Home Games on the Go

by CheekyGuy, HSM team writer

Imagine being able to play Hellfire Games’ brilliant multiplayer space shoot-em-up, Novus Prime, on your PlayStation Vita while on the move. Perhaps introducing a friend who doesn’t consider themselves a gamer (but has every Angry Bird app out on their phone) to Lockwood’s classic, Sodium One. Or Juggernaut Games’ MiniBots, all the while inviting friends to play with or against you while waiting in the pouring rain for that bus or cab ride to work, school or college, via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.

You would, wouldn’t you?

Although these are developers known within the infrastructure that is PlayStation Home, wouldn’t it be great to have some of Home’s biggest hitters in the palm of your hand, in a game that stands alone? Sony’s in-house developers, as well as the new kids on the block should look at the advantages of bringing their best games out on mobile platforms, especially those of the Sony brand. It just makes sense to gain recognition away from Home, as well as in it. The real question, of course, is how much a Vita dev kit and license cost.

PlayStation Vita should easily have enough power to support some of Home’s well-known branded games, such as VASG’s Cutthroats: The Battle for Black Powder Cove, an insane 3D pirate battleships multiplayer game that is just plain addictive,  as this publication’s founder can testify.

Another new platform for familiar games

Another new platform for familiar games

Sony’s Xperia PLAY Smartphones are already running a strong game lineup, including titles such as Activision’s Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 and Electronic Arts’ Need for Speed, so I can see no reason why we couldn’t be seeing some conversions of Home’s popular titles on that platform as well. And the touch screen displays on smartphones have opened up a whole new door in terms of playability. Just think of the addictive games already available on phones and tables, such as Angry Birds and Bejeweled 2. Do you think that some of the best Home titles could compete in that arena? I know I think they could.

The bottom line is that we are currently seeing a golden age of gaming on mobile platforms. And I think this is where Sony, and Home’s in-house developers, want to be to find a competitive market. A killer app on a smartphone or the PlayStation Vita could make a Home-based developer visible to the world outside. If titles such as Hellfire Games’ Home Tycoon were offered on these platforms, they would definitely secure a place in the mobile gaming charts.

Home's in-house titles could soon appear on a Vita

Home’s in-house titles could soon appear on a Vita

The time to make this leap has never been better. The new platforms are available — they are powerful, and they have proved to be a lucrative market for games. In addition, we have absolutely no idea what will happen to Home during the leap to the next generation PlayStation console. There is a lot of support from the Home community for Home to continue in the PlayStation 4 gaming system. But, unfortunately, that’s not the community’s call to make. Ultimately, the bottom line with speak. Will Home stay or go? Or will it be transformed into something rich and strange, a new virtual reality community whose outlines we cannot yet predict?

Based on what we have seen recently, we can be cautiously hopeful that Home has a future, though it may change radically over the coming months and years. Home is already going through a major shift in in emphasis, with several recent core updates that seem to be aimed at making Home more portable, and a much sharper focus on the gaming aspects of what was originally created as a social network. Would Sony have given the platform this much attention, if it was simply slated to vanish? I don’t think so. But, again, only time will tell.

A pace-setter, when it appeared

A pace-setter, when it appeared

PlayStation Home was the world’s first console-based virtual reality social gaming environment. It won’t be the last. Microsoft is already planning to bring their own brand of virtual world to the planned XBox 720 console (whatever its final name may be), using augmented reality and its patented Kinect system for interaction. However, this won’t appear until 2014. Sony is still ahead in this race, and it may well stay ahead of the pack if they keep developing Home. They were the gaming industry underdog in 1994, quickly rising to become a gaming market leader, capturing 60% the U.S. market by 1999 and dwarfing the behemoth that was once Nintendo. We who are PlayStation fans have no doubt that Sony can triumph over Microsoft, and continue to set the pace in virtual world development.

However, the world is a tricky place, and the gaming market is changing. It would simply be good policy (akin to keeping one’s eggs in a whole range of different-sized baskets) for Home’s best game developers to expand into mobile media. Who knows — perhaps finding these games there will inspire mobile gamers to turn on the console and log into PlayStation Home!

March 22nd, 2013 by | 3 comments
CheekyGuy is a loveable, mischievous Brit who first entered virtual reality via Second Life, and now frequents Home as a Grey Gamer to keep in touch with friends. In real life, Cheeky is a video editor who has just completed a Master's degree in screenwriting from Liverpool John Moores University.

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3 Responses to “Home Games on the Go”

  1. Terra_Cide says:

    Watching my son play Need for Speed and other racing games on his tablet, it made me think that one Home game that I’d love to see come to other platforms is Sodium 2 racing. With touchscreen devices, like phones and tablets, the ability to use the whole device as a means of steering would compliment the style of racing found in Sodium 2 perfectly.

  2. Burbie52 says:

    I think that Salt Shooter would be an obvious choice for a mobile app. It is easy to do and addicting and fun. I do hope the developers do this in the future to bolster their bottom line which in turn will help Home thrive. Great read Cheeks.

  3. ted2112 says:

    I personally think that if Sony had a Home connection app on the Vita they would instantly sell a boatload of them.

    As for the games it’s a no brainier, and I’m glad they already moved in that direction with the Home arcade.

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