Offical PSI ~HOME~ thread.

[jaxmkii]

i figured we should start brainstorming about our PSI Clubhouse...

i want a pool table out on the deck and beach front if possible.

[satriales]

I want a snooker table and a bar.

[Yo MaMa84]

dancing pole for the tuesday night strippers.....

[VG Aficionado]

dancing pole for the tuesday night strippers.....It'll be interesting to see how they'll manage "adult" situations and how they'll prevent people from abusing on the community.

[BruceWayneIII]

^ well, think of how flexibility is distributed in Home. Everything is controlled by Sony, in the public areas, and you get flexibility in your own private home. YouTube is public, but access to your 'appartment' is restricted by invitations. Probably also why - according to people here - there is only room for 50 people on the friends list. Just top-of-mind thoughts...

[jaxmkii]

the amature porn comuntity will have a field day with this and eyetoy... can't wait

[Sephiroth_VII]

Anyway, I think we should have a way to make a donation to buy the house, so that all of the members using the clubhouse would contribute. After all, we do want the biggest house, right? :hugegrin:
So, depending on house prices and the number of people who'd want to join, I think that each of us would have to donate 0.5-3 USD.

[Coded-Dude]

house......I was thinking more like a mansion :shrug:

[Sephiroth_VII]

^I was thinking Victorian palace :P

[nwo504]

pshome is going to suck lives away

[Z]

what the Hell, lets just by the whole freakin Beverly Hills equivalent!

we'll be Home's mafia and rule the streets!

[LaLiLuLeLo]

someone's gonna get voted off.

[Coded-Dude]

no no.....A CASTLE!
(honestly I think a death star would be more fitting, but thats another galaxy......far far away - ololl)

[Z]

I will make it a habit of breaking into other people' homes and 'borrowing' their trophies!

PlayStation Underground will be on my trail! watch the live trial on a home screen near you! Home Reality to a new level!

[Sephiroth_VII]

Lol!! You guys always crack me up!

[PSXBatou]

It'll be interesting to see how they'll manage "adult" situations and how they'll prevent people from abusing on the community.


When asked also about the obvious similitude with Linden Lab’s Second Life game, Sony said that “Home is a much more rich, user friendly experience than Second Life, allowing for ease of entry and use..."

Seems like they have the Adult part down :laugh:

[KiLLA2006]

club house eh, i was thinking in the streets, we can do sort of a west side story jets vs sharks thing... dancing in unison, would be awesome...:shocked:

[Sephiroth_VII]

PSXBatou... You have a perverted mind.

Then again, so do I! We're both anime fans, after all :hugegrin:

[CygnusXI]

Could we have home "ban guns"?

Have your home open for public browsing.
Along comes some turd, shoot them with this ban-gun and they are added to some b-list.

Hell. They could even try to run, and you gotta chase em down thru the house.

lol

[Yo MaMa84]

Ill make a go-go club :quagmire:

[solidsnakejej]

everyone bookmark this page
http://www.homebetatrial.com/

[user friendly]

everyone bookmark this page
http://www.homebetatrial.com/

just did like ten minutes ago.

[9thPower]

Lol, I want a room just for me, so I can decorated as I See fit, this is amazing, you can make your own room idea, try different stuffs, and then take a photo, and rebuild your own room like that :hugegrin: this is great! :banana: And everybody could have a room dedicated to a certain game, and then we would join and talk about that game in that room.... Nah... :whogives:

[F089/H]

This is gonna be fuxing tight...

[venomv]

club house eh, i was thinking in the streets, we can do sort of a west side story jets vs sharks thing... dancing in unison, would be awesome...:shocked:

That would be cool, as much as I hate West Side Story.

[Saibo]

im still waiting to hear some serious ideas on this :P. One thing that might be cool is to create a conference room for the PSINEXT staff to conduct meetings. This room is only a small part of "PSI-Home", it should have a huge HDTV on the wall(show slides,etc), coffee, donuts.. (joking about the last 2).

Building a "Home" page seems to easy, base on Phil keynote, the content itself is created in a 3D app(in this case he mention Maya), and exported out.

i figured we should start brainstorming about our PSI Clubhouse...

i want a pool table out on the deck and beach front if possible.

+rep, great topic

lets focus on the inside first.

Pool table is a given, moreover we might as well add a game room. Pool(we can have competition, just set a time and date), darts,arcade machines(imagine playing a old school contra game on this thing! with a buddy). Any other games that i might of missed?

Theatre - imagine everyone meeting up on a set date to watch the latest "Throwback the Duck" episode.

Alot of the 3D work on this "Home" page can be done now in a 3D application and once the Home SDK is out, it can be ported.

Keep the ideas coming. the spaces itself should be big, considering how many PS fan might be visiting in any given time.

[karibu]

If 'Home' was in works for PS2, is it possible that KK meant 'Home' when he
said you'll be logging into matrix?

[Sephiroth_VII]

http://www.homebetatrial.com/ | www.google.com/ig

^Firefox users, if you post this as your homepage, both Google and the Home Beta Trial website will start up every time you start your browser or press the home button.

[indiekid4]

club house eh, i was thinking in the streets, we can do sort of a west side story jets vs sharks thing... dancing in unison, would be awesome...:shocked:

Ohh! We should do the Thriller dance! lol woohoo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPmYbP0F4Zw

[Acason79]

Lots and lots of arcade machines :p A bowling alley is a must!!

[sudzy]

If 'Home' was in works for PS2, is it possible that KK meant 'Home' when he
said you'll be logging into matrix?

I think that's exactly what he meant.
This home concept has so many possibilities it is absolutely mind blowing.
Sure, it isn't for everybody. But I can see a LOT of people taking full advantage of this.

Oh, I would absolutely slay you all in pool.:rockon:

[Sypher]

Found on GAF

Press Q&A:

Home Key Points:
• Its the first of it’s kind on a videogame console
• A unique blend of community, user-generated content, collaboration
and commerce that is the future of computer entertainment.
• Will broaden the online community market in the same way that the
PlayStation brand has broadened the video gaming market
• Will take the mystery and the geekiness out of online interaction, and
make it as easy as text messaging or picking up the phone
• Is inclusive and welcoming, not exclusive and daunting like current
offerings
• Is the gateway and start point for a huge range of future
PLAYSTATION®Network services

Q: How do you get to Home?
A: Home will be available as a free download from the PLAYSTATION
Store and will launch directly from the PS3 XMB™ (XrossMediaBar).

Q: Why is Sony Computer Entertainment creating this service?
A: The power of the PS3 and the PLAYSTATION Network afford us the
opportunity to create a unique user service that will define the future of
community on computer entertainment platforms. We feel it is
important to foster not only user-interaction, but increased, ongoing
contact between users, first and third party publishers and other
partners.

Q: Is there a cost or a subscription required to participate in Home?
A: Home is free to download and free to use. The user will be able to
purchase items from the PLAYSTATION Store (Home supports the
Sony Wallet) to further customise their Home Space, as well as make
purchases from other third party partners

Q: Is Home global?
A: Yes, when it launches Home will be a global network service.

Q: When is Home launching?
A: We will be executing a closed beta this spring. The official launch date
will be later this year.

Q: What is the ambition of Home?
A: Home Space
• Design and build your own apartment, house or even
neighbourhood.
• Purchase new landscapes, apartments and furniture
World
• Purchase new clothing sets, pets and accessories for your
character
• Purchase functional items to add value to your private Home
experience
• Leave your mark on the world with premium player-created content
tools.
Entertainment
• Share photos, movies and music from your PS3 HDD with friends in
your personal space.
Gaming
• Meeting game-specific lobbies to discuss games, get new content
or team up for online gameplay
Lobbies
• Individual lobbies created by first and third parties allow for
consumer interaction, commerce

Q: Isn’t Home a copycat?
A: Home is a first of its kind 3D community that allows for open interaction
between consumers, Sony Computer Entertainment and third party
partners.

Q: How is this different from other network communities?
A: Home is a much more rich, user friendly experience than other network
communities, allowing for ease of entry and use, as well as being fullyfunctional
with the technology and capabilities of PS3

Q: How will you make money from Home?
A: The business model for Home is based on a combination of
ecommerce and advertising revenue.

Q: How will third party partners be able to be involved in Home?
A: Third party partners will be able to build their own custom lobbies for
their products, where they can present information to users, provide
downloadable content and implement various ecommerce models.
Advertising options will also be made available through Home.

Q: How big is the Home download?
A: The Home download will be under 500MB.



Presence / navigation / features

Q: What is the function of the Home central lobby and what is the
maximum number of users in a lobby?
A: The Home central lobby is the central meeting place where you can
meet new friends or arrange to meet old friends, before transferring to
a private meeting place. The current maximum number of concurrent
users in a single lobby is 64, but there will be a multitude of lobbies
active at any given time for users to explore.

Q: How do you make sure friends are present in the same space?
A: You can invite them via your friends list or invite them to your personal
Home Space

Q: How do players find friends within the Home world?
A: We will have search functions for finding people online and offline, and
for finding lobbies.

Q: How many Home avatars can I have?
A: The current plan is for each user to have one avatar. Home is the
human face of PLAYSTATION Network (PSN), and your Home avatar
is how you represent yourself. However, it will be possible to change
your appearance, through customising your character and adding
accessories, so you’ll be able to constantly re-invent yourself should
you so desire.

Q: How can I customize my Home avatar?
A: Home avatars are fully customizable with different facial features,
height, weight, sex, skin color, hair styles, clothing, accessories, etc.

Q: Can you enter, say, MotorStorm™ quickly through Home without
having to travel to the specific MotorStorm™ lobby?
A: Currently, users can find each other in Home, and then arrange to go
off and play MotorStorm at the same time. Eventually, users will be
able to meet in Home and seamlessly launch into a game of
MotorStorm™. Similarly, users will be able to exit to Home directly from
the game.

Q: How will the Hall of Fame rewards program be implemented?
A: Users receive points for in-game achievements. More details
regarding this will be made available closer to launch.



