Juggernaut’s Serenity Plaza, and the Monetization of Home’s Social Scene
by Terra_Cide, HSM Editor-in-Chief
Let’s all finally drop the pretense and admit it: Home monetizes best as a Sims-type social MMO.
This is important, because for all of 2011 and 2012, the push was to reinvent Home as a gaming platform, in order to give it broader appeal to the PlayStation user base. Except that Home isn’t particularly well-suited to being a gaming platform; it takes an interminable amount of time to load into, plus additional time to navigate to the gaming attraction of your choice. And then you have games which have to work within the limitations of Home’s architecture, which means they’re inherently at a disadvantage compared to their PSN-based brethren.
That doesn’t mean every game in Home is a financial failure. There are a few legitimate success stories. Mass Media’s various Midway attractions. Digital Leisure’s casino. Lockwood’s SodiumOne. Hellfire’s Home Tycoon. But it’s easy to see that games in Home are a risky investment: they’re high-cost gambles that get a fortnight of publicity and then are lucky to make their money back. And the proof of this is that most Home games sit there, without update, because they just weren’t fiscally justifiable to update.
Here’s the problem: Home spent so much time trying to appeal to everyone who didn’t get it that they forgot to commit resources to the people who did.
Who’s the typical Home user? I’m sorry, but it’s not a typical console gamer. It’s a social gamer. Completely different behavioral economics. And it’s a pity SCEA didn’t decide to capitalize on this. The sort of person who gravitates to something like Home is a niche market within the PlayStation user base, but it’s a niche market that isn’t really being served. Which is why something like Home — a social metaverse with no purpose that spent its development money in all the wrong ways — is still being supported by a sufficient number of users to make it worth keeping the lights turned on: because there’s no console-based alternative worth turning to yet.
When the dust settled from 2012, it became clear that while it had been the Year of the Game — and arguably Home’s high-water mark as an app — it wasn’t going to see a repeat performance. And thus this publication asked if 2013 would be the year when Home finally started to aggressively monetize the social side of its experience.
Granted, it’s easy to prognosticate when you know what’s coming. But let’s look at what’s happening:
- Sony introduces Pottermore to bring a very (perhaps intrusively) immersive IP experience to Home.
- LOOT introduces the Doctor Who IP to Home, but as a scene and some objects — no games.
- LOOT also begins introducing EOD-enabled clubhouses.
- VEEMEE dramatically shifts from No Man’s Land — one of Home’s most underrated games — to Acorn Park, a public scene which monetizes via social attractions.
- Digital Leisure begins teasing something which we can’t really talk about in detail yet, but has a genuinely brilliant strategy regarding the social side of Home.
- And now Juggernaut reveals a new public scene for SCEA, SCEE and SCEAsia: Serenity Plaza.
Well of course it’s Central Plaza with the serial numbers filed off. A good business knows when and how to capitalize on market demand, and Juggernaut’s not making any pretense about their maneuvering to fill in the gap left by Central Plaza’s removal.
Is it still a risky gamble? Sure. Scenes take a lot more time and money than objects to create and push through the QA process, after all. But the hot market trend for 2013 is to have scenes which people inherently want to spend time in for social activities, and then upsell them with various attractions. A scene that lends itself to a lot of repeat traffic won’t be as dependent upon short-term Sony PR to try to drive opening-fortnight revenue, which is a significant advantage, and also looks a bit less commercially blatant that other Home fare. The fact that Juggernaut’s using their own internal coin currency in the scene is also a very smart and potentially lucrative move.
It finally feels like Home consumer and developer alike are shrugging off this ridiculous notion of trying to sell Home as something it isn’t to people who aren’t interested. Instead, there’s finally a growing focus on deepening the social experience of Home for the people who already are there and monetize consistently. Bravo to Juggernaut for deftly maneuvering through Home’s marketplace and offering a remarkable new experience to it.
At press time, it appears the scene will be available in SCEA and SCEE on June 26th, followed shortly thereafter by SCEAsia — however, this is not yet confirmed by Sony officials. We look forward to studying the community’s reaction after it deploys.
(Author’s note: the release date has evidently been pushed back to July 3rd.)
June 21st, 2013 by Terra_Cide | 5 comments
Terra _Cide is the former Community Manager for Lockwood Publishing and Editor Emeritus for HomeStation Magazine.
TwitterShare
| Tweet |
Homelings are going to be ALL OVER THIS! Guaranteed. (But don’t let that stop everyone else from coming.)
I love this space already, anything with minibots is a win in my book
I have always said in the past plaza was a great meeting place for new and old friends. With the new facelift still has that great gathering feeling. Dancing in the plaza on a sunday morning. LOVE IT!!!
Social spaces is what every social MMO has been successful with, if you want to rock rave or listen to country music etc every other social MMO lets its users do that. Home wanted to be a social MMO for gamers but has everything that winds gamers up, long load times, dodgy network errors and mediocre games. Let it be social, hanging out in plazas, parks and the old west. All we need now is hang out spots geared to tastes so somewhere geared towards all the types of clothes we get in home. Spaces where ravers can hang spaces wear Goths can hang etc etc but at last we are getting more social spaces
Very good suggestions, Gary. Our wardrobes imply so many cultures, but our social spaces are still quite limited. I think the best mix is a social hangout space with a few simple, socially-oriented games, multiple conversation areas and a place to dance. The Playground is a good example of a hangout in the “street style” mood. Serenity Plaza seems to be close to the ideal, with Minibots and an excellent dance floor. And all Acorn Meadows Park is missing is a dance area. I look forward to seeing what Digital Leisure does with its Wild West space. We finally seem to be figuring out what to do with Home.