A Subscription-Based Home
by Terra_Cide, HSM Editor-in-Chief
The most logical conclusion to make is that Home is going to live out its life on the PS3; whether that lifespan is months or years, only Sony can say, but it’s highly likely that Home won’t translate to the PS4.
There is, however, one possible exception: streaming via Gaikai.
This comes with a catch, though: if Home went that route, it would almost certainly mean a subscription fee. Whether it was wrapped into PlayStation Plus or broken out as its own separate cost, there’s no getting around the fact that the days of Home being a free lunch would come to an end.
Is that such a bad thing, though?
Let’s look at the pros and cons. The one obvious reality is that the moment Home turned into a subscription service, it would conservatively lose somewhere in the neighborhood of 90% of its active user base, and create an economic barrier to entry that would prevent new users from experimenting with it unless some sort of demo period was allowed. This may not be disastrous, however: after more than half a decade of open beta, Home is a known commodity to the PlayStation gaming audience. It has been largely dismissed by the vast majority of said crowd, and passionately embraced by a relatively small core user base. And, like all social MMO experiences, the bulk of the revenue is driven by a tiny percentage of that active user base already. So the key to Home’s survival would lay in convincing enough of them to pay a subscription fee to continue using the service.
Given that this publication caters to Home’s whales, it’s certainly a question we want to pose to you: would you pay a subscription fee to continue enjoying Home on the PS4?
There are other advantages and drawbacks. A subscription-based Home would neatly eliminate much of the number-one problem that’s plagued Home since its inception: poor user behavior. It won’t take care of it completely, but if people have some economic skin in the game, they’re generally less likely to behave like monsters. And if they continue to do so anyways, and – as they currently do – create multiple accounts in order to continue to carry on with their poor behavior, why shouldn’t Sony profit from their foolishness?
From a budgeting standpoint alone, it becomes much easier for the platform provider — Sony — to accurately allocate (and justify said allocation of) resources based on an anticipated base revenue. Given how it appears that Home has been on something of a reduced budget since the end of the fiscal year following the deployment of the Hub, I would argue that it frankly can’t be any worse than how things are now.
Who stands to lose in a subscription-based Home?
Well, for some consumers, Home is about the only robust console-based gaming experience they can afford. A subscription fee might not drive them away, but it would perhaps reduce the level of disposable income available for purchasing content from third-party vendors. And without Home’s third-party vendors shouldering the bulk of the development costs for Home’s attractions, Home would quickly stagnate without a greater level of investment from Sony itself.
I’m actually finding it hard to come up with some significant drawbacks. Sure, the population of Home would be much smaller, but I would argue that the core user base that actually monetizes would remain relatively stable. And given that the days of hoping Home would be the grand killer app of an entire console generation are long gone, this might be a way to have Home remain in service as a niche product for the years to come. A subscription-based Home would create more economic incentive on developing long-term core features and less incentive on going after the latest quick-buck strategy.
Is it worth a subscription?
The real question mark is Sony. If Home ever did become a subscription service, the consumer really does have the right to demand a higher level of platform stability, and there is a general expectation that Home would become a more robust, dynamic and ever-changing environment with new core features, as opposed to the generally-viewed notion that it’s a child which has been benevolently neglected. It may simply be that Sony won’t have the desire to continue supporting a legacy product that never really did live up to its hype, and ultimately shift resources elsewhere once the business case becomes too loud to ignore.
None of this affects the here and now, of course. Home is still with us, and we should continue to enjoy it. But there must come a point where Sony’s lack of public guidance on Home’s future will compel its third-party content providers to shift development resources out of Home and into other projects — Avakin, Forsaken Planet, Axis Game Factory, etc. — which in turn may erode consumer confidence in Home’s longevity, leading to an overall platform revenue declination. The most feasible solution for a long-term Home beyond the PS3 is via Gaikai streaming — and thus a subscription model — but it is unknown if that will happen.
For now, let’s continue to enjoy Home while we can. The PS3 still has quite a bit of shelf life left in it, and the same is likely true for Home.
July 6th, 2013 by Terra_Cide | 15 comments
Terra _Cide is the former Community Manager for Lockwood Publishing and Editor Emeritus for HomeStation Magazine.
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Subscription would take out multiple accounts but also multiply revenue streams as there are a lot of users with full blown accounts on different regions that won’t pay subscriptions on all of them. The only reason Asia home stays running is on revenue from non native accounts, if you have ever been there you know what I mean. By creating subscribers this could actually lose more money. And as much as Sony or developers wouldn’t want to admit it having multiple accounts helps them with better figures by just increasing the amount of unique users to they spaces.
Multiple accounts would probably cease by a huge percentage, if a subscription were introduced. But what if the entire Gaikai service was charged for? So, you’re paying to access (they’d say) “every PlayStation game ever made”, and Home was lumped into the sub. It may not seem like such a biggie if you were getting it as a kinda sub, sub service. Also seems to fit nicely into Home’s pattern of obscurity if done like that.
Personally, I’d probably pay something like $2 or $3 a month to keep my NA Home account running but I’d have to let my native account slip -- it’s just not worth that to me. That’s a content call, not a reflection on the fun and people I’ve met there.
Home on PS4 subscription-based would work if game companies dropped a level of their games onto the platform. You get a PlayStation plus discount of course
Game developers create spaces, game related content and personal spaces to go with their games. Kicker would be a game level built just for Home of advertised game. not our avatars playing by the way. I don’t think that worked previously.. real game.
Build a Home world that is built around the PS4 design with all the bells and whistles that PS4 offers. In game cross chat, Netflix, Video sharing and a Home web page ”Facebook” style. Make it worth a subscription.
