The story behind Sony's work to build a new virtual Home

[Z]

Welcome, Home
13:30, Apr 3rd 2007 by Michael French
SPECIAL REPORT: The story behind Sony's work to build a new virtual Home for gamers – and how developers can contribute.
The overall positive response to Home, Sony's new 3D virtual world front-end for the PS, at last month's GDC must come as something of a relief to the SCEE.

The result of two years' hard work and secret investigations into online experiences, it is a project whose foundations have been carefully built to not only withstand the inevitable upswing in PlayStation 3 users (the machine already has over 2m owners around the globe), but remain flexible enough to cope with ongoing changes and added content and input from third party developers and publishers.

Like with any plan, however, Sony refined its idea until it had a final blueprint. The service originally started out as a PS2 prototype for an online lobby called Hub.

"The brief was to investigate an online lobby, a place where gamers could meet, interact and play social games," explains Jonathan Venables, lead artist on the project in an opinion piece written exclusively for the next issue of Develop.

He previously worked on The Getaway Black Monday and moved to the Hub team as that game finished. The first thing he and the rest of the team realised was that most online lobbies awere discriminatory rather than inclusive. Says Venables: "For many, the then online gaming experience was unfriendly. Usually after battling with a text-heavy lobby you eventually log in... and get shot in the face."

"Some thing more accessible and elegant was needed."

HOME SWEET HOME
Prototyping and the small size of the Hub/Home team proved key to getting close the elegant solution that was debuted at GDC last month, however - a mix 'n' match build strategy that mirrors the service's technical base. While the bulk of the client and design work was done in London, UK at Sony's London Studio, it uses shared online technology devised by Sony Japan, SCEA and Sony Online Entertainment.

Explains Venables: "The PS2 prototype phase was a frenetic but creative period. Looking back at my early art schedules I am amazed how diverse the work and versatile the team had to be. Being a small team meant we that we were able to respond in an agile manner to new design concepts and could quickly prototype and present ideas fortnightly."

But as fortnights turned into months, it soon became apparent that Sony's ambitions were bigger than the PS2. It's also probable that, as the activity behind that machine started to wane as PS3 began to cast its shadow, that Hub would make more sense as part of the PlayStation 3's free online service.

Explains Venables: “As time passed we gained momentum and team morale grew as did belief in the product.

"After the first PS3 devkits turned up we started to repeat our work in this exciting next-gen environment and a whole new bunch of challenges arose. With perseverance, the momentum generated from the prototype phase continued, the team grew as did the concept, design and associated expectations of Home."

Certainly, the service has far more potential starting on PS3, says Sony's Worldwide Studio president Phil Harrison.

"We always had our vision for it being a very rich 3D immersive world - that was always the vision from day one," Harrison told Develop at GDC.

"But when we moved to PS3 we were able to realise a much richer more sophisticated more immersive experience with new channels coming in from video, audio, 3D animation and so on."

The result has meant users can use the PS3 to stream their own media into their virtual spaces and also visit locations potentially hosted by third party games companies and movie studios with streaming video. A 3D platform for Home, rather than Hub's 2D one, means assets can be natively exported from games built using Maya and incorporated straight into the service when it comes to developers and publishers building their own spaces.

SECOND LIVE
As was explained at GDC, Home ties heavily into Sony's wider Game 3.0 philosophy, which is encouraging the industry to think about how to keep games relevant in an age dominated by the likes of MySpace, Amazon and Google.

"Home is a pretty big step in that area," says Harrison. "It demonstrates something we've talked about a lot but not been allowed to crystallise in an example yet."

Prior to the Home announcement (and before the pre-GDC leak that detailed Home - "I'm surprised we kept it secret for so long," says Harrison) the SCE WS president had said that Sony would trump Nintendo's Mii player avatars and had told journalists that the growing influence of non-game virtual worlds like Second Life, which emphasises social interaction over gameplay was something Sony was closely monitoring.

"What we have talked about a lot is constant improvement - we will always add different functionalities through software updates and software applications," he adds, explaining that Sony' new service will continue to evolve and add features as more users sign on and more media companies, games developer and brand-holders take part.

And what of the inevitable comparison to Second Life, and the clear distinction to give a 3D representation to Trophies, Sony's own Xbox Live-like achievements?