Moderation / Abuse

Q: What is the policy on acceptable behaviour?
A: Within our public spaces, Home follows the same rules and guidelines
as the PLAYSTATION Network with regard to age stipulations and
acceptable behaviour. Home uses all the same age controls as the
PS3 System Software. Private spaces will not be monitored unless
abuses or violations to our policies are reported by a user.

Q: How will I protect my kids from seeing things they shouldn’t?
A: Within our public spaces, Home follows the same rules and guidelines
as the PLAYSTATION Network with regard to age stipulations and
acceptable behaviour. Any public areas that contain subject matter not
suitable for all users will be age restricted, and the registered age of
users will determine entry.

Q: How will age restrictions be applied?
A: Home employs the same age restriction policies as the PS3 System
Software and the PLAYSTATION Network.

Q: How will I protect my kids from associating with undesirable
people?
A: Parental controls are available through PS3 and the PLAYSTATION
Network. We encourage parents to take an active role in participating
any time a child has access to an open communication network, such
as the Internet.

Q: Will users be able to make complaints about other users?
A: Of course. We will operate a system of logging complaints with our
moderators, which will then be investigated. If necessary we are able to
take away a user’s login rights and ban them from the service.

Q: How much control will we have over what people get up to in their
private spaces?
A: Our policy is not to actively police private areas, and a user cannot be
invited to another user’s private space until they have accepted an
invitation to be on their buddy list. However, the complaints process will
still operate in these private spaces, so if people feel that they have
been subjected to inappropriate behaviour while in someone’s private
space, they will be able to lodge a complaint by the usual process.





Home™ Development Q&A

General Features

Q: What is Home™?
Home™ is a real-time 3D, networked community that serves as a meeting
place for PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) users from around the world, where they
can interact, communicate, join online games, shop, share content and even
build and show off their own personal spaces. Home will be available as a
free download from the PLAYSTATION®Store and will launch directly from
the PS3 XMB™ (XrossMediaBar).

Q: What is the target demographic of Home users?
Home is for everybody. It is a global platform and the aim is to populate it with
a broad and rich content experience, the diversity of which will create a broad
and diverse community of users.

Q: How do consumers use it?
For the user, Home is a new experience in social networking. It’s a way to
meet new friends online, or hang out with old friends and family. It’s also a
rich media experience outside of the fundamental game-based activities on
PS3. It will reside on the XMB between Game and Network.

Q: What features does it have?
Communication between users, creation and customisation of your own
personal avatar, creation and customisation of your own personal space.
Ability to share media with friends, and to experience media from publishers.
Users will be able to benefit from game matchmaking, search facilities,
seamless transition between game and Home.

Q: What is the timeline for rollout?
Closed Beta (appx. 15,000 users): April - August
Open Beta (appx. 50,000 users): August - October
Service Live (50,000+): October



Q: What is the function of the Central Lounge?
The lobby is the central meeting place where you can meet new friends or
arrange to meet old friends, before transferring to a private meeting place.
The current maximum of concurrent users in a lobby is 64. But a multitude of
lobbies can be active at any time to accommodate all users.

Q: What other lobbies will exist within Home?
Over time Home will expand to include many different locations. It is our
intention that ultimately anyone can create a Home Space, be they a
publisher, a developer or a Non-game Company.

Q: What is the Hall of Fame?
The trophy room is a Home Space where users are able to display their
gaming accomplishments.

Q: How do I win Trophies?
Players will be able to win Home Trophies when they play games that support
the Home Trophy system. publishers and developers will be able to support
Trophies by building them into their games' architecture. Further information
on how to develop trophies within games will be available soon.

Q: What content will users be able to purchase from within Home?
Over time the range of content available to users will expand dramatically. If
you consider Home to be a simulacra of the real world then most goods and
services found within the real world could theoretically be replicated within
Home. Initially all commercial transaction will be via the
PLAYSTATION®Network (PSN) Store. Eventually users will be able to
transact within the Home environment.

Q: Will I be able to attend ticketed (paid-for) special events?
Yes, in time Home will play host to many types of event. Bespoke events such
as exclusive game previews and developer interviews will be organised by
Home and its affiliated content providers. Live events such as sports and
concerts may also be broadcast within Home.

Q: Can Home users win non-purchased prizes and items?
Yes, it will be possible to give prizes to users.

Q: Will all billing have to be via Sony Wallet?
Yes, all transactions will use the Sony Wallet system within the PSN Store,
although ultimately transactions will be possible without leaving Home.

Q: Can users share their favourite bookmarked Home Spaces with one
another?
Currently there isn't a way to do this, but this is a feature that we'd like to
implement in the future.

Q: When can users have / manage their own spaces?
Every user has a private apartment space that users can modify and change
over time. The basic apartment is free and will offer users lots of options for
customization and personalization. In the future we will provide tools that will
enable users to have an even greater ability to create their own Home spaces
and content.



Commerce & Partnerships

Q: Is Home a commercial environment?
Home is primarily a platform for social interaction and the intention is not to
create a space for purely conducting ecommerce. Home prioritises community
and entertainment over ecommerce. That said, we believe that there will be
ample opportunities for businesses and individuals alike to generate
significant revenues from the Home platform.

Q: When can I start to develop for Home?
You can register your interest to develop for the Home platform immediately
at http://home.scedev.net

Q: Who should I contact about developing for Home?
If you are an existing licence holder you should channel requests for
information through your existing 3rd Party Account Manager. If you do not
have a license agreement, please visit http://home.scedev.net where you will
find more information and an application to register your interest.

Q: I don’t have an existing PlayStation® licence agreement – how can
get involved in developing content for Home?
See above.

Q: I’m an IP / content holder / aggregator – how can I get involved in
Home?
See above.



Q: How soon can publishers and developers have and manage their own spaces?
We would like to engage with interested publishers and developers
immediately. If you an existing licence holder you should channel requests for
information through your existing 3rd Party Account Manager. If you do not
have a licence agreement, please visit http://home.scedev.net where you will
find more information and an application to register your interest.

Q: When can IP holders have / manage their own Home Spaces?
We would like to engage with interested IP and content rights holders
immediately. If you are an interested non-games company or IP holder,
please register your interest with us at http://home.scedev.net . An
appropriate representative will follow up your enquiry.

Q: What support will SCE give to 3rd Parties?
Support to publishers and developers with existing licence agreements will be
provided by the Third Party Relations groups within each region. If you are a
non-game content provider or do not have a license agreement, please visit
http://home.scedev.net where you will find more information and an
application to register your interest.

Q: Who should our developers call for support?
Registered developers should request information through their existing
support relationships. Information will be available on http://home.scedev.net

Q: Who will run Home?
SCE has created a Home Platform Group that will provide the technology,
strategic direction and support to each of the SCE regional headquarters.

Q: Home looks so great – how do publishers ensure that users continue
to play their games rather than spending all their time in Home?
There is a huge scope for publishers and developers to promote their current
and future IPs - as well as exploiting their back-catalogue. For example, it will
be possible to develop small demo-areas within Home that promote new titles,
or to re-publish an old IP as mini-game within their Home Space.

Q: Is Home just a platform for SCE-published games?
Absolutely not. Home will not be a success without broad support and
adoption by our Publishing and Development partners and indeed from nongame
companies and services.

Q: Is Home a PS3 specific service? Will users be able to access Home
through other devices?
Initially Home will only be accessible via that PLAYSTATION®3, although
over time our intention is to enable users to interface certain Home features
and services via other networked devices such as PlayStation®Portable
(PSP®) and mobile phones.

Q: Can I launch and watch a BD movie from within Home?
Launch, yes. Watch, no. (This means you would leave Home to watch the
BD™.)

Q: What is the business model?
The proposed business model for Home is still under review and we'll
announce the details in due course.

Q: How will publishers make money from it?
Initially we predict that the primary areas for generating revenues will come
from the following areas:
- Content purchases (e.g. avatar clothing and accessories)
- Advertising
- Content Auctions

Q: What will be the upfront investment and development costs be for me
as a Home content provider?
The tools and technology required to build and maintain a presence on the
Home Platform are being designed to enable fast and efficient development,
and use industry-standard processes and techniques. The resources required
are surprisingly low and entirely scaleable.

Q: How will businesses be able to promote their products?
The possibilities for promotion and advertising of products and services within
Home Spaces are virtually limitless. Given the initial broad set of functions
and features the possibilities are limited only by creative vision. As the native
features of Home will be continually growing, the creative possibilities will
grow also. The Home Platform Team will also take feature requests to support
our partners in their creative endeavours.

Q: Will we be able to sell products (other than Home assets) online?
Eventually Home will not only support the merchandising of virtual assets, but
also will provide cross-promotional opportunities for selling physical goods
online.



Q: Could publishers sell tutorials to their games through Home?
Yes, the commercial services and features that publishers and developers will
be able to support is extremely broad. Further discussion of specific content
ideas that you may have, please consult with your 3rd Party Account Manager
or register your interest in the Home platform at http://home.scedev.net

Q: What tools will be available for creating content, and when will they
be available?
The Home Platform Group will be providing a roadmap for the deployment
and content of Home Tools. Over time the Tools package will develop into a
comprehensive set of enabling technologies that we can provide to our
partners to assist them with their Home Platform content creation.

Q: Can we reserve a number of seats for the closed & open betas?
Yes, please liaise with your 3rd Party Account Manager and request the
number of seats that your company requires. If you do not have a TMLA,
please register your interest at http://home.scedev.net and an appropriate
Home Platform representative will contact you shortly.

Q: Will it be possible to have territory based promotions for regional
content?
Yes, although Home is a global platform there are regional Home Spaces that
users within each regional area will access by default (based upon their
registration details). There is no restriction on where a user can go from their
default starting location (other than any content age restrictions). Because
there are regional Home spaces, each region will operate its own promotional
events and activities.



Technical & Extended Features

Q: How large is the download?
We're aiming for the initial download to be under 500MB. Subsequent
downloads will hopefully integrate a streaming method that makes them
negligible.

Q: How do users find friends and spaces within Home?
There is an integrated PSN Friends list, and search functionality for spaces.

Q: How many friends can I have?
As many as the PSN friends list allows, which is currently 50.

