Will Sports Ever Fit in With Home?
by cjmp, HSM team writer
As a big sports fan, I was excited when I learned the new Home “Core Spaces” were going to feature a sports space, although I was very saddened with the departure of Central Plaza. At first I was a little disappointed with the lack of games that were featured in Sportswalk, but was somewhat satisfied when they featured a ticker of live scores in all of the pro and college sports and a video screen that showed highlights and featured reporting from the AP (Associated Press). I thought that was pretty cool, despite the lack of games, which only included a trivia quiz and two poker tables — although both were fun, and the trivia quiz was deep with questions and rewards. I was still thinking that, since Sportswalk was so brand new, maybe they were going to add more games eventually.
There are outline sports poses on the walls in the bar where the screen and poker tables are. They feature different poses, such as a basketball player dunking, a hockey goalie, a baseball player, and a golfer swinging an iron. So that just made me think, maybe they were going to add mini games for those specific sports. Just a wild guess. So the potential seemed like it was there, and I was really excited to see where it went moving forward.
The environment was beautiful and had a nice sports feel to it, with the arena right next to the space. I believe it is a football stadium, judging by the bird’s eye view in the remodeled PS Home overview. And you can see a tiny picture of a football field in the Sportswalk area — you know it’s a football field, because you can see the hash marks.
Sportswalk — as it was first announced
Unfortunately, since then, there has been more of a downgrade for Sportswalk than an upgrade. They no longer have the AP sports reports on the screens, but have replaced them with ads, and they aren’t even sports related for the most part. No new games have been added. The only thing sports related that remains is the ticker — that’s something, at least, so fans can keep up with sports scores. But other than that, there have been no updates, only downgrades. I knew something was wrong when the AP reports were out of date for way too long, but eventually I was thinking they were going to update them rather than replacing them with video ads.
This brought back bad memories of when the same exact thing happened to the EA Sports space, which I loved at first. It had so much potential, and was actually doing very well for a while as the racing and poker games were major hits. The poker games were especially popular, with their unique different colored table difficulty system. The green tables were for the novice poker minds and faces, while the red table was medium and black was for the true poker kings and queens of the virtual world. (I made it to the red table and I still need to learn how to play poker… don’t ask!)
The rewards at the EA Sports Complex were pretty solid. Playing a hand at the green tables got you a Texas Hold ‘Em shirt that said “Sheriff” on the back. When you won a hand at the green poker table, you won a silver bracelet. Winning at the red and black tables got you gold and diamond poker bracelets.
EA Sports Complex poker room
Why is poker so popular in Home, you might ask, with the game available at the Sportswalk, Casino, and Godfather spaces, as well as the vanished EA Sports Complex, and private poker tables on sale in the store? I’m not sure, but the EA Complex was doing so well and had so much potential, and their golf range finally opened after a long time, but died off quickly since the actual game never launched. That was a sign that things were going to fall apart, as well as other signs such as the outdated EA Sports game banners. (For example, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 was very close to launch, but they still had Tiger Woods 10 banners up.) There was also the very long update wait for the racing game, and many other problems, as well some occasional freezing bugs at the poker tables and outdated videos.
So things really came crashing down, and sadly the EA Sports Complex, which I was so pumped for, is gone and with it EA’s virtual items such as the NFL jerseys, NCAA football jerseys and NBA jerseys. Fortunately I was able to get a Chicago Bears jersey, Atlanta Falcons jersey, Chicago Bulls jersey and Notre Dame jersey before they got rid of them. (I’m kind of upset that they didn’t have a Northwestern jersey.)
So the question is out there now, why don’t sports spaces ever become successful in Home? People will say that the majority of Home users aren’t sports fans. But there are tons of sports fans in Home, and it doesn’t matter if you love one sport or all sports, you’re still a sports fan, and I hope more sports game developers decide to jump on Home and create spaces and clothing items for the sports fans who deserve to get their fix in Home. Having sports spaces in Home will help bring more people to Home that never thought about it at first. And as we know, the sports fan base is extremely large — especially with sports like soccer and golf, that are popular not just in America but world-wide.
There are so many creative things you can do with sports in Home, it just puzzles me why nothing has been done. The game ideas for sports in Home are endless, as well as awards, because besides the main sports (football, baseball, basketball and so on) there are many other sports in the world. Which means more games in Home, more rewards in Home, more users in Home, and a better chance of Home staying around for an extra long time.
Why aren’t they here?
As of now, for major sports game developers, 2K Sports is our only hope in that category. I would love to see them in Home because I am a huge 2K Sports fan, and it’s kind of a shame that 2K is only relying on two games in their arsenal of games (NBA 2K and MLB 2K) with WWE 2K14 coming out in October. As amazing of a job as 2K does, I think Home is a perfect fit for them to bring sports back into Home and to bring a unique vibe and style as well. If anything, I think 2k Sports is the one sports game company that would stay in Home for a long time. This also gives 2K the opportunity to feature games in Home that they never featured on their actual games, such as racing, golf or soccer, or even sports like archery and table tennis.