Harrison says that relating Home to what already exists is only a secondary concern to the main priority: creating something worthwhile and engaging: "It wasn't a conscious decision to differentiate from other online experiences we just new where we were headed and as we grew we were able to add much more immersive content as well."

The important thing, says Harrison, is how, ultimately, the creation of Home is not purely a Sony endeavour - it's something gamers and developers will contribute to the building of.

And those contributions will in turn rack up cash. SCEDEV’s official documentation for the service says that while the primary function of Home is a social environment “there will be ample opportunities for business and individuals alike to generate significant revenues” from advertising, content purchases and auctions.

But the priority is still on the community and interaction that this activity by other companies will give rise to, says Harrison.

"By extending the community into the game application itself and empowering users... that will extend the life cycle of games and will extend the relationship the player has with the game. It also brings game designers and the game audience closer together - that relationship is quite compelling. The trend of user-created or developer-created content inside Home, having a space where a developer can preview new character designs and have the audience vote on them - that kind of engagement between audience and developers is really interesting.

"It's not just developers, either - it's retailers, publishers - anyone."

Home is "just good for everybody" he concludes.

http://www.developmag.com/news/26393/Welcome-Home

[Diresu]

Awesome read.

[Black Mamba]

exciting

[wotter]

Good read +rep

[NeoPlayStation]

Great read!
+Rep.

[Pumpkin Head]

Thanks good read+rep

[curryking1]

*redundant* Good read! *redundant*

:D

And... err.... great find! lol, that's redundant too....

GO Z! XD

[Domination]

Home is like the perfect strategy. Imagine for a second... air hockey, uno or abundance of other card games, slot machines, shooting range. Just about anything you could possibly think of.

I also like the fact that developers can build a portion of their game into the Home space as a continuation, or more like a portal-like lodge, from where you originally left off to have access to unique content designed or being advertised by them in the Home space - rather that be arcade machines with games that hadn't yet been shown public that you can sample or other limitless possibilities. It's extremely innovative when you think about it. Imagine the gun store in GTA ending up in Home when you enter it when you're playing the game. Not only will it be a replication of the one you originally saw in the game, but you might get lucky and see some of your PlayStation buddies in there as well checking out some of Rockstar's new content. If it gets borning visit another room (perhaps your apartment for a group get together) in Home or jump back into the game. Oh the potential.

Now that's awesome!

[OmniCloud]

uh...damn...I don't wanna say good read again....

uh...interesting...there ya go!

AH...what the hell!! Good read!!!

When this thing launches in Oct (right?) say there's like 3.5 mil PS3's out there... A big draw for Sony, is that probably 2.5-3mil of those PS3's are going to make avatars for home. Free is a powerful word. And Sony should really drop the price when Home is released to get as many people online as they can.

Then they can see the trends, what people like doing, are we really playing those little stupid Arcade games inside of Home etc....

All indications seem like Home is really going to the big push that Sony needed with PS3. PS2 had the price/games fairly early on, this seems to be just want PS3 needs, compelling EXCLUSIVE Software. I'm excited...

[Diresu]

I think its the little things that will set it apart. Like say you want to play a game with a large number of people online...say 16 people mp or something. While you are waiting in the lobby for the people to come you can chat, shoot some pool, play bowling etc...

Its really going to make the community aspect of online play shine. So far the only community was inside the actual game once you are playing but with home its way before that.

[OmniCloud]

Originally Posted by Diresu

I think its the little things that will set it apart. Like say you want to play a game with a large number of people online...say 16 people mp or something. While you are waiting in the lobby for the people to come you can chat, shoot some pool, play bowling etc...

Its really going to make the community aspect of online play shine. So far the only community was inside the actual game once you are playing but with home its way before that.

Yeah, I think it's going to be the best online service by mid 08 when it's fleshed out.

Personally, I was getting tired of waiting for PS3's potential to be shown...Finally, there's some real stuff to get excited about. Home being the background to every PS3 online game is a huge boost to the system. Little Big Planet, Singstar, Killzone, can't wait to see what Sony does for 07 man!

[Diresu]

Originally Posted by OmniCloud

Yeah, I think it's going to be the best online service by mid 08 when it's fleshed out.

