Pwease Pwease let us know! It’s News people have been waiting for so long and I would think this article would be mean if not discouraging and many Users from Ps Home that really wanted to hear news like these and see it happen will give up hope… Not only on articles like these, but Ps Home. I know I would.
Won’t be very brilliant of April Fools Joke.
I hope it is not the case. Please let us know.
Sorry to disappoint but if you look at the fact that 8 articles with wild ideas came out on the same day , April Fools Day, you had to know what this was.
The point of this is explained in Norse’s article about the joke.
the best core MAJ ever!…..
@Sorrow-83 I second that thought.