As far as I know, 2K has never had thoughts about being in Home. But you never know — maybe they’ll see this piece, or maybe they are thinking about it. You just never know. But I think the future of sports spaces in Home falls into the hands of 2K Sports or Sony themselves. Even an MLB the Show (by developer SCE San Diego Studio) space would be nice. But 2K Sports, we welcome you with open arms.
May 25th, 2013 by cjmp | 3 comments
cjmp is a former team writer for HomeStation Magazine. He has been in Home since the Open Beta was released back in 2008. And yes, he remembers the days where there were only 4 spaces and open mics in public spaces! He graduated college with a degree in Radio, Television and Online Media. He's a huge sports and gaming fan and hosts as well as produces a golf radio show on SportsTownChicago.com and has interviewed the likes of Scott Walker from Golf Channel and Michael Wilbon of ESPN. He's a proud citizen of Chicago,IL. Feel free to check out his website at gpgolfreport.com !
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My favourite Home event of all time has to be the Feva Arena space during the 2010 World Cup. The space itself was amazing. The simulated tournament, the PK target game and the rewards were all great. I still cherish my golden boots (even though I needed a private server to earn them due to the terrible queue system). The global nature of the event was also a feature that more Home events should utilise.
Feva Arena was probably the moment in time that hooked me on Home. I just loved the atmosphere of the whole thing. Even waiting to play the kicking game was tolerable because of the community interaction, watching the big screen or just taking in the space itself. Unfortunately, nothing has rivaled it for me in the past 3 years.
I miss the Feva Arena. It’s a shame that Sony has not featured the space in subsequent events such as Euro 2012 or the London Games last summer.
The Premier League, Super Bowl, Olympics etc. are so poorly represented on Home. One has to wonder if licensing rights are to blame.
The Sportwalk in my view is the #1 “Almost it but fail” on PsHome. I do not consider myself as a big sport fan but I do have a little one in me. I can understand that due to the cost, home cant sustain affiliation with the big pro association. But AP are free.
Sport is an awsome tool to bring a community together. It’s a shame that money is always a problem. The Sportwalk could be a very fun place to hang out. Buzzing with sports fan wearing their official jersey. Each month or so there’s something big on the sport scene, so many possibilities… Maybe on the PS4
MsLiza, yeah I agree, the Feva arena was a fun space, it was full of excitement, culture, style and had that party type of atmosphere. If the Super Bowl, World Cup again or Olympics would get in Home then that would be amazing, especially the Olympics because it’s obviously the biggest sporting event in the world. Can you imagine how much fun an Olynpic space would be? All of the sports, all of the cultures, the worldwide connection. How social and alive the space would be. It would be one of the most incredible, if not THE most incredible thing to hit Home. What’s bigger than the Olympics? Sadly, if the Olympics were ever going to come to Home, we will have to wait until 2016, unless there was an event in Home celebrating the winter Olympics, then we would only be a year away but only time will tell. Also, and I’m being biased here because I’m a big golf fan but another idea would be to have The Masters featured in Home as well. It is one of the highest rated sporting events in the world and is the no.1 ranked event to attend in person (Mostly because of Augusta National of course).
@Doc, I agree, it is the no.1 “Almost it but still fail” on Home. Money is a problem but as we know it’s a license issue too when it comes to specific leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, PGA, FIFA), so it would be tricky to get player jerseys or official PGA gear in Home for our avatars and that’s a shame because although I’m not a big hockey fan, I would love to have my avatar walking around with a Ray Emery Blackhawks jersey (Hawks jerseys are the sexiest jerseys in the world!). The thing that surprises me a bit is that, they haven’t released MLB The Show jerseys in Home because as we know, MLB The Show is a SONY SCEA game so I don’t understand that one. Because, then you can AT LEAST get an official licensed MLB jersey. Sports is a great tool and yeah Doc you hit it right on the head when you said that there’s always big sporting events going and that’s absolutely true so can you imagine how many people would show up to watch all of the events? Or at least the highlights? A lot, because when the AP was still there, more people were showing up and now…well…yeah. Then again, you don’t need to spend big bucks on jerseys and games. Just make jerseys that replicate the pro jerseys, although I know we want the real jerseys but at least as a place holder. Get a regular football jersey with orange and blue and there you go, you have a replica of a Chicago Bears jersey. Fortunately though for me, I was able to grab a few licensed jerseys while they were still there. Games should be easy though, make a basketball shooting game in SportsWalk, a soccer or hockey shootout game or a golf putt putt game or driving range. I don’t understand what’s hard about that. You need no license whatsoever to do that and games are the juicy things in Home that keep people coming back. There are so many things that can be done without a license and especially in SportsWalk. The buzz and vibe in SportsWalk would be soo much better. I honestly don’t see the reason why they made SportsWalk in the first place if they aren’t going to take advantage of something that can help them build their fan base. Then again, maybe they didn’t expect this to happen either. Yup, maybe on the PS4, and hopefully 2K can join the Home party because I would love it and so would a lot of sports fans, 2K is such a great game company, the physics and graphics in their games make me want to drool everytime. Such a shame they are so low on games. If they bring back football and golf then my entire life would be complete. C’mon 2K, it’s time to come Home