Q: Will I be able to trade items that I have bought or won with other
Home users?
Ultimately, an auction service will be implemented that will allow users to sell
their Home assets and user-created content to other users.

Q: How often will the content in Home change?
Ultimately content in Home will be updated weekly. All the participants in
Home (the service itself, 1st Party and 3rd Party publishers, non-game brands
and ultimately users themselves) will be creating new content, so the flow of
new features will be will on a weekly basis.

Q: Can I create new items and content for Home myself?
This functionality is in the works for future release. We see user created
content as a very important element of Home's ongoing success.

Q: How will users transact within Home?
During the Beta period, there will be no purchases within Home.
Subsequently, commercial transactions will take place within Home.

Q: Can you enter, say, MotorStorm™ quickly through Home without
having to travel to the specific MotorStorm™ lobby?
Currently, users can find each other in Home, and then arrange to go off and
play MotorStorm™ at the same time. Eventually, users will be able to meet in
Home and seamlessly launch into a game of MotorStorm™. Similarly, users
will be able to exit to Home directly from the game.

Q: How often is incremental content being created for Home?
Content for Home will be developed continually. In addition to an ever
increasing variety of items to customize avatars and Home Spaces, there will
be special events such as Halloween and Christmas where special content
will be available for a limited time.

Q: Will consumers be bombarded with advertising?
Advertising is a core revenue source for the publishers who will have to put a
lot of resource and money into making the Home experience as fulfilling as it
will be. As an offset to having to pay for the basic online service, and being
able to enjoy the fundamental Home experience for free, some advertising is
entirely reasonable. Advertising will be kept to palatable levels however. It is
in no-one's interests to cause users to leave Home through excessive
advertising.

Q: How will I protect my kids from seeing things they shouldn’t?
Parental controls are available through PS3 and the PLAYSTATION Network.
We encourage parents to take an active role in participating any time a child
has access to an open communication network, such as the internet.

Q: How will age restrictions be applied?
Home employs the same age restriction policies as the PS3 system software
and the PLAYSTATION Network.



Q: What’s the development overhead?
Minimal. In the extreme, an application (say a mini-game) could be written in
C++ as normal, and then a thin Home layer added to implement that
application within Home.

Q: How quick and easy will it be to develop for?
Home will allow developers to use their own assets and code for applications,
and export those assets into a Home wrapper, which will allow the minimum
of bespoke work. The tools that will be available serve to provide that
wrapper, they do not require developers to work to particular specifications or
packages.

Q: Will developers be able to run existing code applications within
Home?
Given that any application would have to fit within the available resources
while running Home, and certain TRCs will need to be satisfied, yes.

Q: Will there be additional TRCs for games plugging into Home? When
will these TRCs be released?
There will have to be base TRCs for Trophies and Matchmaking before the
service hits the XMB™. Others will come online as they are needed.

Q: Will there be additional TRCs for Home game trophies? When will
these TRCs be released?
See above.

Q: In terms of user's names are they exclusive and different from their
network ID. E.g. PSN account = PeterE / Home name = Tarzan123?
Your Home user name will be the same as your PSN account ID.

Q: Can I log on to Home in addition to someone else from one PS3? E.g.
at my friends and I want to log on...
This is technically quite an advanced problem. It effectively means logging in
to two PSN accounts at the same time from one machine, which makes it
unlikely.

Q: How will I navigate between spaces?
Within Home you can travel instantly (i.e. through the world map), or at your
own pace on foot.

Q: How will the age restrictions work? Will I be able to see different
content in the generic lobby depending on my age?
Home employs the same age restriction policies as the PS3 system software
and the PLAYSTATION Network. These age restrictions will apply to both the
areas that users are admitted to and the content that they are able to view.



Q: When I jump back from a game into Home, will I return with the same
people next to me? Will I return to a default location?
Upon returning to Home, you will land in the same place which was your last
position before you left (for instance, if you left Home from your apartment,
that is where you will return to.) However, given that Home is an online world,
other users will doubtless have moved on while you are off doing something
else (unless you've specifically asked them to wait for you.) Currently Home
is not a persistent world, so when you leave Home, all of your possessions go
with you. For instance, it is not currently possible for other users to visit your
apartment while you're not there. We are working on the persistent aspect of
Home, and expect to implement it in the long term.

Q: Can I get media for my apartment from other devices such as PC?
Not yet; we are working on enabling this feature which is contingent upon
firmware functionality.

Q: Would we be able to showcase bespoke events such a live broadcast
of a multiplayer game?
Absolutely - it would even be possible to replicate a game that is being played
by two players together on one PS3, replicating their avatars and movements
on the "world stage". This could be an invitational match, with users paying to
view the event live.

Q: How will the DRM of purchased items work?
Home 's DRM system is based on the entitlements system which will be
offered by the PSN.

Q: Will I be able to give a purchased / earned item to another user?
Not yet; however it is a feature which is planned.

Q. How will sharing media work within the private space? Will users be
able to distribute content?
Users will not be able to broadcast their media to people outside their private
space, but they will be able to show their own media to invited guests. We
have deliberately chosen not to allow users to 'give' media to other users as
this opens up serious risks of piracy and sharing of illegal content.

Q: How many lobby instances can be run?
This is down to the server infrastructure, and in theory is entirely scalable.



Q: How will the lobbies be regionalised? Would it be possible to have
bespoke, selectable backgrounds for each regional lobby, e.g. Paris /
London / Rome etc?
It is highly likely that the European, US and Japanese lobbies will be
localised, but it is undecided as to whether individual lobbies within Europe
will be.

Q: Could the global Hall of Fame be filtered by region?
This is possible, and also it is possible to have different levels of Halls of
Fame - Junior league, Newbie league etc



Policy

Q: What is the policy on acceptable behaviour?
Within our public spaces, Home follows the same rules and guidelines as the
PLAYSTATION Network with regard to age stipulations and acceptable
behaviour. Home uses all the same age controls as the PS3 system software.
Within users' own private spaces, we take the view that what people get up to
in their own apartment is their own business, within reason.

Q: Will there be a restriction to the age you’ll be able to give your
avatar?
Yes. We will not have avatars which resemble children. The avatars are
adult in appearance.

Q: Will users be able to make complaints about other users?
Of course. We will operate a system of logging complaints with our
moderators, which will then be investigated. If necessary we are able to take
away a user's login rights and ban them from the service.

Q: How much control will we have over what people get up to in their
private spaces?
As stated before, our policy is that what people get up to in their own private
spaces is up to them, and a user cannot be invited to another user's private
space until they have accepted an invitation to be on their buddy list.
However, the complaints process will still operate in these private spaces, so
if people feel that they have been subjected to inappropriate behaviour while
in someone's private space, they will be able to lodge a complaint by the
usual process.



Q: What moderation is used in the system for vulgar / abusive
language?
We will have a basic text profanity filter.

Q: Will users be able to sell things to each other?
Ultimately, an auction service will be implemented that will allow users to sell
their Home assets and user-created content to other users.

Q: Can I earn money in Home?
As noted above, there will be eventually opportunities for user-to-user
auctions.

Q: Will retailers (e.g. GAME) be able to have a presence in Home?
Yes. Retailers can create their own lobbies and deploy these for commercial
operations.

Q: Can we use advertising within it?
Advertising will be a big part of Home. At first adverts will be fed through the
Home advertising servers, but ultimately we may allow 3rd parties to integrate
their own advertising engines into the service. Dynamic advertising will also
be implemented, allowing us to direct specific targeted ads at particular users.

Q: Are all games required to have trophies available for Home?
No, it's up to each game to do what they want. But we see a huge consumer
appeal for games that support the trophy system.

Q: If a game does offer trophies, what is the maximum / minimum
number of trophies required?
This is undecided, currently. We would like to feel this out during the beta
period. Our inclination is to encourage a relatively small number of high value
trophies.




Source: Sony Computer Entertainment Developer Network

[jaxmkii]

• Leave your mark on the world with premium player-created content
tools. the first thing i make for my appt.... http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r246/jaxmkii/deadhookerstorage.jpg

[Sephiroth_VII]

^Lol!!!! Send me a copy of the model when it's done!

[VG Aficionado]

:lol:

[jaxmkii]

ok PSI anyone that knows what there doing start deleoping for our Guild Hall!
http://www.scedev.net/home/

[Garfunkel]

that was one hell of an article...

but i wonder what will happen if you buy a computer for your apartment, will it just be really basic or will you be able to somehow access basic apps? I wonder if they could make it so that you could access Linux like that lol. No doubt they will plug Cell this way.

BTW: i love the idea of everyone on e-mpire pitching in to buy us a mansion! I want E-mpire to have the biggest and most expensive estate in the home world!

[lips]

that was one hell of an article...

but i wonder what will happen if you buy a computer for your apartment, will it just be really basic or will you be able to somehow access basic apps? I wonder if they could make it so that you could access Linux like that lol. No doubt they will plug Cell this way.

Did you notice the old amiga style games on the arcade units? I guess by basic he means you will not be playing 'flow' on inside home, but hopefully games will ever be increasing, darts, etc. But will it ever have a free roam 'second life' environment?


BTW: i love the idea of everyone on e-mpire pitching in to buy us a mansion! I want E-mpire to have the biggest and most expensive estate in the home world!

sounds like an e-mpire collective e-frat house.

[jaxmkii]

E~mpire Toga parties FTFW!

[Venat]

You might be able to program your games for the arcade machine. And even sell it in a store or something.

[Domination]

That is it! I believe Sony has thrown everything and the kitchen sick at Live. I honestly feel that there isn't anything else Microsoft could add at this point to be relevant enough to push them beyond what Sony isn't already doing with Home without adopting the same strategy. This Home thing is far beyond huge.

[Pluto]

I wonder what this means for in game advertisements.

Will there be less due to the availability of advertisement through Home itself?

Although, there's probably some limits as to what conect will be displayed as ads. Any thoughts?

[Z]

But will it ever have a free roam 'second life' environment?

doesn't already?

[lips]

doesn't already?

I have no idea, but we did see harris wandering around and chatting with peeps online. that is the cool bit, cause you can organize gaming tournies this way.

