nDreams Takes on The Personal Space
by KLCgame, HSM team writer
nDreams has never been the type to follow the crowd.
Some of the other developers could easily be described in just one word: LOOT is innovative, Lockwood and Granzella have quantity and dazzle, Juggernaut are dependable. But nDreams – now that’s tricky. They can be described by quite a few of the ways I just described their competitors, but doing so just wouldn’t quite be enough.
Let’s put it in perspective here: if you gave the nDreams team a piece of paper and told them to draw a simple idea, they would probably come back to you after a bit of time and give you back a blank piece of paper. Now don’t think I’m saying they would leave you out in the cold – they have you covered. Instead, they would take you over to one of their computers and show you one of their spaces with your piece of paper and that simple little idea you wanted.
In short, nDreams doesn’t play by everyone else’s rules, and trust me when I say this, that is a very good thing. If nDreams didn’t have that mindset back when PlayStation Home first went to open beta four-plus years ago, Home probably wouldn’t have lasted, and HomeStation, heck, we probably wouldn’t have even happened.
Now let us get to why I even just typed up anything before this line (yes I mean this one__) , with Saint Patrick’s Day right around the corner, nDreams’ update might have gotten a little overshadowed, and I’m here to extend the spotlight a bit to show nDreams and what they’ve done this week. This week nDreams -actually you know what, I’ll just wait here while you watch the video below and then we’ll recap,
HOLY COW.
A personal space for $1.99 (and no, that’s not a typo). With just that price tag I’d probably buy it, and it having an urban feel solidifies the fact. We get a $1.99 personal urban environment in space – can you say Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy? But again, this is nDreams, they don’t do simple, and they don’t settle for it. So what do we, the consumer get? They are releasing two new personal urban spaces and one of them is a coffee shop.
Now why should you even care or give these spaces more then a passing glance? Well first off, let’s get the elephant out of the room, the price is almost half that of any previous space (not counting reward spaces, of course). Some may ask “Why would nDreams sell any personal space so cheap, how could they possibly get profit?” Is this, like Blueprint:Home, another case of giving away the razor and selling the blades at a premium? Or is it simply something as random as a floating city block orbiting the planet, because nDreams has decided to once again do something wonderfully surrealistic just for the hell of it?
I’ll be honest, I don’t know one hundred percent why they priced it so cheap. One can guess that maybe they are trying to stand out in the crowd (for nDreams, that’s not exactly hard to do – they are kind of like the person dressed up as the Mad Hatter at a black-and-white ball), maybe they are trying to create buzz or maybe even it is a bit of a thank you of sorts to the consumer,who knows. All I know is regardless of what they are trying to do, in my opinion, they succeeded in making a statement. As far as I can tell, they actually are really nice spaces and the coffee house has a very relaxing feel to it.
This may also, if successful, open up a new segment within personal estates: the concept of the micro-estate. While the arms race to build crazier estates (and higher prices) continues, there’s something to be said for the idea of cheap “pocket estates” which rely on surrealism, a novel setting and a low price point to derive revenue.
So in turn what can I say to you about the new nDreams spaces: just because you are getting them at the generic brand price tags definitely does not mean you are getting the generic brand quality. So if you haven’t already checked out these spaces make sure you check them out and you know what is you don’t like it do not worry, you only spent $1.99 and I can think of plenty of spaces that didn’t even have half of what this space has at twice the cost.
Leave it to nDreams to kick this concept off. Home’s wildest, most surrealistic developer strikes again.
March 7th, 2013 by KLC_KILLER | 3 comments
KLC is a long time user of PSN and Home. She has also been a long time gamer, she has enjoyed various gaming systems and she still has a working Atari, NES, Super NES, Nintendo 64, and 90% of variations of all PlayStation generations. When she is not gaming, she is training to join the US Army. She also is interested in joining the WWE as a female wrestler. She currently resides in sunny Southern California.
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Honestly, if it didnt have a girl’s name in giant pink neon, and I wasn’t staying outta Home right now, I’d buy this right away -- coulda worked well as that arcade I’ve been searching for all this time.
The price point is interesting though, and while I might speculate as to why it is the price it is, I think it’s best for those properly interested in this space to just remember the saying: “never look a gift-horse in the mouth”, and just buy it!
The Cosmic Corner space is great. Totally original and fun. Carla’s coffee Shop is nice as well, but the two spaces are NOT linkable, they are two totally separate spaces that just kind of look like they belong together. (hint-hint nDreams!)
Well I never said it was perfect, but yes I agree The Cosmic Corner space is really pretty. I could watch the Earth spin for hours.