Comments on: PlayStation Home: the Case For More Games

By: SealWyf_

SealWyf_ — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:14:43 +0000

@Norse: Yes, the Midway and Casino games are simple and repetitive. But they are also eminently social — not during the play, but in the setting.

In my experience, players in the Midway gravitate into social groups while waiting for free play to begin. Once a game becomes free-to-play, they run off and play a few rounds, then return to their conversation to wait for the next free window. As for the Casino — there is nothing like a good poker or blackjack table for social interaction. These spaces are the closest we have come to reproducing the classic video arcade. If we concentrate on the simple gameplay, we may be learning the wrong lesson from them.

By: NorseGamer

NorseGamer — Thu, 24 May 2012 07:15:22 +0000

@deuce: Completely agree. Games need to play to the social strength of Home if they are to offer something unique which can’t be found in a disc-based title, which has far more money and resources thrown at it.

@Masked: In general I’d agree with that, simply because a Home with more high-quality games equals a more compelling and marketable Home. It still surprises me that the more basic games in Home from Midway and the Casino are consistently outselling (at least in terms of units sold) the more polished games Home has to offer, which *suggests* that the Home gaming audience is looking for very fast and repetitive gratification.

The “it” game for Home hasn’t really been released yet. I know Xi is still used by many as the high-water mark for Home, but it’s likely unfeasible to develop ARGs like that on a consistent basis due to their cost and technological complexity. That said, I’m genuinely excited to see what 2012 is going to deliver.

By: Dr_Do-Little

Dr_Do-Little — Wed, 23 May 2012 20:02:35 +0000

Never been a chatter… before. I hooked up my ps3 on the net last year 2 days into the outage and read a lot about this “home”. How silly must those peoples be to buy virtual places and clothing i tought. When the psn finally came back on i clicked on the mysterious home icon, plain curiosity. I found this neat 2d space shooter that reminded me of, you guessed it. The old arcade game I made some friends, bought a keyboard and the rest is history. Now i have a new place i can call home.

By: BONZO

BONZO — Wed, 23 May 2012 19:52:43 +0000

Well there is one Namco arcade center but the noises don’t translate as well, and there’s hardly anyone ever there anymore, and all the cabinets just launch the game, you don’t actually play them in Home.

By: The Masked Developer

The Masked Developer — Wed, 23 May 2012 18:54:17 +0000

I think Home needs fewer games with more polish/quality. Of course, Home needs to stop crashing/kicking every few minutes before that can happen.

By: Burbie52

Burbie52 — Wed, 23 May 2012 12:14:06 +0000

Great article Norse. I not only agree with what you have said I still believe that one of the games brought into Home should be a video arcade of games, with all of those sounds and excitement you were speaking of. They could make it a pay to play like Midway and it would still sell a lot of “tickets”.
If Home itself is like an arcade, why not actually give us one?

By: KrazyFace

KrazyFace — Wed, 23 May 2012 09:19:49 +0000

I wish it was possible for them to make a massive open-world part to Home where we could drive (TDU2 style) from one space to another in licensed cars. That would be all kinds of cool to a petrol-head like me, but also probably impossible with current hard/software. But (like TDU2) you could invite friends to come cruise with you in your customized ride to your new apartment.

Anyway, I’ll stop day-dreaming and get on with the only thing that’s close to Home and racing, erm, TDU2…

By: deuce_for2

deuce_for2 — Wed, 23 May 2012 03:55:55 +0000

One of the goals of Cutthroats was to show that you can play a game and be social. They are not mutually exclusive. By putting people on a boat with each other and having different roles, it forced people to work together to do well. To work together, they had to communicate. It was an experiment that succeeded on many levels.

The point is that now that all the developers have seen it, they can look at whether they can add some social aspects to their games. The audience is ready for it and responded well to it. Now we just need more.

Games will be more important this year, but I predict it will be the games that utilize all the unique aspects of Home that will be the ones that people play.