by Phoenix, HSM team writer

Much like the Flying Dutchman, some personal spaces have been appearing and disappearing on the Home navigator. It is speculated these spaces have been sitting on the Sony shelves, soft-published, gathering storage dust. If you had a friend at the open house of one of these mysterious spaces, then it was seen on your navigator. In the event that such a thing did occur, you could visit the space and perhaps even purchase it and its furniture, if you had a mind to and the PSN servers were responding correctly. I had the opportunity to see these spaces: the Las Vegas Suite, the Pearl Diver, the Infinite Oasis Ranch House, the Rainforest Lounge, and the Paradise at Sea Yacht.

Rumors (and several Home residents) say these were spaces Sony Computer Entertainment created years ago but never released, a sort of ‘on the shelf’ item in-stock but not available. I have no idea if they will be seen again, but they were sighted on these occasions. Though there is no explanation that I have heard that explains the reasoning behind the unreleased spaces being on the navigator at this time, neither is there a reason given that these spaces were never released for purchase to the public.

 I’m certain that if you keep your eyes peeled to the navigator, one day you’ll stumble across a friend in one of these spaces. All it takes is one person to share it with another, and the viral exposure from there simply perpetuates itself.

The first of these that appeared on my list last year was the Rainforest Space. This space appeared the day before Lockwood’s New Rainforest space was to debut and the others followed in that same week. Needless to say this caused a bit of confusion with some buyers. These buyers purchased the space (The Rainforest Lodge) thinking it was Lockwood’s.

The space is not a bad space; it is rather simple in its design, very pretty in fact, but with little interactivity. There were a few things that tipped me off that this was not Lockwood, other than the name on the Navigator, if you didn’t see it; one being the gifting machine on the wall. This gifting machine was just like the one in my Plum Pavilion, and that was an SCE creation.  I have several Lockwood spaces, and when they create a space with rewards for guests, they appear in the space just as they do for the owner. Another thing that was a tip off was the feel of the space itself. Lockwood has a way of creating a space with a certain je ne sais quoi. There is an ambiance about their spaces that tells you right away it is Lockwood.  Lastly the price was a giveaway – this space was going for $4.99. Though that is not a bad price, it is not a Lockwood price.

Don’t get me wrong, SCE have created a few spaces that I own, and these are good spaces. I am happy with all the spaces I own from both developers, but to me some of the spaces from SCE seem to have an unfinished quality about them. It’s as if the developers thought about doing more with the space but decided against it. These spaces all had the same something missing quality to them when they appeared on the navigator. They have such wonderful views, but not accessible, they have the potential to be some of the better spaces for offer, but they just don’t fulfill the unspoken promise you get from them upon entering them.

Lockwood and a few other developers seem to understand that need to utilize most, if not all, of your space. Understanding this is, I think, key to what has made Lockwood and Juggernaut so successful with their estate designs.

Finally, this is the biggest thing that spoke to me that this was not Lockwood – the fact that they and the other developers have long since stopped creating spaces with, simply put, pretty pictures in them — and this space had to be older.  The older spaces are little more than boxes with wallpaper details at times. Yes, you can use some of the burn-ins as table tops or seating, but little else is going on here. Still, as I said, I didn’t find these spaces horrible, just slightly lacking in comparison. For me they wouldn’t have had to be completely interactive; in fact, I tried to purchase three of them but the stores were unavailable for me. They worked for some guests who were able to purchase them. But for me only one of the ones I wanted worked and I purchased it – the Infinite Oasis Ranch House (which, by the way, is available in the SCEE region as well).

This space loads in like a dream and is just big enough and interesting enough with its golf course-like lawn surrounding three sides. This is where I would have like some interaction. I would love to have been able to stroll though the surrounding landscape. I would have loved to have a game present if not the strolling ability here. A golf game would have been perfect. But the lack of these was not a deal breaker. The space is mid-century modern in design and so a favorite for me. This space, as well as the others, seems to me to have been created around the time as the Plum Pavilion and SCE’s other gifting spaces in the Home market. And I for one would like the chance to see just what else SCE has held back on their shelves. Insofar as I can tell, there are at the very least two more of them I would like to own.

EDITS: Estim20, January 18, 2014

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