by Phoenix, HSM team writer

The news about the end of new content to the Japan and Asian regions of Home means something different to everyone that heard it. For most of us in the SCEA region, it means we will continue in much the same way as before. There will be floods of new content and interaction.  For us there will be some of the same developers — and possibly, hopefully, new developers entering Home for as long as we have Home. For some fashionistas it means the end of new and exciting fashions available before they hit the NA/EU regions. Lockwood will no longer have to answer the question of why no gift machine in Japan region.

It also means that NA/EU Home has evolved in a way that makes it viable as a beta — for now. The developers have been allowed to create and engage the residents of these regions. SCEA Home has developed somewhat of a partnership between consumers and developers.  There is a community alive and well within SCEA Home. The economy is flourishing here.  Though Home is for some onlookers a haven for socially maladjusted misfits and damaged oddballs, it is a Home nonetheless, and many are glad for the news.

In the same announcement SCEA Home and SCEE Home were given hope that they might see more life in this great virtual world of ours. The knowledge that new content would still be developed and published here was that sign, that glimmer of hope turned a full sparkle — for now.  But for those unlucky regions, Japan and Asia, no more content is just the opposite.

Without new content, how long will they remain open?

To me, the news brought to mind the image of what happens when a pond becomes stagnant. This news feels like a sentence of termination, slow and steady termination. With no filtration to allow nutrients, a pond or ecosystem will eventually die.  With no new content, no new change to the dynamic, I cannot envision a thriving community where nothing changes. It would resemble life in a bubble. There has to be a changing flow of some kind. Home is a social metaverse with no purpose; its only sense of any sort of forward progression —  the only hook to consistently keep people coming back — was new content. Take that away…and what’s left?

I’ve heard some people say that isn’t what’s happening; they are not closing down, they only said no new content will be published. But isn’t it a closing down, of sorts? I think it is death to Home as we know it, and more.  Will those present continue to log on to Home? Surely those people in those regions that use Home for more than games will become bored, with no new toys, and ornaments. I envision a death in Home as we see it today.  Speaking with some friends in the Japan region, they feel much the same: they do not see Home remaining at least in the form they’ve come to know.

If the doors do not close completely as I think they might, then Home in those regions may progress into nothing more the what they were seen to be in the beginning: simply gaming platforms, a jump-off point where gamers meet before and after they launch a game. Not a bad thing for some, if gaming is all you’ve an interest in. These closed regions may even yield a Home that becomes more chat-room styled, becoming only a collection of lounge spaces, but it definitely won’t be what many here see as being Home: a virtual world of full lives.

For these people, they may be watching the slow decline of a friend and a way of life. The news was, and is, a double-edged sword for those based in the SCEA/SCEE regions that region-hop. I am not suggesting that without new weekly content Home cannot function, but I am suggesting if sales were already lower in these regions then they will surely need to become something other than Home as we know it, to survive this change.

Finally, I find I will eagerly be watching in the next year to see what changes occur in the closed regions. If Japan Sony has made this decision, then I’m certain they have already envisioned what comes next. They know exactly what this announcement means for them.

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2 Responses to “Is Home Defined by New Content?”

1. KrazyFace says:

   September 4, 2013 at 1:26 pm

   I find it odd that some can consider Home without weekly updates to be a dead Home. Don’t get me wrong, I understand it perfectly well; I just don’t see how no more content can “kill Home”. Maybe it’s because I came into Home when content updates were every few months, and at best carried something other than a few new t-shirts. Or perhaps it’s because I use Home first and foremost as a social tool, rather than a high tech Ken Doll dressing sim.

   For me Home will only die when I stop making friends and meeting interesting people, or whenever Sony flips that switch. It’s the people that keep Home alive to me, not shiny new toys to play with; although, those are fun.

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2. Gary160974 says:

   September 4, 2013 at 5:40 pm

   I agree with the friends bit, but when you look at all the web sites, articles, events, you tube movies and forums it’s all about product what’s being released, rewards etc etc. Very little is the social aspect and if it is social it’s limited to very few users

   Reply