[Garfunkel]

That is it! I believe Sony has thrown everything and the kitchen sick at Live. I honestly feel that there isn't anything else Microsoft could add at this point to be relevant enough to push them beyond what Sony isn't already doing with Home without adopting the same strategy. This Home thing is far beyond huge.

agreed, they can't take the sme route because they restricted the amount of RAM the dashboard can use, Home would take up too much space.

[Z]

I have no idea, but we did see harris wandering around and chatting with peeps online. that is the cool bit, cause you can organize gaming tournies this way.
it does offer what you are talking about. forget about PS3 games for a second and see how much you could do with Home. you can socialize, meet up, play arcade games IN the arcades, you can play some sports with your character like basketball and soccer, you could watch movies, show each other your pics, stream some tunes, see what's new, etc. :cowboy:

[VG Aficionado]

- Phil Harrison revealed some tidbits on PlayStation Home at GDC: (http://www.the-magicbox.com/gaming.htm)

* PlayStation Home was original developed for PS2, and the project was moved over to PS3 because PS2 lacks of key components like HDD and Cell processor.

* It is not a replacement of XMB (Cross Media Bar).

* Downloading and using Home will be free of charge, the company is researching in offering premium services within Home, such as special content offered by 3rd parties.

* In the future, users can create their own contents, social networks and other creative things on Home.Had there been an standard HDD in PS2, Home would have been extremely popular by now.

[jaxmkii]

if and when theres a next Xbox i wonder what MS will do to compeat? suddenly im realy starting to like this competition thing...

[Z]

I honestly believe they will copy it as directly and as shamelessly as they can without stepping over too much copyright laws. this is MS we're talking about. and Ninty will of course dismiss the whole concept and repeat their favorite line "gamers don't want that feature" and make it a generation or two later.

[cliffbo]

Initial download to be "under 500MB"

Sony has announced plans to launch its ambitious PlayStation Home online service - announced at GDC last week - this October.

The initial download is expected to weigh in at "under 500MB", with subsequent patches "hopefully" integreated via a streaming solution "that makes them negligible".

A closed beta phase for around 15,000 users will take place between April and August, with an open beta for around 50,000 operating between August and October.

That's according to a "third party relations" question-and-answer PDF uncovered on Sony's developer website, which sheds further light on the service unveiled during Phil Harrison's GDC keynote.

Certain Home features are likely to be accessible via PlayStation Portable and mobile phone in some form, Sony said, while users can also expect to visit paid-for special events, and experience increasing levels of integration with the console's more traditional features as development accelerates.

For example, it will be possible to track down friends easily from day one, but users will only be able to seamlessly launch into multiplayer games together once Sony has finished coding that functionality.

Another element that will take time is the environment's persistence. "Currently Home is not a persistent world, so when you leave Home, all of your possessions go with you. For instance, it is not currently possible for other users to visit your apartment while you're not there," Sony said.

"We are working on the persistent aspect of Home, and expect to implement it in the long term."

Advertising will apparently be kept to "palatable" levels, but will be prevalent, while content auctions, downloadable content sales, premium events and other initiatives are on the way.

"If you consider Home to be a simulacra of the real world then most goods and services found within the real world could theoretically be replicated within Home," the PDF notes.

Indeed, there are plenty of suggestive comments along those lines. "It will be possible to develop small demo-areas within Home that promote new titles, or to re-publish an old IP as mini-game within [a] Home Space," for example.

"We believe that there will be ample opportunities for businesses and individuals alike to generate significant revenues from the Home platform," the PDF later adds, with user-to-user auctions a likely inclusion. There will be restrictions on sharing, however, with media-sharing off-limits for obvious reasons.

[stanDarsh]

Great find Cliffbo, I didnt realise Beta testing would begin so soon, and that they'd be launching in October.

[Garfunkel]

if and when theres a next Xbox i wonder what MS will do to compeat? suddenly im realy starting to like this competition thing...

Oh i'm sure redmond has spend the last few days warming up the photocopier.

[Old_Timer!]

