Home public beta to be invite only, expected release in November

[VG Aficionado]

Home release will not be a "big bang" event, says Sony (http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=28608)
Matt Martin 08:18 (BST) 13/09/2007

Public beta will be invite only, followed by soft launch


Sony's Jamie MacDonald has told GamesIndustry.biz that the release of PS3 social networking service Home will be a low key affair, following an invite only public beta.

Home may have a profile similar to the biggest blockbuster games, but Sony is opting for a soft launch as it gradually rolls out the 3D user community for the PlayStation 3.

"One of the challenges that we have is to get over the mentality of Home being your typical product launch," said MacDonald, speaking in an exclusive interview published today.

"In the past we'd make a game, put it on a disc and launch it in the shops. But this is so different.

"It's a constantly evolving thing. Week by week and month by month it evolves. There isn't going to be this 'big bang' launch. That's how you do it in the Web 2.0 world, if you're familiar with the launch of Gmail or something like that," detailed MacDonald.

Home is central to Sony's network initiatives, with it initially acting as 3D community for like-minded PS3 users, bringing together multiple online services for the PlayStation 3.

The free service will launch from the PS3's Cross Media Bar, allowing users to interact, communicate, play online games, shop and build their own customised spaces.

But more than a first-party initiative, Home will open up to offer third-party partners space to conduct business, advertising and services in a controlled environment.

Although no definite date has been set, when unveiling the service at GDC earlier this year Sony pencilled in an autumn release.

"It's already out there in a closed beta and we're going to an open beta in the next couple of months and then it will be available on the Cross Media Bar soon after," said MacDonald, vice president of SCE worldwide studios.

When the beta does go public shortly, it's likely to be by invite only.

"At the moment the closed beta is employees, trusted third-parties and people like that. An open beta will be a wider audience but it won't be open to everybody.

"We haven't worked out the exact way of doing it but it will be invites to people to ask if they want to be part of it, and then depending on what the response is, we'll have to have some way of deciding who can and who can't take part," said MacDonald.

The full interview with Jamie MacDonald, where he discusses the challenges of creating Home, can be read here.From the sound of it, I wouldn't expect the final version of Home this year, and it makes me wonder whether we'll see firmware 2.0 before October, and if we do, whether it'll include important new features or we'll have to wait for 2.5 or something else. I guess Home poses a lot of challenges given how ambitious it is.

[Sephiroth_VII]

I guess it has something to do with this site (http://homebetatrial.com).

[B Dizzle]

Listening to Phil Harrison's interview with 1crap after e3, I wouldnt expect the full version of Home for a couple of years yet.

Also the guy that leaked the beta details states that its pretty bare bones and that pretty much none of the features Sony's been bragging on for the last year are currently available.

These things do take time and it is a massive undertaking but I wish they'd shut the hell up untill they're actually ready.

Instead of talking shit for two years and then totally under-delivering, it would be nice if Phil, Kaz or Jack turned up somewhere and said, " Hey, we've got this amazing new functionality/product that does all of this neat shit. This is what it looks like and, Oh, by the by, it will be available for purchase/d/load at the end of the week/month.

They've nearly pulled it off with Play TV, great functionality and a lovely interface. Its looks like a complete product they could sell today, as opposed to Home where even its most basic functionality is incomplete.

[VG Aficionado]

Yeah. It is annoying seeing that anticipated products or features never seem to have a solid date, but on the other hand they wouldn't be able to announce anything if they waited until these were almost ready.

By the way, are there videos of PlayTV demonstrated?

[Leedogg]

atleast we got some news about Home it's been pretty quiet since E3

[B Dizzle]

youtube's got some decent footage that I showed the wife last night.

Type in PLAY TV

[solidsnakejej]

It looks like there's a update to home. I'm going to check it out.

[section]

Mofos are late with the features so they can't release it yet to the open crowd because there would be lot of boo and hiss :(

Hopefully I get invited though, that's how I got way back into gmail thang.

[Leedogg]

via Archy heres some new screenshots

http://www.console-exploits.com/foru...ad.php?p=88660

[B Dizzle]

[QUOTE=VG Aficionado;1682084] but on the other hand they wouldn't be able to announce anything if they waited until these were almost ready.QUOTE]

I'm not saying they shouldnt pre-announce stuff, but do it like Play TV. The product they've talked about, is the product we'll see on release, unlike Home, where the functionality they've been promoting bares little resemblence to the product available.

[VG Aficionado]

I think it's highly unusual to show software in a state representing what the finished build will be like whenever you first announce it, mostly the longer it's still away from being finished, and mostly in the case of PS3 (painful memories on how mediocre some games looked like at E3 last year). A working hardware product might be finished well before it's marketed, although its firmware will most likely be subject of many changes and enhancements before it's released.

[Fats]

It seems the HOME beta has been updated and ready for download by current testers. With this update the HOME Square that was shown at E3 has finally been made available to testers. From what I understand many changes have been made to the HOME beta and they're very well received by beta participants. One of the changes I was informed of is that they've broken locations down to optional downloads. For example if you didn't desire to visit the theater you didn't have to download it. It make for a much smaller core download and allows users to define their own experiences. Anyhow less talk and more screenshots, enjoy!

