Sony has received its fair share of flak for online platform/social net nexus Home, mostly because of frequent delays and the growing realization that nothing Sony’s console has can hold a candle to Xbox Live. Typically, Sony likes to shrug off such shortcomings by trotting out the PS3’s supposed 10-year lifespan, and in that context the postponements don’t seem so bad — what’s one more year if people then have another seven in which to relish their investment? But PlayStation Home may outlast even the PS3.
In a recent interview with IGN, Home’s creative director Ron Festejo speculates that the online service may have some serious legs:
IGN AU: It’s been said that the PlayStation 3’s lifespan is potentially 10 years – do you see this of having a shelf-life of another five years?
Ron Festejo: The thing is, it’s important to know that Home is a free service and it’s continuously evolving. We don’t see this as being tied to a particular console. We see this as tied into the PlayStation Network; with every console iteration, the online portion of that will only get bigger and bigger. I think Home is there to stay, and it’s a great project to work on when you can see the kind of areas it’ll go on to expand to.
No doubt whatever PlayStation do next console-wise and where it goes online, I think Home will go on to support that.
While I’m not yet sure how popular Home will be among gamers, I have to admit the idea is actually far more plausible than that of the “10-year lifespan.” While computer hardware continues to evolve at such a pace that PS3 games will look quite primitive compared to the PC games of 2016 (compare your average PS2 game to Crysis, then recall that we’re still two years away from the 10-year anniversary of the PS2) gamers have been known to hold onto their online experiences for quite some time, regardless of graphical fidelity.
And that’s not all the interview has to offer. Other takeaways include a general willingness to mold the experience to the users, rather than the other way around…
IGN AU: Do you think that’s one of your biggest threats, then? You know – adding another step to something that should be very simple and direct? Are there too many features between the player and the content?
Ron Festejo: I think it’s something you’ve got to be aware of. Unfortunately, it’s not something you can always prepare for. We may have an idea of what will be the best thing for the users, but until you get hundreds of people to use it, it’s not something you can prepare for. Again, one of the great things about working on this project is you can have a look and go ‘Well, actually…’ We can make those changes and update the content.
…and the general timeline in which you can expect Home to appear in your living room.
So we’re kind of at a point right now where we have between eight and ten thousand participants in the closed beta – and we’re very close with them as well. Come July, we’ll be extending that closed beta phase and expanding it as well. That ends in mid-November, where we do an open beta, and that’ll be available to download from the PlayStation Store for anyone who wants to use it. That’s not the launch, however. It’s just the open beta – and we’ll continue to do it until we see fit to do the final release.
Assuming they’re willing to support a stable platform that will still be useful when we’re all dropping bills on the PlayStation 4, I think I’d be willing to forgive Sony a delay or two. How about you?
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