This is a bit more indepth info on Homefrom Sony Dev Site
Home™ Development Q&A
Wed 7th March 2007
General Features
Q: What is Home™?
Home™ is a real-time 3D, networked community that serves as a meeting
place for PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) users from around the world, where they
can interact, communicate, join online games, shop, share content and even
build and show off their own personal spaces. Home will be available as a
free download from the PLAYSTATION®Store and will launch directly from
the PS3 XMB™ (XrossMediaBar).
Q: What is the target demographic of Home users?
Home is for everybody. It is a global platform and the aim is to populate it with
a broad and rich content experience, the diversity of which will create a broad
and diverse community of users.
Q: How do consumers use it?
For the user, Home is a new experience in social networking. It’s a way to
meet new friends online, or hang out with old friends and family. It’s also a
rich media experience outside of the fundamental game-based activities on
PS3. It will reside on the XMB between Game and Network.
Q: What features does it have?
Communication between users, creation and customisation of your own
personal avatar, creation and customisation of your own personal space.
Ability to share media with friends, and to experience media from publishers.
Users will be able to benefit from game matchmaking, search facilities,
seamless transition between game and Home.
Q: What is the timeline for rollout?
Closed Beta (appx. 15,000 users): April - August
Open Beta (appx. 50,000 users): August - October
Service Live (50,000+): October
Q: What is the function of the Central Lounge?
The lobby is the central meeting place where you can meet new friends or
arrange to meet old friends, before transferring to a private meeting place.
The current maximum of concurrent users in a lobby is 64. But a multitude of
lobbies can be active at any time to accommodate all users.
Q: What other lobbies will exist within Home?
Over time Home will expand to include many different locations. It is our
intention that ultimately anyone can create a Home Space, be they a
publisher, a developer or a Non-game Company.
Q: What is the Hall of Fame?
The trophy room is a Home Space where users are able to display their
gaming accomplishments.
Q: How do I win Trophies?
Players will be able to win Home Trophies when they play games that support
the Home Trophy system. publishers and developers will be able to support
Trophies by building them into their games' architecture. Further information
on how to develop trophies within games will be available soon.
Q: What content will users be able to purchase from within Home?
Over time the range of content available to users will expand dramatically. If
you consider Home to be a simulacra of the real world then most goods and
services found within the real world could theoretically be replicated within
Home. Initially all commercial transaction will be via the
PLAYSTATION®Network (PSN) Store. Eventually users will be able to
transact within the Home environment.
Q: Will I be able to attend ticketed (paid-for) special events?
Yes, in time Home will play host to many types of event. Bespoke events such
as exclusive game previews and developer interviews will be organised by
Home and its affiliated content providers. Live events such as sports and
concerts may also be broadcast within Home.
Q: Can Home users win non-purchased prizes and items?
Yes, it will be possible to give prizes to users.
Q: Will all billing have to be via Sony Wallet?
Yes, all transactions will use the Sony Wallet system within the PSN Store,
although ultimately transactions will be possible without leaving Home.
Q: Can users share their favourite bookmarked Home Spaces with one
another?
Currently there isn't a way to do this, but this is a feature that we'd like to
implement in the future.
Q: When can users have / manage their own spaces?
Every user has a private apartment space that users can modify and change
over time. The basic apartment is free and will offer users lots of options for
customization and personalization. In the future we will provide tools that will
enable users to have an even greater ability to create their own Home spaces
and content.
Commerce & Partnerships
Q: Is Home a commercial environment?
Home is primarily a platform for social interaction and the intention is not to
create a space for purely conducting ecommerce. Home prioritises community
and entertainment over ecommerce. That said, we believe that there will be
ample opportunities for businesses and individuals alike to generate
significant revenues from the Home platform.
Q: When can I start to develop for Home?
You can register your interest to develop for the Home platform immediately
at http://home.scedev.net
Q: Who should I contact about developing for Home?
If you are an existing licence holder you should channel requests for
information through your existing 3rd Party Account Manager. If you do not
have a license agreement, please visit http://home.scedev.net where you will
find more information and an application to register your interest.
Q: I don’t have an existing PlayStation® licence agreement – how can
get involved in developing content for Home?
See above.
Q: I’m an IP / content holder / aggregator – how can I get involved in
Home?
See above.
Q: How soon can publishers and developers have and manage their own
spaces?
We would like to engage with interested publishers and developers
immediately. If you an existing licence holder you should channel requests for
information through your existing 3rd Party Account Manager. If you do not
have a licence agreement, please visit http://home.scedev.net where you will
find more information and an application to register your interest.
Q: When can IP holders have / manage their own Home Spaces?
We would like to engage with interested IP and content rights holders
immediately. If you are an interested non-games company or IP holder,
please register your interest with us at http://home.scedev.net . An
appropriate representative will follow up your enquiry.
Q: What support will SCE give to 3rd Parties?
Support to publishers and developers with existing licence agreements will be
provided by the Third Party Relations groups within each region. If you are a
non-game content provider or do not have a license agreement, please visit
http://home.scedev.net where you will find more information and an
application to register your interest.
Q: Who should our developers call for support?
Registered developers should request information through their existing
support relationships. Information will be available on http://home.scedev.net
Q: Who will run Home?
SCE has created a Home Platform Group that will provide the technology,
strategic direction and support to each of the SCE regional headquarters.
Q: Home looks so great – how do publishers ensure that users continue
to play their games rather than spending all their time in Home?
There is a huge scope for publishers and developers to promote their current
and future IPs - as well as exploiting their back-catalogue. For example, it will
be possible to develop small demo-areas within Home that promote new titles,
or to re-publish an old IP as mini-game within their Home Space.
Q: Is Home just a platform for SCE-published games?
Absolutely not. Home will not be a success without broad support and
adoption by our Publishing and Development partners and indeed from nongame
companies and services.
Q: Is Home a PS3 specific service? Will users be able to access Home
through other devices?
Initially Home will only be accessible via that PLAYSTATION®3, although
over time our intention is to enable users to interface certain Home features
and services via other networked devices such as PlayStation®Portable
(PSP®) and mobile phones.
Q: Can I launch and watch a BD movie from within Home?
Launch, yes. Watch, no. (This means you would leave Home to watch the
BD™.)
Q: What is the business model?
The proposed business model for Home is still under review and we'll
announce the details in due course.
Q: How will publishers make money from it?
Initially we predict that the primary areas for generating revenues will come
from the following areas:
- Content purchases (e.g. avatar clothing and accessories)
- Advertising
- Content Auctions
Q: What will be the upfront investment and development costs be for me
as a Home content provider?
The tools and technology required to build and maintain a presence on the
Home Platform are being designed to enable fast and efficient development,
and use industry-standard processes and techniques. The resources required
are surprisingly low and entirely scaleable.
Q: How will businesses be able to promote their products?
The possibilities for promotion and advertising of products and services within
Home Spaces are virtually limitless. Given the initial broad set of functions
and features the possibilities are limited only by creative vision. As the native
features of Home will be continually growing, the creative possibilities will
grow also. The Home Platform Team will also take feature requests to support
our partners in their creative endeavours.
Q: Will we be able to sell products (other than Home assets) online?
Eventually Home will not only support the merchandising of virtual assets, but
also will provide cross-promotional opportunities for selling physical goods
online.
Q: Could publishers sell tutorials to their games through Home?
Yes, the commercial services and features that publishers and developers will
be able to support is extremely broad. Further discussion of specific content
ideas that you may have, please consult with your 3rd Party Account Manager
or register your interest in the Home platform at http://home.scedev.net
Q: What tools will be available for creating content, and when will they
be available?
The Home Platform Group will be providing a roadmap for the deployment
and content of Home Tools. Over time the Tools package will develop into a
comprehensive set of enabling technologies that we can provide to our
partners to assist them with their Home Platform content creation.
Q: Can we reserve a number of seats for the closed & open betas?
Yes, please liaise with your 3rd Party Account Manager and request the
number of seats that your company requires. If you do not have a TMLA,
please register your interest at http://home.scedev.net and an appropriate
Home Platform representative will contact you shortly.
Q: Will it be possible to have territory based promotions for regional
content?
Yes, although Home is a global platform there are regional Home Spaces that
users within each regional area will access by default (based upon their
registration details). There is no restriction on where a user can go from their
default starting location (other than any content age restrictions). Because
there are regional Home spaces, each region will operate its own promotional
events and activities.
Technical & Extended Features
Q: How large is the download?
We're aiming for the initial download to be under 500MB. Subsequent
downloads will hopefully integrate a streaming method that makes them
negligible.
Q: How do users find friends and spaces within Home?
There is an integrated PSN Friends list, and search functionality for spaces.
Q: How many friends can I have?
As many as the PSN friends list allows, which is currently 50.
Q: Will I be able to trade items that I have bought or won with other
Home users?
Ultimately, an auction service will be implemented that will allow users to sell
their Home assets and user-created content to other users.
Q: How often will the content in Home change?
Ultimately content in Home will be updated weekly. All the participants in
Home (the service itself, 1st Party and 3rd Party publishers, non-game brands
and ultimately users themselves) will be creating new content, so the flow of
new features will be will on a weekly basis.
Q: Can I create new items and content for Home myself?
This functionality is in the works for future release. We see user created
content as a very important element of Home's ongoing success.
Q: How will users transact within Home?
During the Beta period, there will be no purchases within Home.
Subsequently, commercial transactions will take place within Home.
Q: Can you enter, say, MotorStorm™ quickly through Home without
having to travel to the specific MotorStorm™ lobby?
Currently, users can find each other in Home, and then arrange to go off and
play MotorStorm™ at the same time. Eventually, users will be able to meet in
Home and seamlessly launch into a game of MotorStorm™. Similarly, users
will be able to exit to Home directly from the game.
Q: How often is incremental content being created for Home?
Content for Home will be developed continually. In addition to an ever
increasing variety of items to customize avatars and Home Spaces, there will
be special events such as Halloween and Christmas where special content
will be available for a limited time.
Q: Will consumers be bombarded with advertising?
Advertising is a core revenue source for the publishers who will have to put a
lot of resource and money into making the Home experience as fulfilling as it
will be. As an offset to having to pay for the basic online service, and being
able to enjoy the fundamental Home experience for free, some advertising is
entirely reasonable. Advertising will be kept to palatable levels however. It is
in no-one's interests to cause users to leave Home through excessive
advertising.
Q: How will I protect my kids from seeing things they shouldn’t?
Parental controls are available through PS3 and the PLAYSTATION Network.
We encourage parents to take an active role in participating any time a child
has access to an open communication network, such as the internet.
Q: How will age restrictions be applied?
Home employs the same age restriction policies as the PS3 system software
and the PLAYSTATION Network.
Q: What’s the development overhead?
Minimal. In the extreme, an application (say a mini-game) could be written in
C++ as normal, and then a thin Home layer added to implement that
application within Home.
Q: How quick and easy will it be to develop for?
Home will allow developers to use their own assets and code for applications,
and export those assets into a Home wrapper, which will allow the minimum
of bespoke work. The tools that will be available serve to provide that
wrapper, they do not require developers to work to particular specifications or
packages.
Q: Will developers be able to run existing code applications within
Home?
Given that any application would have to fit within the available resources
while running Home, and certain TRCs will need to be satisfied, yes.
Q: Will there be additional TRCs for games plugging into Home? When
will these TRCs be released?
There will have to be base TRCs for Trophies and Matchmaking before the
service hits the XMB™. Others will come online as they are needed.
Q: Will there be additional TRCs for Home game trophies? When will
these TRCs be released?
See above.
Q: In terms of user's names are they exclusive and different from their
network ID. E.g. PSN account = PeterE / Home name = Tarzan123?
Your Home user name will be the same as your PSN account ID.
Q: Can I log on to Home in addition to someone else from one PS3? E.g.
at my friends and I want to log on...
This is technically quite an advanced problem. It effectively means logging in
to two PSN accounts at the same time from one machine, which makes it
unlikely.
Q: How will I navigate between spaces?
Within Home you can travel instantly (i.e. through the world map), or at your
own pace on foot.
Q: How will the age restrictions work? Will I be able to see different
content in the generic lobby depending on my age?
Home employs the same age restriction policies as the PS3 system software
and the PLAYSTATION Network. These age restrictions will apply to both the
areas that users are admitted to and the content that they are able to view.
Q: When I jump back from a game into Home, will I return with the same
people next to me? Will I return to a default location?
Upon returning to Home, you will land in the same place which was your last
position before you left (for instance, if you left Home from your apartment,
that is where you will return to.) However, given that Home is an online world,
other users will doubtless have moved on while you are off doing something
else (unless you've specifically asked them to wait for you.) Currently Home
is not a persistent world, so when you leave Home, all of your possessions go
with you. For instance, it is not currently possible for other users to visit your
apartment while you're not there. We are working on the persistent aspect of
Home, and expect to implement it in the long term.
Q: Can I get media for my apartment from other devices such as PC?
Not yet; we are working on enabling this feature which is contingent upon
firmware functionality.
Q: Would we be able to showcase bespoke events such a live broadcast
of a multiplayer game?
Absolutely - it would even be possible to replicate a game that is being played
by two players together on one PS3, replicating their avatars and movements
on the "world stage". This could be an invitational match, with users paying to
view the event live.
Q: How will the DRM of purchased items work?
Home 's DRM system is based on the entitlements system which will be
offered by the PSN.
Q: Will I be able to give a purchased / earned item to another user?
Not yet; however it is a feature which is planned.
Q. How will sharing media work within the private space? Will users be
able to distribute content?
Users will not be able to broadcast their media to people outside their private
space, but they will be able to show their own media to invited guests. We
have deliberately chosen not to allow users to 'give' media to other users as
this opens up serious risks of piracy and sharing of illegal content.
Q: How many lobby instances can be run?
This is down to the server infrastructure, and in theory is entirely scalable.
Q: How will the lobbies be regionalised? Would it be possible to have
bespoke, selectable backgrounds for each regional lobby, e.g. Paris /
London / Rome etc?
It is highly likely that the European, US and Japanese lobbies will be
localised, but it is undecided as to whether individual lobbies within Europe
will be.
Q: Could the global Hall of Fame be filtered by region?
This is possible, and also it is possible to have different levels of Halls of
Fame - Junior league, Newbie league etc
Policy
Q: What is the policy on acceptable behaviour?
Within our public spaces, Home follows the same rules and guidelines as the
PLAYSTATION Network with regard to age stipulations and acceptable
behaviour. Home uses all the same age controls as the PS3 system software.
Within users' own private spaces, we take the view that what people get up to
in their own apartment is their own business, within reason.
Q: Will there be a restriction to the age you’ll be able to give your
avatar?
Yes. We will not have avatars which resemble children. The avatars are
adult in appearance.
Q: Will users be able to make complaints about other users?
Of course. We will operate a system of logging complaints with our
moderators, which will then be investigated. If necessary we are able to take
away a user's login rights and ban them from the service.
Q: How much control will we have over what people get up to in their
private spaces?
As stated before, our policy is that what people get up to in their own private
spaces is up to them, and a user cannot be invited to another user's private
space until they have accepted an invitation to be on their buddy list.
However, the complaints process will still operate in these private spaces, so
if people feel that they have been subjected to inappropriate behaviour while
in someone's private space, they will be able to lodge a complaint by the
usual process.
Q: What moderation is used in the system for vulgar / abusive
language?
We will have a basic text profanity filter.
Q: Will users be able to sell things to each other?
Ultimately, an auction service will be implemented that will allow users to sell
their Home assets and user-created content to other users.
Q: Can I earn money in Home?
As noted above, there will be eventually opportunities for user-to-user
auctions.
Q: Will retailers (e.g. GAME) be able to have a presence in Home?
Yes. Retailers can create their own lobbies and deploy these for commercial
operations.
Q: Can we use advertising within it?
Advertising will be a big part of Home. At first adverts will be fed through the
Home advertising servers, but ultimately we may allow 3rd parties to integrate
their own advertising engines into the service. Dynamic advertising will also
be implemented, allowing us to direct specific targeted ads at particular users.
Q: Are all games required to have trophies available for Home?
No, it's up to each game to do what they want. But we see a huge consumer
appeal for games that support the trophy system.
Q: If a game does offer trophies, what is the maximum / minimum
number of trophies required?
This is undecided, currently. We would like to feel this out during the beta
period. Our inclination is to encourage a relatively small number of high value
trophies.
About SCEI
Recognized as the global leader and company responsible for the progression
of consumer-based computer entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment
Inc. (SCEI) manufacturers, distributes and markets the PlayStation® game
console, the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, the PSP®
(PlayStation®Portable) handheld entertainment system and the upcoming,
much-anticipated PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) system. PlayStation® has
revolutionized Home entertainment by introducing advanced 3D graphic
processing, and PlayStation®2 further enhances the PlayStation® legacy as
the core of Home networked entertainment. PSP® is a new handheld
entertainment system that allows users to enjoy 3D games, with high-quality
full-motion video, and high-fidelity stereo audio. PS3™ is an advanced
computer system, incorporating the state-of-the-art Cell processor with super
computer like power. SCEI, along with its subsidiary divisions Sony Computer
Entertainment America Inc., Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd., and
Sony Computer Entertainment Korea Inc. develops, publishes, markets and
distributes software, and manages the third party licensing programs for these
platforms in the respective markets worldwide. Headquartered in Tokyo,
Japan, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. is an independent business unit of
the Sony Group.
“PlayStation”, “PLAYSTATION”, “PSP”, “PS3” and “XMB” are trademarks or registered trademarks of
Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. “MotorStorm” and the “Home icons” are trademarks of Sony
Computer Entertainment Europe. “Blu-ray Disc” and “BD” are trademarks. All rights reserved.

