by Phoenix, HSM team writer

For some Home users, there is a psychological need for Home to shed its “beta” tag. Software in beta is still technically in pre-release, allowing for corrections, changes and updates to be made before software is ready for general release to a buying market — but it doesn’t mean the product is going to end if it stays in beta.

True, five years is a lengthy timeframe for a beta, but Home itself is unusual. Home, like the users who inhabit it, cannot be clearly labeled. Nonetheless, the symbolic act of Home emerging from beta holds special emotional significance for some. A fairly recent prank article from a gaming satire site, claiming that Home would be out of beta in 2016, has been making the rounds throughout the Home community. Only something which has emotional resonance is worth satirizing, and it seems a shame that this particular prank took up so much attention just as Home was celebrating half a decade of open beta. After all, celebrations were held all over Home, and it was impossible to not reminisce about days gone by. No one seemed to speculate about it coming out of beta; indeed, it seemed everyone was quite content to just have Home, five years on.

The way I see it, the need for some people to see Home in a “final” form may have to do with the stigma of “beta” itself — if it can even be called a stigma. Beta signifies a testing phase. Beta has an incomplete aura about it. Perhaps, for some, the impermanence of “beta” is scary? The thought may be that the beta tag signifies Home isn’t somehow ready yet, and if after five years it still isn’t ready for general release…well damn, will it ever be?

For a software application, Home is unusually precious to its hardcore users. The idea of no Home is unacceptable for them, so “beta” reminds them that Home is still being tested and not a permanent thing. I ask, however: what is permanent? There are programs that go on for a decade — or longer — and still die a slow death from eventual lack of usage. But they had a great run.

Articles like the one that pranked people seem to tap into a deep desire to have Home stamped with some kind of permanent mark; a validation of sorts, to show it isn’t going anywhere. The idea is that the retention of the “beta” tag makes Home feel even more like a redheaded stepchild in the Sony pantheon — kept alive from a combination of marginal profitability and benevolent neglect, but too much of an embarrassment to warrant any further marketing efforts. And so that satire article, hurtful as it was, made these people happy and hopeful — because they wanted to believe in it.

They want to believe Home has a future.

Thing is, though, the beta tag is the wrong symbolic gesture to fixate upon. Let’s say Peter Edward gave the order to have the tag removed. Today. Right now. What would that ultimately change? Just because it isn’t in beta doesn’t mean it will last. The idea of a final form for Home, to me, has the opposite effect.  A final form means no change. What would Home be with no changes? It would stay the same for long periods of time. No new content, no new core updates, et cetera. No thank you.

Shedding the beta tag doesn’t mean Home will be perfect and without the need for patches and core client updates. Home is a living, breathing entity with a user base that’s constantly demanding it to be bent, broken and remade in ways that were originally never envisioned. Further, we now live in an age where software patches, regardless of platform, are practically commonplace (just consider how many times this week various apps on your phone have requested to be updated).

There’s actually one personal reason I can think of why we might not ever want Home to emerge from beta, actually: if Sony ever truly felt Home was in a “finished” state, as such, then perhaps a case could be made for turning Home into a subscription service.

Right now, in beta, Home is included on PS3 consoles, free for anyone to enjoy. When programs come out of beta, it means they are ready for a consumer market. That usually means a price tag is put on it. Yes, there are free forms of software and freemium online virtual worlds, but “free” is a different concept here.  Online “free” usually comes with limits. There could be pop-up ads everywhere, there could be a limit to the accessibility of the items and content available in the virtual world, or something else entirely.

If Home, were to come out of beta, who is to say it would in any way remain the same as what you currently enjoy? What’s to prevent time restrictions for free play on Home? Or, heck, PlayStation Plus could become a requirement to use Home. And, oh yes, those free clubs so many of us have might actually see those monthly fees activated to maintain one.

If Home got to a point where it came out of beta, it is entirely possible that each and every subsequent update, introducing new features, would become a paid upgrade, similar to DLC. The many voices (with their entitlement attitudes) requesting FREE items — with little to no concept of the work involved in creating them — might not like that, but had Home begun that way up front, no one would complain today.

Be careful what you wish for.

So I ask again: what’s so important about any sort of end of beta for Home?

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2 Responses to “What “Beta” Means for Home”

1. FEMAELSTROM says:

   December 27, 2013 at 10:52 pm

   I for one am not concerned about the beta issue. Alpha, beta, omega, I don’t care, I see the people around me and their real concerns are simple, is Home going to be around for the foreseeable future? Of course we all hope so. You make a good point about the service coming out of beta and getting a service fee, which I would pay, but that would be an un-welcomed and unwanted move to many that are used to Home’s free landscape and goodies giveaway that may seek and are used to.Good read, and i like things just the way they are.

   Reply
   • Phoenix says:

     December 31, 2013 at 1:16 pm

     I like them too Strom, bugs and all. I’m not adverse to change,if and when it comes I may still like Home enough to be here after the change.

     Reply