The Redesign of Home
by Gideon, HSM team writer
It has been reported from multiple sources that PlayStation Home is going to evolve. Most outlets are calling it a redesign, but those of us who use and are familiar with Home know that the changes being made are more of an evolution of the experience that we have all come to know and love. The concepts that are being built upon are ones that have been introduced, tried, tested and, for the most part, missed from the Home experience since the resounding success of the fondly remembered Xi back in 2009.
Most Home users jump – figuratively – at the chance to partake in whatever quests and mini-games are thrown at us. After all, task sets are to gamers what droplets of blood in water are to sharks. We just can’t resist them. No matter the game or advertising space introduced, there are always Home players salivating at the door every Thursday morning, chomping at the bit to get their virtual paws on whatever tasty morsel is being tossed our way. Metaphors aside, we love when we get things to do in Home, and Sony is looking to satisfy our appetites.
Seems like this concept art wasn't too far off.
With this new update, users can expect their daily experience in Home to get a lot more interactive. In what seems to be an incorporation of the concepts of the now-defunct PlayStation Rewards program. Quests will encourage players to do any number of activities within Home, including playing some of the games offered or visiting specific spaces.
With quests, Sony may be able to provide active advertisements for companies who choose Home to advertise their game or products by awarding players in ways above and beyond those that can be won through the event spaces. Each gamer will have a perpetual narrative they will build for themselves by partaking in the quests and large-scale group games. Home will remember what you have done and the progress you have made toward specific goals. These are some of the aspects which will turn Home into a fully fledged social gaming experience.
It is known now that there will be five new spaces added to Home with this update.
The Hub
- The Hub will be replacing Central Plaza as the go-to point for many of Home’s activities. Here users will find quests and will be able to travel to other spaces within Home. This is seemingly similar to the way users are currently able to access the Theater, Bowling Alley and Mall from Central Plaza.
Full moon. Watch out for Weren00bs!
Four Connected Spaces
- The Action District – This space seems similar to the current Playground Home space with a gritty urban feel. This space is specifically geared toward those interested in the more action-oriented offerings of Home.
- Adventure District – A jungle area that’s full of quests and obscurity. This space will be specifically geared toward adventure games. Hopefully, it will be heavy on the quests and provide an adventure all its own. This space seems similar in theme to Diesel Island, recently overviewed by Aeternitas33.
- Pier Park – Half carnival, half boardwalk, this space seems more casual than the other Districts. Not geared toward any specific genre, the pier park seems to give users a festive location to congregate. This is a great addition in light of the impending removal of the Irem Festival space.
- The Sportswalk – This space seems like it might just fill the void left by the absence of the EA spaces and the lack of the FEVA Arena. This space will be specifically geared toward sports enthusiasts. It seems as if they will have a direct news feed of sports news and sports scores within the space. Am I the only one wondering if Home will support Fantasy Football Leagues?
The addition of the four connected spaces is intriguing to say the least. The two districts could easily be seen as spaces to advertise Sony exclusive series, such as Infamous and Uncharted, but could also be seen as repackaged and more specialized versions of the Gamers Lounge. The Pier Park and The Sportswalk Seem to be more community-oriented spaces, which encourage users to mingle socially within Home and could also serve as direct access points to additional spaces, making more of Home navigable on foot than it currently is.
Hopefully, none of these spaces will cause no further current spaces within Home to be removed.
Concept Image: Community Events are about to get very interesting.
One of the most compelling additions to Home, through this update, is the ability to generate and promote – from within Home – community events. Want to organize a club get together, party or flashmob? Boot up Home, plan the event and tell your friends! This incorporation is a long-awaited stride in the right direction toward direct community involvement within Home. It will be interesting to see how many users The Hub and its connected spaces will hold, since most current Home parties easily max out the current servers.
According to the reports, the only space that will definitely be removed is Central Plaza. It is unknown what the fate of the Plaza-connected spaces will be, but it is hard to believe that Sony is planning to completely remove the connected spaces without re-offering them in some way. Closer inspection of the photo which was released of The Hub reveals the Threads store to the right of the image, so it’s possible that the spaces currently connected to Central Plaza spaces will be incorporated into the Hub itself and users will no longer be required to visit multiple spaces to view videos or shop. (Editor’s Note: according to this message by Locust_Star, they will be “relocated” to Pier Park)
How we long for this steampunky goodness.
Hopefully the updates to the user system will lead to greater capabilities within Home itself and expanded options for future additions. With Home getting a shot in the arm of game juice, is it possible we will finally see the long awaited SteamPunk space? Will the core upgrades to the Home system finally allow Home to support more robust, socially-oriented experiences? Does Home becoming a game mean we might actually see Home trophies?
No matter what happens to Home during the update, one thing is clear. The bench-glitch’s days are limited, so get your Chain-Swing on.
This update happens soon.
August 24th, 2011 by Gideon | 18 comments
Gideon is a team writer for HomeStation Magazine and likes cheese in all its forms. Whether it be block, slice, cream, wheel, log, string or aerosol, Gideon cant resist the pungent bitter taste of good cheese. Heck, he'll even take mediocre cheese, as long as its slapped between two pieces of whole wheat bread with a little bit of mustard.
cool cant wait
I can’t wait either, this is going to be epic! I love the whole idea of this and give Sony kudos for stepping it up. I too hope some news of the Steampunk space is forthcoming, we have been patiently waiting for a long time for it. Great article Gideon as always!