[VG Aficionado]

Phil Harrison on PS3 Home and future PS3 development (http://www.pro-g.co.uk/news/12-03-2007-4977.html)

SCE's main man talks to Pro-G about the company's big GDC announcements.
When it comes to the big boys of the industry, Phil Harrison is right up at the top.

Sony's president of Worldwide Studios, Phil Harrison made some rather interesting announcements at GDC last week. We grilled him about PS3 Home, the PlayStation 3 trophy system, new development tools and the elusive Killzone 2. We also managed to get some info on Sony's secretive PS3 game, Afrika.

Pro-G: You made some pretty big announcements during your GDC keynote speech, with PS3 Home being the biggest of them all. Is this massive virtual community something that's been in the pipeline for a while?

Harrison: Yes, it's been in development for quite a long time. It actually started life on the PS2; it was a 3D lobby for a single multiplayer game and then we thought actually that it might be worth extending out to support more than one game on the PS2. And then we started to come up against some technical limitations of the platform. It couldn't quite do all of the things that we wanted it to do and the user created content was really the key factor that we wanted to include. Obviously, PS3 allows us to do that with a hard drive in every machine and cell processing, so the PS3 was the right platform to do it on. We've been working on it for two and a half years now.

Pro-G: You mentioned a beta...

Harrison: We're already in a private, closed beta for our own organization. We'll be opening up a beta program to users around the world, in the US and Europe, in April, and then we'll have a number of staged progressions through the summer, and if all goes well, we'll be launching in the fall.

Pro-G: What do you think Home's key advantages are over rival online services?

Harrison: What we've always wanted to do on Home, and I think we've delivered on this vision, is to create a rich layer that sits on top of the network platform. We're not changing the functionality of the system; we're just displaying it in a really compelling way. And I think having it as a rich three dimensional world where you can build community, you can communicate and customize, are very powerful trends that I think will resonate very strongly with PS3 users. I think people will want to come and join the PS3 community because of a product and service like this. We're also going to have a strong entertainment focus with Home, as you can see. There are lots of touch points for other forms of entertainment not just games, but music, photos...

Pro-G: And movies like in Home's theatre...

Harrison: Exactly. And I think it plays to all of the strengths to the PS3 and points to the direction we're going in as a company, as a brand, and as an organization, empowering audiences with user content.

Pro-G: Let's talk about the trophy system for a moment. How does that work?

Harrison: Developers define the milestone point in the game and then the associate graphic file that is the trophy associated with that milestone; then it will be downloaded to the Playstation3 user's hard drive. And the trophy can animate. We didn't show that yesterday...

Pro-G: Similar to the animated bit map graphics in the PS2 saves?

Harrison: Yes, exactly. It's taking that concept of 2D bit map graphics and moving it into 3D space. So it's no more challenging for developers to create the trophies and in many ways, it's easier, because they can re-use 3D assets they're already putting in their game, be it a weapon, object, or character.

Pro-G: Killzone PS3 was teased behind closed doors. Can you tell our readers how the game is shaping up?

Harrison: It's great. I wanted to give [developers] some sense with what we were doing with Playstation Edge - core technology that we've been investing in. We wanted to share those tools as widely as we can across the entire network of PS3 developers, and I just wanted to put that into context for the people who were at the event on Tuesday night, so they could see what kind of performance, what kind of power, developers were going to get at their disposal. It was not intended to be a deep-dive into Killzone PS3; we'll do that at E3 in July.

Pro-G: Speaking of which, how will Sony's new PlayStation Edge suite of development tools help future PS3 development?

Harrison: They [the tools] focus on two areas. One is a tool called GCM Replay, which is a very powerful tool, allowing developers to get the most performance out of the graphics chip as well as the most control over the power of the graphics chip. It's not something that the users will be able to point out and go, 'oh that game uses GCM Replay'. The benefit to users will be much more objects on screen, more animation, more variety, more pixels, more shaders, things like that. The other technologies are all about harnessing the power of the cell processor and delivering technology that allows developers to get the best animation, geometry processing and compression. By allowing developers to gain access to this technology, very easily, very quickly, they can opt(imize) the sophistication and intensity of their game on PS3.

Pro-G: I have a feeling your PR rep is about to burst through the door (laughs), so I'll ask this last question. Afrika...

Harrison: Yes - good continent, sort of south of the equator (laughs).

Pro-G: Well yes, that too. But what about the game 'Mr trying to dance around the question'? (laughs). Perhaps it's being integrated into PS3 Home as a Safari Holiday package?

Harrison: (laughs) That's actually a good idea. The game designers on Afrika are being deliberately coy about the game experience. I know what it is; I've seen it and I know it's going to be a very interesting gaming experience. It's not about killing and it's not about running around the environment shooting elephants and hippopotami - that would be awful. That's not what we're all about. What we're about is taking people to places in a virtual world. So Afrika, I think, is a great example of that. But hold on just a little bit more!

Pro-G: Thanks for your time Phil.

Harrison: My pleasure.Way to sneak that Afrika question! Cliffbo's going to like that :-p

[curryking1]

It was not intended to be a deep-dive into Killzone PS3; we'll do that at E3 in July.

OMGBBQAGE!!! Z seems to be right, E3 is KZ time!!!

OMGOMGOMG!!! *heart attack!*

Totally on the money for cliffbo's question about Afrika possibly being an extension of Home lol.

[Coded-Dude]

i posted that info the day after the closed door viewing of Killzone at GDC

[cliffbo]

well you know Phil and I are like that *crosses fingers*

[Sephiroth_VII]

Harrison: (laughs) That's actually a good idea. The game designers on Afrika are being deliberately coy about the game experience. I know what it is; I've seen it and I know it's going to be a very interesting gaming experience. It's not about killing and it's not about running around the environment shooting elephants and hippopotami - that would be awful. That's not what we're all about. What we're about is taking people to places in a virtual world. So Afrika, I think, is a great example of that. But hold on just a little bit more!

That comment makes me believe that he'll expand on it at E3.

[Jay Gee]

LOL! Still happy about Killzone making it's triumphant debut at E3 this year. I think they purposefully chose E3 again to show that Guerilla has come DANGEROUSLY close to the target render. I'm almost convinced that the trailer itself will play out like the CG one did at E3 05. God, I can hardly wait! Me + Rico + Chaingun = FUN!!!

EDIT: Next Gen Luger goodness. Mmmmmm.

[Z]

E3 looks to be the biggest event for PS3 yet. there is no doubt KZ will be amazing regardless of 'side by side, step by step pic quality showdowns' from almost all the sites.

what I'll be eager most is to see their online plans. I want to go crazy online. and if Resistance is anything to go by, "we're in for one wild night" - 300.

yeah, I said that before, but damn I love that movie trailer!

[LaLiLuLeLo]

I love the movie! ha!

[PSXBatou]

Imagine if they used the HD Eye Toy and the PS3 to do something like this http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn11363

[VG Aficionado]

Yet another Phil Harrison interview: There's no place like Home (http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4922&Itemid=2&limit=1&limitstart=0).

It's quite long. Summary appreciated.

[indiekid4]

E~mpire Toga parties FTFW!

"let's go streaking"! haha

[cliffbo]

Home, sweet Home. That was the reaction from PlayStation 3 owners to Sony's keynote address at GDC 2007, where Phil Harrison unveiled the 3D online community for the PS3.

However, the sampling demonstrated that day didn't include all the hard facts that future Home owners wanted to know. In a document floated out by Sony to developers, some of those missing questions were answered.

First and foremost, the Home closed beta is scheduled to kick off in April with 15,000 users. This first stage of the beta will run through August, at which point it will enter the open beta phase and open up to approximately 50,000 users. The free service, which Sony is trying to get under 500MB in size, is scheduled to go live in October.

The Central Lounge, which is a starting point for virtual meet-and-greets, will have a cap of 64 concurrent users. Like online chat rooms, there will be several active Central Lounges on the network to accommodate users.

Though currently PS3-only, Sony is hoping to expand Home to be accessed by the PlayStation Portable and mobile phones, but admits it will be limited access. Sony did not say what features will be accessible or when other devices could connect to Home.

Currently, meeting someone in Home and then playing a multiplayer game with them requires both parties to exit Home and enter the game manually, but Sony says that eventually, everything will be seamless. Likewise, Home will eventually become accessible directly through a game that is being played.

At the present time, Home is not a persistent world. Gamers can not visit their friends' apartments unless their friends are logged in. "We are working on the persistent aspect of Home, and expect to implement it in the long term," says the note.