Personally, I was getting tired of waiting for PS3's potential to be shown...Finally, there's some real stuff to get excited about. Home being the background to every PS3 online game is a huge boost to the system. Little Big Planet, Singstar, Killzone, can't wait to see what Sony does for 07 man!

PErsonally im most excited about the way content can be delivered in home. Having phil do interviews in his "studio" in home. Having press conferences scheduled within the game etc. Studios promoting their game through a house completely decked out with the game promo posters videos, 3d figures yada yada. Or having the play beyond be an actual room in home and things like that. Seeing a giant board with a countdown on it for a major announcements etc There is just so much potential here. Its the fact that they can just keep adding and virtually never run out of ideas for new things to add that makes it so damn impressive. I can hardly wait.

[VonGak]

^We should almost have a "round the table" thread debating the possibilities Home open up for.

[Epix]

^There's a thread somewhere around here like that.

[Domination]

Originally Posted by Diresu

I think its the little things that will set it apart. Like say you want to play a game with a large number of people online...say 16 people mp or something. While you are waiting in the lobby for the people to come you can chat, shoot some pool, play bowling etc...

Its really going to make the community aspect of online play shine. So far the only community was inside the actual game once you are playing but with home its way before that.

There has to be a backdoor out, though, which will disconnect you from the waiting list. In something like a FPS online when you're waiting for others to join a lobby is likely to be a little impossible since Home doesn't run in the background while the game is playing. It's kinda like waiting in line to get on a ride when you're online. So I really can't see this being seamless. There has to be a check point built within the game to allow you to pick up where you left off, which is where this portal to Home and the game will become a continuation.

However, I can see you exiting straight from the game into Home from anwhere in the game if the PS button is tap to bring up the XMB or if developers allow an option at a certain point in the game for you to exit it while online. You just won't pick up where you left off when you jump back online. You will likely have to enter a new game or enter the lobby page all over again.

[Diresu]

There has to be a backdoor out, though, which will disconnect you from the waiting list. In something like a FPS online when you're waiting for others to join a lobby is likely to be a little impossible since Home doesn't run in the background while the game is playing. It's kinda like waiting in line to get on a ride when you're online. So I really can't see this being seamless. There has to be a check point built within the game to allow you to pick up where you left off, which is where this portal to Home and the game will become a continuation.

However, I can see you exiting straight from the game into Home from anwhere in the game if the PS button is tap to bring up the XMB or if developers allow an option at a certain point in the game for you to exit it while online. You just won't pick up where you left off when you jump back online. You will likely have to enter a new game or enter the lobby page all over again.

Well what I meant was waiting for people, then going into the actual game itself. Not booting up the game then going to home to wait.

[OmniCloud]

Originally Posted by Diresu

PErsonally im most excited about the way content can be delivered in home. Having phil do interviews in his "studio" in home. Having press conferences scheduled within the game etc. Studios promoting their game through a house completely decked out with the game promo posters videos, 3d figures yada yada. Or having the play beyond be an actual room in home and things like that. Seeing a giant board with a countdown on it for a major announcements etc There is just so much potential here. Its the fact that they can just keep adding and virtually never run out of ideas for new things to add that makes it so damn impressive. I can hardly wait.

Seriously, I really wouldn't mind going to sleep and waking up to September 1st after that post....

[Domination]

Originally Posted by Diresu

Well what I meant was waiting for people, then going into the actual game itself. Not booting up the game then going to home to wait.

ohhhhh, Ok. Yeah, that's much is really simple to do. I was addressing this experience from within a game - an offline game or experience. An experiene like this is much more complex and extremely innovative from what Sony has allowed developers to do with Home.

[VonGak]

Originally Posted by Epix

^There's a thread somewhere around here like that.

Oh, then it's good that I was too lazy to make one. :D

[Diresu]

Originally Posted by OmniCloud

Seriously, I really wouldn't mind going to sleep and waking up to September 1st after that post....

Thanks. I am just really excited about this whole concept. Especially considering how impressive it looks from the very limited portion we actually seen.

Originally Posted by Domination

ohhhhh, Ok. Yeah, that's much is really simple to do. I was addressing this experience from within a game - an offline game or experience. An experiene like this is much more complex and extremely innovative from what Sony has allowed developers to do with Home.

I gotcha, agreed.