Terra, love the article.
I see Home as a prototype for a product that has not yet been defined. There is a substantial population of gamers looking for a social MMO experience, just as there are gamers who prefer loosely-structured “sandbox games” over standard shooters, fighters and racing competitions. From my own observations, I suspect that the social/sandbox populations overlap to a large degree. The problem with social MMO’s has been the economic model — how to get enough people to spend enough money in Home to make it work.
I wonder if the gaming MMO genre (World of Warcraft, DCUO, and similar creations) could be married to the Home concept to provide a more social experience, with more of an emphasis on casual gaming and interaction. I’m intrigued by the promise of an Elder Scrolls MMO on the PS4 platform. The Elder Scrolls titles are wildly popular with my Home friends. (I know one Homeling who remarks that he “took an arrow to the knee” on every possible occasion.) If the Elder Scrolls MMO is a place where you can not only embark on grand quests, but also putter around with alchemy, explore the woods, and hang out with your friends in taverns, might it not become an emotional successor to Home? I already know a number of Home users who are using DCUO as a social platform. And it appears to this outside observer that the Dust 514/EVE Online community is used in similar ways. If I were not already so involved in Home, I might be checking out these alternative online universes.
I’d be in my element if I could build, open then run my own tavern in an online Elder Scrolls world! The great thing about that kind of world is that you can go out in teams and build your characters together while gathering cool stuff.
I’m a huge fan of “The Guild”. The relationships among the highly disfunctional players are priceless. I can totally see them in Home.
I strongly believe that Home will survive and land on PS 4. I know a large base of people (me included) that purchased a ps3 just because of Home. I can almost guarantee that Home will be a subscription service and hurray for that! As a consequence, I will have to give up my Japan account and 1 of my 2 NA accounts but that’s ok. My friends will transfer over. As far as the dooms day stuff goes I hear about Home, hey guess what? The 2012 dooms day scare has come and gone and we are still here despite the certainty of the so called “Experts”. So rasberries to the Mayans! Home isn’t doomed either so rasberries again to all the PS Home Dooms Day Prophets,lol. I find alot of the negative predictions come from hard core gamers who have a grudge with Home. I don’t know why they do. If you don’t like it then don’t click on the icon…simple
I would pay a subscription fee to access Home,for sure.A part of me is even a tiny bit surprised this hasn’t happened yet.I believe this kind of service is going to happen one way or another but who does it right first-Sony or Microsoft,or maybe an unseen contender-remains to be seen.From a business standpoint (not my forte to be sure)it would seem to make sense to offer a service where people can consume and spend dollars from the comfort of our living rooms and make it really easy and fun.Home does this perfectly why not continue to do so on the PS4 with the added bells and whistles that the PS4 tech can offer.Second life just doesn’t cut it for me.I hope Sony does it right.Time will tell and I remain hopeful that a virtual gaming social playground steeped in fantasy will be available to inhabit…somewhere in cyberspace.
If the subscription allowed users to continue accessing their PS3-Home content, then I would consider it. On the other hand, I don’t know if I would start paying a fee to start from scratch. It would help if developers would be willing to offer more free content. At least, users would feel like they’re getting more from their subscription than simple access.
Ultimately, it would depend on what the new and improved Home has to offer to justify the expense. Many people would not be willing to pay for Home as it is right now.
I got to agree with you Terra,
I feel there is a very good chance Home will be on the PS4, and if it is, it will be via the PS4 streaming service. I feel if it happens it will be a year or two into the PS4 launch.
Here’s an interesting thought. The PS4 will not be reign locked, and this has some huge ramifications for Home on the PS4. So, potentially Home will truly be one worldwide community. This would be a very cool thing indeed!
Good point! Especially if licensing can be pre-agreed upon in a region free manner…no more waiting for content to hit certain regions! Perhaps they will take it further and allow for the solicitation of more user-driven content.
Unless I’m mistake, SONY has said Home would always be free. If it’s not and SONY changes their mind they lose credibility. Sometimes companies rise and fall base on people’s perception of them.
On the PS4 PLUS will be necessary for some online services and not necessary for others like Netflix. If <em/Home makes it the PS4, will it be free access like Netflix and other apps or will PLUS be needed? Time will tell. SONY can change their mind about anything.
Home is Free-to-Play, so if by theory Home makes it to the Ps4, F2P games will stay free.
My personal opinion? I just don’t see myself paying for this service. Granted, I’m down for better maintenance and added features in the server but even then I just don’t really see myself paying for Home.
I see a lot of the ‘whales’ paying , I know I would. To me it would be just another virtual purchase. Instead of say a set of clothes or estates, membership. Say the price was $40 a year, and that’s just a ‘suppose’, I would pay it as that what I spend in no time flat. I would love a ‘thinned ranks’ home and the lack of the lesser behaved. At least at that point, if the devs know how many people they are catering to, they can better cater to those people. I lived in an area and there was a public park that gathered lesser behaved people, then when the county opened up the ‘for pay’ park a few miles away, that was my park of choice. Less undesirables. Yeah I would pay, and I am hoping that Home goes on till the PS infinity…I know too obvious.
Good article that gets you to thinking,But might I say that if it were a paid subscription when I found home,I would not have even considered it.Since I have been on Home for three months I have spent atleast 80 dollars if not more(not that its much in the bigger picture)…this is money the devs. would have lost out on.
It has been my experience that paying for service does Not mean better clientele.I will just point you to Cod Elite for proof of that.Sometimes when people pay they feel like they deserve more,and will voice their opinion as such.You will find good and bad people both online and your everyday life.
If you happen to find a hate free community,let me know,my bags are packed.