Among the other tidbits of information: users will be able to make money through online user-to-user auctions, there will be no child avatars, and lobbies will likely be localized and divided by region.

[cliffbo]

Yet another Phil Harrison interview: There's no place like Home (http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4922&Itemid=2&limit=1&limitstart=0).

It's quite long. Summary appreciated.

you see fellas when MILR and I were continuously pushing the idea that Sony were watching the forums certain supposedly informed members told us we were delusionary but as Phil says they want public feedback and that is us here. ideas that we put forward on this forum are being noted

WE ARE 3.0

[indiekid4]

I'm telling ya man, this world is kind of like Final Fantasy XI...we are all gonna be addicted to HOME! No lives...we will be ROBOTS! I am so in! haha

[cliffbo]

you know that headline: theres no place like HOME has given me an idea! i bet every American gets it straight away!

[cliffbo]

MTV News' Stephen Totilo has managed to glean new details from Sony's Phil Harrison on their megaton PlayStation 3 announcement, Home.

The initial plan with Home is to start with apartments for users, then go on to outdoors, houses, gardens, neighborhoods. Currently, 16 people will be allowed in one apartment at any given time, although that limit is being tweaked. As for lobbies, which will be "infinitely spawned by the number of users online," 64 will be the limit. A search function will be included to help users find their friends online.

As to concerns whether the social aspect of Home will take away from time spent gaming, Harrison sees that as a non-issue. "I think that you shouldn't lose sight that home is all about games and creating social interaction between gamers ... [Home is] a springboard to a deeper gaming experience," he said.

Also mentioned was that no collision detection would be implemented, so users will likely just walk through one another. While that should eliminate problems associated with crowds, it also reduces the options for those who wish to use their avatars for naughtier means.


http://www.gametab.com/news/842294/

[Fats]

I'm telling ya man, this world is kind of like Final Fantasy XI...we are all gonna be addicted to HOME! No lives...we will be ROBOTS! I am so in! haha

It'll go two ways for me, I'll accept it, and eventually get bored. Or I will become truly addicted, which is the more likely of the two.

[jaxmkii]

you know that headline: theres no place like HOME has given me an idea! i bet every American gets it straight away!

lol Sony need to make an add in black and white using that old. there's no place like home song.:heybaby:

[cliffbo]

lol Sony need to make an add in black and white using that old. there's no place like home song.:heybaby:

wouldn't you like to live in the land of OZ?

[Z]

the other thing that some may not be aware of is that even while using Home, you don't have to walk around. you can instantly do or go to where you want to with minimum to no footwork at all. so even the most casual of casual users that want to check out Home but not go through any hassle, can still zip threw the offerings.

and when you really don't feel like going to Home anymore, just use the good ol' XMB for chatting and online gaming and what not.

[cliffbo]

yep three option:

walk
use virtual PSP
XMB bar

how many options does MS offer?

[cliffbo]

Next-Gen talks to Sony’s head of first party development about the PlayStation Home Beta, new games, Blu-ray and all the usual Sony stuff…

Image Sony’s mantra this past year or so has been in response to the endless questions about its strategy: Price and Blu-ray have dominated the picture. The company has responded by making its arguments about the bright future of Blu-ray, and the appropriateness of a price to match.

The thing about Sony’s mantra is that none of it is disprovable, and it may well even be true. Blu-ray is looking like a good bet. And, while PS3 is grossly over-priced as a games console, it’s becoming less and less relevant to define anything simply as such.

Sony has also been criticized, rightly, for a lack of really great games at launch. But it isn’t the first hardware launch to suffer so, and killer apps like MotorStorm are beginning to appear. Sony’s troubles are far from over, but there is an evident sense that things are looking up.

PlayStation Home seems to represent that turnaround. But, again, it’s something of an unknown entity insofar as it will perform in the market. How many people will likely join this world?

Harrison says, “There’s no reason why a hundred percent of the connected users wouldn’t download it and try it. There’s an opportunity to give a sampling to every connected PS3, which is very, very exciting. Beyond that, how long people use it for, how often they use it, what kind of engagement they have with it culturally and commercially are questions that I have no idea how to answer. But I’m really looking forward to finding out. What are the hooks that make it sticky for people? What are the things that give people satisfaction when they’re using Home or hanging out in Home? It’s emergent and we don’t quite know yet.”

Beta News

Almost as soon as the announcement was made, everyone wanted to know about how the Beta would work. Harrison explains, “We’ve been in internal beta for a while now. One of the great things about a network service like this is that the QA team are avatars, obviously able to walk around. If they find a bug or they find something that needs fixing they can walk over to one of the members of the team and point to it and say ‘look this is what I’m talking about, this is the problem’. It’s completely changed the way we go about testing and fixing problems in work in progress software.”

He adds, “We haven’t announced the specific invite mechanic but it will be a closed deployment with a capped number of users and then we’ll extend that through the summer. When we go live with the service we’ll actually have gone through a number of betas before we get to final deployment in the fall.”

For Sony, PlayStation Home marks the first time the company could stand up in front of a large audience – or any kind of audience, and just deliver good news. No delays, no price shocks, no car-park riots or e-Bay scams. Harrison says, “It’s very pleasing to get a reaction that is positive to something that you know is really good. I knew, going into the presentations, that we had something really special because of internal meetings and other presentations that we’d done where we’ve had a universally strong reaction.

He adds, “The reaction that we got from the media preview on Tuesday night was extraordinary. You’ve got a hundred and something journalists in the room who are not all known for their spontaneity. They see a lot of games and I don’t mean to be disparaging to the media but the truth is thyey can sometimes sit there with their arms folded, quite rightly because they see a lot of stuff. But to have a hundred people spontaneously applaud at the end of the Little Big Planet demo made me realize that, yes, this is going to quite likely resonate well with a larger audience on Wednesday morning but no where near to the reaction that we actually got. I had no idea we were going to get that reaction. So of course it makes me happy, it’s what we do, you know, create entertainment and try and share it with people. So for that approach to be validated in such a clear way, that sends a shiver down my spine.”

On Warhawk

Another GDC announcement was that Warhawk would be launched as a multi-player game only. Harrison explains, “It was originally intended to be both a single player and a multiplayer game but because of the numbers of connections we’re seeing on the PlayStation Network we realized that we can commercially deploy it as just a multiplayer game. So the retail product will only be multiplayer. We’ve seen on other systems, on PC as well, that that is a successful strategy so it’s given us confidence to just deliver what is the best bit of the game which is just the multiplayer experience.”

Naturally, we wonder if this might be because the single-player mode wasn’t up to snuff. “Not so much that it wasn’t working, it was just a matter of resource deployment. Where should we spend our time and money and effort and our human resource? Polishing up a single-player game or actually spending the time delivering multi-mode combat in a multiplayer game? And we, I think, made the right decision.”

There’s been so much negativity surrounding the launch of PlayStation 3, that it’s easy to zone out when Sony starts banging on about its heritage. Now that the firm has some solid positives on which it can hang its message, stories about the good old days are, rightly, being retired. Harrison and his colleagues can once again talk about the here and now without fear of damaging comparisons.

MotorStorm is out now, and it’s got to rank as one o the best products that 2007 will produce. “It’s a work of art,” says Harrison. “It is so much fun to play and also multi-player mode, which is something that the Japanese version didn’t have but the US and European versions are just killer. The reviews have been great so I’m really, really pleased about that.”

Also, that mantra about Blu-ray now has some solid stats to back it up. “Blu-ray disc will be the next-generation movie format of choice. I don’t believe there is any doubt. If you look at the sales of Blu-ray versus competing disc formats in December and January, it’s taking off vertically. That’s a positive and will continue to be a positive. It will become a stronger influence to the PS3 purchasing decision as time goes on. However, as I’ve said many times, from a game design point of view, we needed a next-generation high-density disc capacity and Blu-ray is the best option for us within Sony. Adding the movie player functionality, once you’ve already adopted the drive functionality, is negligible [cost].”



http://www.gametab.com/news/842933/

confidence not arrogance! before anyone starts

[VG Aficionado]

FURTHER PHIL HARRISON INTERVIEW FROM GDC (http://threespeech.com/blog/?p=347)

The most interesting tidbit, IMO:

Q: We were discussing outside the prospect of getting bigger apartments in Home and A) how much that might cost and B) whether you’d be able to get an extension to your apartment if you get a certain number of trophies, or something like that. Have you been thinking along those sorts of lines?

PH: Yeah, once again we’re not talking specifically at this moment but I’ll give you a general flavour of what we’re going to do, so here we’ve got a patio, but why not have a bigger patio, why not have a patio with a dock that goes down to the lake, and why not have…

Q: A Sunseeker?

PH: Yeah, or rather than an alpine mountain scene, why not have a desert island? There are lots of different ways that we can extend that; users will be able to extend their visual experience to customise their apartment through buying items from the store, by being given items through playing PlayStation 3 disk-based games or through items that we ourselves donate into the community.

Q: Regarding LittleBigPlanet, how much pre-made content will go out with it? And secondly, how important would a tutorial be, for example?

PH: We’re going to debut the product on the PlayStation Network first, as a commercial release, and then it’ll be on Blu-Ray disk in 2008 — hopefully early 2008 — and our goal is to be able to access some of the user-generated levels onto the disk when we sell it at retail. Maybe not the first version that we sell at retail, but future versions that we sell at retail can have user-aggregated content on them.

As far as a tutorial is concerned, I’m sure we’ll do something to make it easy for people to start off, but that’s also part of the interesting cross-over between Home and LittleBigPlanet; we could have a LittleBigPlanet space in Home where you can show expert user videos — imagine that in a classroom setting where you’ve got people sat down who are LittleBigPlanet designers and somebody going: “This is how you make boxes, this is how you make spheres, this is how you assign behaviours to them.” That’s really interesting.

Q: What’s the reward system going to be — what will you get if you make the number one played level?

PH: We’ve got some interesting ideas on that which we’ll share a little bit later, but we hope that star creators will be recognised and rewarded for their efforts.

Q: Maybe with jobs in the games industry?