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc72/doogle001/homeupdate_01.jpg

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc72/doogle001/homeupdate_02.jpg

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc72/doogle001/homeupdate_03.jpg

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc72/doogle001/homeupdate_04.jpg

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc72/doogle001/homeupdate_05.jpg

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc72/doogle001/homeupdate_06.jpg

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc72/doogle001/homeupdate_07.jpg

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc72/doogle001/homeupdate_08.jpg

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc72/doogle001/homeupdate_09.jpg

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc72/doogle001/homeupdate_10.jpg

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc72/doogle001/homeupdate_11.jpg

DivX?

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc72/doogle001/homeupdate_12.jpg

Source (http://www.console-exploits.com/forums/showthread.php?p=88660)

[B Dizzle]

But were talking about a product due for release before year end, potentially in the next six weeks. As far as I'm aware very little of what they've shown publicly over the past 6 months will be available.

My point is, if it aint ready for the big time, keep it your pants.

I have been known to be wrong and if Sony can organise game launching and trophies at launch it will be a nice surprise but, the HOME they've been talking about is not the HOME thats on the streets.

Look at KZ2, nothing positive came from the BS trailer in my eyes, and Sony took 2 years of beatings for it. When they finally revealed the actual game,(what in my eyes is the best looking, most atmospheric next-gen game, full-stop) the general cry wasnt "Wow, that looks amazing!", it was "Well, it dont look like the trailer".

Imagine the scene, e307, they've done all the usual conference rah-rah and THEN they pulled KZ2 out of the hat, and then Mathius(sp?) steps on to the stage, pad in hand and says, "Oh yeah, when we're finished the conference, you get to go hands on" . The impact would have been phenomenal. I probably would have booked an overnight and gatecrashed that muthaluva.

Nothing but positives.

[VG Aficionado]

But were talking about a product due for release before year end, potentially in the next six weeks. As far as I'm aware very little of what they've shown publicly over the past 6 months will be available.

My point is, if it aint ready for the big time, keep it your pants.The fact that we heard so little about Home in the last few months is the proof that things weren't going so smoothly and that it needs more time. We shouldn't be surprised if it's going to take longer than originally thought. However, looking at the beta update today, I think a lot of what they've shown this year will be available at least for those who can get into the public beta.

I agree that they probably revealed it too soon, but they also "won" the Games Developer Conference by showing Home and Little Big Planet, as well as a tech trailer of Killzone 2 (which probably was less interesting than the E3 trailer and footage). It would have sucked that they hadn't had anything else to show, and those were the right products to showcase.

Look at KZ2, nothing positive came from the BS trailer in my eyes, and Sony took 2 years of beatings for it. When they finally revealed the actual game,(what in my eyes is the best looking, most atmospheric next-gen game, full-stop) the general cry wasnt "Wow, that looks amazing!", it was "Well, it dont look like the trailer".I gotta disagree. The reaction to the Killzone 2 trailer at last E3 was mostly positive. Only the haters and some biased media made a blatant attempt to downplay it.

[Coded-Dude]

I can't wait to go HOME and try and the new HOME...... O:-]


To Everyone: Based on their initial road map, HOME should have already been released to public beta and ready for release by the end of this year. However, after hearing feedback from users Sony dramatically changed direction(all for the better), so anyone with any reasonable knowledge of the development process is not surprised by its delay. My only suggestion to those that are upset by lack of news and missed target dates - DON'T WORRY, this will be very much worth the wait, I promise.

I'm personally glad they decided not to go with the initial HOME beta.
(I'm also very excited to try this new updated beta out)

[curryking1]

Let's all stare evilly at this Home Beta-er....:susp:

[Coded-Dude]

=-o




:shifty:

[VG Aficionado]

To Everyone: Based on their initial road map, HOME should have already been released to public beta and ready for release by the end of this year. However, after hearing feedback from users Sony dramatically changed direction(all for the better), so anyone with any reasonable knowledge of the development process is not surprised by its delay. My only suggestion to those that are upset by lack of news and missed target dates - DON'T WORRY, this will be very much worth the wait, I promise.Good point :)

:susp:

[solidsnakejej]

I think one of the devs were teasing people because earlier there was this guy in a king kong suit was dancing behind these gates (http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc72/doogle001/homeupdate_01.jpg) saying "Ook".

[VG Aficionado]

:lol:

[GTAce]

:lol: :laugh:

Ohh cant wait, i hope i can participate from the next beta. 8(

[Sephiroth_VII]

I think one of the devs were teasing people because earlier there was this guy in a king kong suit was dancing behind these gates (http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc72/doogle001/homeupdate_01.jpg) saying "Ook".

Really?

[OmniCloud]

Nice words Coded-dude, can't wait to try it out myself...

[Danji]

This post ended up fairly large so I just made a thread for it.

http://forums.e-mpire.com/showthread.php?t=78829

[frosty]

Kinda funny how you are telling people what to expect at launch when you don't know what will be in place at launch... you only know what to expect from the current beta.

[Danji]

Kinda funny how you are telling people what to expect at launch when you don't know what will be in place at launch... you only know what to expect from the current beta.

They missed all of their roadmap goals and haven't incorporated anything of major use. This is over the course of about 3 months. The major thing to tell us what is to come will be the open beta..as they won't do an open beta until everything that is in the final launch is operating.

[-gin-]

new video showing some of the new upgrades http://s181.photobucket.com/albums/x40/jinn-/?action=view&current=homebeta.flv

its from gametrailers.com somebody uploaded, grabbed it before it was taken down.