Yah I like the new ps home look,it’s nice.
Grate job
Yes this is going to be awesome! Loves it ^__^
I have more than a few reservations about this, and since I’m pressed for time, I’ll just provide a link to my post on the NA forums: http://community.us.playstation.com/message/36254673#36254673
Good points.I guess that Sony believes the gaming pie is big enough so that directly competing with game developers for my gaming dollars won’t affect either the developers or my spending on Home.Well in my case that may be o.k. but I’m sure that in this economy there are many who can’t or won’t be spending big bucks on games that are anything less than epic.If Sony wants to compete with games by developers Home will have to seriously up the ante in the game quality department.Maybe this will be when we get disc-based game quality on Home or maybe this is when alot of ppl realize they will need to make a decision between Home and disc-based games and decide Home doesn’t measure up.It’s a bold move and normally I embrace bold moves but idk about this 1.I’ll wait and see but honestly from what I’ve heard this fall promises to be a great time for new disc-based games and unless these new Home games are exceptional I’ll probably be playing Skyrim.
cthulu, that’s exactly the point I was getting at. The more SCEA starts pushing Home as a “gaming platform” the more people are going to start making direct comparisons to disc-based games. Now are online games ready for that type of scrutiny and comparison?
The one thing that makes Home-based games unique is the ability to combine socialization with game playing in a way that can’t easily be rivaled even by online capable, disc based games, but this seems to be a combination that has traditionally eluded the NA Home devs.
I think you’re seeing this act as being more aggressive than Sony is intending. They aren’t looking to compete with the disk based game industry but are trying to compete with the social game industry. There are scores of gamers already out there that are choosing to play casual games instead of disk based games on the PS3. Sony is looking to get some of these people back onto the PS3 and their attention back into Home. WILL this compete with disk based games, sure but that’s not the direct intent. As for Home dev’s needing to “up the ante” and make Home games of a higher quality, I disagree. Look at some of the casual games out there. People spend tons of time on games which are, by disk-based standards, sub-par but partake because their friends are playing as well. In this new games industry it’s not about competing for your gaming dollar, it’s about competing for your expendable time. Sony is hoping that some of the time you have been spending away from the PS3 will be converted to Home playing time. After all, the more time you spend on the PS3, the more likely it will mean you will spend money as well.
Well I may be off on this but I had always thought that casual games that you are describing were for the handheld device,sorry forgot it’s name,that Sony just put out.Here’s the thing,they SEEM to be trying to make games the top priority and socializing secondary,well I can go on BLK-OPS and get the same thing as well as many other games.What will make Home stand out from those games if the games on Home are sub-par by disc game standards?So far all I’ve heard is functions that are just basically catching up to disc-based games but Jack Buser did say many other things that have been asked for will be coming so that’s why I’m catiously hopeful that this will blow us away because if it doesn’t it could end up feeling like a “Sim’s” rip-off with chat functions.Which still isn’t a bad thing for being free but certainly not cutting edge stuff,which is what some disc-based games are atm.I can see this being a good thing or a bad thing,I guess it will be decided by the finished product,time will tell.
I think people will be surprised at how little this will affect the “Home-we-all-know”. I suspect we don’t have to partake in these games they are adding to the Home experience. If you play them, great. If not, that’s still fine. Go into central now and you’ll get an idea of how I think it’s going to be. If you want to play the offerings of Dead Island then wonderful, but if you want to just hang out and talk with friends like you used to, then you can do that too. I’m thinking The Hub is to Home what PlayStation Plus was to PSN – everything you have come to expect from Home will still be there, but now there will be this new stuff too!
I like the way Home is evolving and when I read the announcement I went back and read Gideon’s HS Magazine article about Home’s beginnings.
Sony has created a gaming experience in Home that is unlike the gaming experience on any other platform because of the unique ability to socialize and collaborate with other players. And it happened almost accidentally!
I don’t think Sony and the other developers are fully aware of the potential for Home, but I think The Hub is a move in the right direction.
Woops, 2nd to last sentence ‘are’ should be ‘aren’t’.
I will wait and see. I am a little worried because I don’t want Home to change so much it turns into something less than the Home I love now. An updated look, a new layout for easier navigation and better performance sounds good to me. As for any other speculations of what it will be or why Sony is doing this I will wait and see.
I don’t think youll have to worry about Home changing too much Olivia. I think the aspects you know and love about Home will remain intact. It will still be a place to gather with friends and socialize but now you’ll have stuff you can do while you chat about whatever. I do agree that between IREM leaving and this Hub, the ‘face’ of Home is going to be quite different soon. Change is scary but sometimes its for the best!
Really was that worried. I trust Sony, always have. Change can be scary I agree but I fear a lack of change more so generally speaking. The most difficult thing for me now is to wait to see it.
No more Chain Swing? seriously? YAAAAAAAAAAA HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
I hate that song.
Can anyone shed any light on the ferris-wheel rumors?
How will it work? More than one person at a time? Will we be able to chat while on it?
This is 100% speculation. I would bet on 2 being able to ride at a time. Giving us some interaction between avis. Chat would be likely.
I will always buy Elder Scrolls games because of their game depth! And you can even consider Skyrim marriage.