PH: Why not? Why not? If that is one of the side benefits of what we do with LittleBigPlanet then I will be extremely happy, because that will help address some fundamental challenges that we have in training and creating new human resources to take our business forward.

[Smokey]

wouldn't you like to live in the land of OZ?

i do live in the land of OZ :)

[jaxmkii]

Q: What’s the reward system going to be — what will you get if you make the number one played level?

PH: We’ve got some interesting ideas on that which we’ll share a little bit later, but we hope that star creators will be recognised and rewarded for their efforts.

Q: Maybe with jobs in the games industry?

PH: Why not? Why not? If that is one of the side benefits of what we do with LittleBigPlanet then I will be extremely happy, because that will help address some fundamental challenges that we have in training and creating new human resources to take our business forward. remember when your mom would tell you go out side stop wasting time with thouse stupid games.

[Coded-Dude]

*queues ITT Tech commercial*

[cliffbo]

thanks to VG:


Feed
FURTHER PHIL HARRISON INTERVIEW FROM GDC
Filed under: INTERVIEWS — Three Speech March 21, 2007 @ 10:34 am

The day after Phil Harrison’s keynote speech at GDC, we had a chance to interview him. Naturally, the focus was on the implications and details of Home and LittleBigPlanet. Obviously there were things that Harrison was reluctant to divulge just yet, but his answers offer some good insight into the two hotly anticipated items.

Q: Home looks great, but it begs a few questions. Presumably there will be moderation, at least in the public spaces?

PH: Exactly right. Public spaces will be moderated, and we’ll use the same rules of parental control as we do for the PlayStation Network, so parents can control whether people have access to the network or not. Then, in the private spaces, it’s unmoderated - exactly in the same way that you can send an e-mail to somebody with an attachment on it, or you could have a video chat with somebody.

Q: In terms of some of the actions you can do within the world, presumably there’s no adult content there?

PH: Well, it’s absolutely deliberate that there is no physical impact between characters, between avatars. We are going to have animations that will allow you to shake somebody’s hand or to have some social touch but in a very, you know, appropriate way. But no, we’re not going to have ‘those’ kind of animations that I’m imagining that you’re thinking about.

Q: What about uploading porn from your PS3’s hard-disk to your private space? And maybe inviting people you don’t necessarily know back and them being slightly offended by what they see, then going to a moderator?

PH: Well I’m disappointed that you would use those as the first questions. I think Home should be used for a much wider and more beneficial scope than that, but I think that people can express their creativity inside Home in a wide variety of ways and it’s not necessarily for us to dictate what that should be. However, if somebody feels uncomfortable about an encounter on Home, it’s very easy for them to ban that person from their friends list…


Q: So if people offend you, you’ll be able to blacklist them?

PH: Your friends list is here just the same way as it is on the PlayStation network, it appears inside the virtual PSP and you can make all the same changes to it.

Q: Is there an area where you can just get a list of all the things you want to go to in Home without having to physically walk to all the areas?

PH: You’ve got shortcuts which are built into the virtual PSP. You’ll be able to go to what — this is a working title – is called the World Map. this is just our internal model. This is still being worked on, but there’ll be search in here, there will be ways to filter, there will be ways to group, there will be ways to identify particular spaces that you want to go to. This will be a lot more sophisticated than what we’re showing at the moment – it was intended just to give a sense of a vast galaxy of connected spaces where you can find a new space and download it, check it out and, if you like it, it’s just like bookmarking a webpage. So you can dictate that the Socom barracks, or whatever, would be your landing point every time you come back into Home.

It’s exactly like a Web browser, but it has a very clever twist, in that when you create the bookmark, it renders a 3D screenshot of the place you were standing when you bookmarked it, and then the next time you come back into Home it will populate a list of favourites. When the service is up-and-running and new spaces are being added on a daily, or even hourly, basis, you’ll want to be able to check back into the world map to see the new spaces that have been added. There’ll be a sort, search and filter control over this, and your friends can also recommend spaces to you.

Q: In terms of the virtual cinema, you talked a lot about trailers, that kind of thing, will you be showing full films in there?

PH: No. The best place to show a film is running off the Cross Media Bar. But short clip content yes, user-created content definitely and possibly news and daily programming.

Q: But no TV shows?

PH: I wouldn’t say no TV shows, but I don’t think you would want to stand there for an hour watching a TV show when the best way is to watch it from the Cross Media Bar.

Q: But I assume that’ll be linked, if the film is available, on the online store, then there’ll be a one-click buy?

PH: That’s exactly the intention. You would be able to preview something in the preview theatre and then link to the store to be able to download it, exactly right.

Q: Do you think different types of PS3 owners will use Home in different ways, maybe hang out in different places? Can you give examples? I can see the hardcore guys sort of maybe spending more time in the private apartments than the public areas for example.

PH: Absolutely. We’re creating a platform, and populating that platform with a few content ideas ourselves, but ultimately we want to democratise it and allow anybody to build spaces in Home, and those would be the kind of extremes of experience that you would get on the platform anyway. There might be a SpongeBob space in Home, and there might be a Killzone space, and you know, everything in between. I think that when non-game brands come into the space as well and offer particular themed areas which appeal to particular groups of people – girls as well as boys, older people as well as younger people – then you’ll start to see that difference be more pronounced.

Q: Are you going to charge brands for having a space on Home?

PH: We’ve not made announcements on the specific business model, but the three basic sources of revenue for us are in advertising, in item sales, and what we loosely call B-to-B, selling opportunities to different brands, but I’m not going to go into any more details today on that.

Q: Will there be incentives for users to run adverts in their private apartments, like ‘run this ad, show it to your mates and we’ll give you something,’ say?

PH: We haven’t considered that, but it’s an interesting thought. In the last 48 hours since we’ve shared Home with the world, every time I sit down with somebody to have a discussion like this, the list of ideas gets longer and longer and longer, which is fantastic. That’s what resonates with me so strongly, the fact that we’ve got something here which has sparked everybody’s imagination.

Q: Are you going to allow players to set up their own online businesses? Selling, I don’t know, T-Shirts and that kind of thing.

PH: I think, if I’m imagining where that question’s coming from, in the kind of Second Life sense of the word, no. Because Second Life takes a very different approach. It’s all about user generated content, and doesn’t provide any content. We’re all about entertainment, we provide a lot of the framework for entertainment to take place in. Having said that, we do hope to offer some kind of user-to-user transactional elements in the future, but it won’t be day one.

Q: We were discussing outside the prospect of getting bigger apartments in Home and A) how much that might cost and B) whether you’d be able to get an extension to your apartment if you get a certain number of trophies, or something like that. Have you been thinking along those sorts of lines?

PH: Yeah, once again we’re not talking specifically at this moment but I’ll give you a general flavour of what we’re going to do, so here we’ve got a patio, but why not have a bigger patio, why not have a patio with a dock that goes down to the lake, and why not have…

Q: A Sunseeker?

PH: Yeah, or rather than an alpine mountain scene, why not have a desert island? There are lots of different ways that we can extend that; users will be able to extend their visual experience to customise their apartment through buying items from the store, by being given items through playing PlayStation 3 disk-based games or through items that we ourselves donate into the community.

Q: Regarding LittleBigPlanet, how much pre-made content will go out with it? And secondly, how important would a tutorial be, for example?

PH: We’re going to debut the product on the PlayStation Network first, as a commercial release, and then it’ll be on Blu-Ray disk in 2008 — hopefully early 2008 — and our goal is to be able to access some of the user-generated levels onto the disk when we sell it at retail. Maybe not the first version that we sell at retail, but future versions that we sell at retail can have user-aggregated content on them.

As far as a tutorial is concerned, I’m sure we’ll do something to make it easy for people to start off, but that’s also part of the interesting cross-over between Home and LittleBigPlanet; we could have a LittleBigPlanet space in Home where you can show expert user videos — imagine that in a classroom setting where you’ve got people sat down who are LittleBigPlanet designers and somebody going: “This is how you make boxes, this is how you make spheres, this is how you assign behaviours to them.” That’s really interesting.

Q: What’s the reward system going to be — what will you get if you make the number one played level?

PH: We’ve got some interesting ideas on that which we’ll share a little bit later, but we hope that star creators will be recognised and rewarded for their efforts.

Q: Maybe with jobs in the games industry?

PH: Why not? Why not? If that is one of the side benefits of what we do with LittleBigPlanet then I will be extremely happy, because that will help address some fundamental challenges that we have in training and creating new human resources to take our business forward.

Q: And I assume if your level is put on the Blu-ray disk you’ll be paid as well?

Q: Like I said, we’re not ready to talk about the specifics and I’d really prefer not to get drawn into that too much right now, but we’ve got some cool ideas.

Q: It seems to me the key to a game like that is finding out all the best things you can do that maybe not everyone else knows about?

PH: But that’s the great thing about the social element of audience-created content or user-created content. The fact that somebody makes an innovation, they upload it to the network and instantly everybody can see that innovation and it filters to the entire network. That’s the emergent entertainment that we’re most excited about, that we are not going to define, we’re not going to set the rules, so we’ll just see where people run with it.

[Diresu]

*queues ITT Tech commercial*

Lol I dunno why that made me laugh...Probablly cause its my school.... >.>

[indiekid4]

With LBP, I'm gonna dedicate hours and hours of my life designing the BEST level EVER! I will call it INdiekids Rock and Slama Jama Party House!!

[venomv]

Lol I dunno why that made me laugh...Probablly cause its my school.... >.>

Mine, too, and I'm starting Game Design there in June, first 2 years there are for a CAD degree, weird set-up I think.

[BruceWayneIII]

LittleBigPlanet will be the first game in years, that I would like to create levels for again. In my couch, in front of a big screen and a USD 10,000 HiFi set... Yummy!

[cliffbo]

don't forget to keep this on the radar... come on E3!

http://ps3media.ign.com/ps3/image/article/770/770998/home-20070307030914196-000.jpg

[gozirah]

Oh, man, my eyes are playing tricks on me. I thought I saw the smoke moving in that ^ picture.

[Matt]

Damn, you're right.

Either that, or I'm really high.....