Playstation HOME: "Live in our world, play in ours"

[Zenien]

http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/9849

t GDC, Sony Computer Entertainment bigwig Phil Harrison unveils Sony's upcoming plans for the PS3.
By Sterling McGarvey | March 7, 2007

We just witnessed Sony Computer Entertainment President Phil Harrison deliver "Game 3.0," the keynote address he will be delivering today for this year's Game Developers Conference. So if he hasn't gone on yet, how have we heard it? SCEA allowed Harrison to warm up for the development community last night at a media-only event in San Francisco. We got to hear "Game 3.0," and not only what it means for Sony, but for the game development community as a whole. We're also wondering how he's going to get all of this information out in the one hour reserved for his "real" keynote today.

Starting off by citing Time Magazine's 2006 Person of the Year ("You," for those not in the know regarding the magazine's controversial decision) and its effect on the Internet and Web 2.0, Harrison began discussing the idea that gaming was at a new renaissance point. "This is not Sony trying to trademark a buzzword," Harrison emphasized. "This is a theory we'd like to suggest to the gaming community, including developers." Citing "Game 1.0" as the era of Atari, arcades, and both 8-and 16-bit -- in other words, the era of self-contained experiences -- and "Game 2.0" as the genesis of online gaming, he then referenced the new generation of gaming consoles as "Game 3.0," in which the user, rather than developers, is key to content creation.

The apartment is a hub for clans to jump in and out of multiplayer games.


With that, Harrison turned the speech over to Scott Woldeman, who unveiled Sony's plans for PlayStation Home. Home will be a new section on the PS3 Xross Media Bar. It will have full integration with the PlayStation Network. Although many speculated that Home would resemble Nintendo's Mii system spliced with Xbox Live, the interface more strongly resembles Second Life than anything else. Players will be able to communicate via "Quick Write" (pre-composed phrases), virtual keyboards, or voice chat. The layout of Home will work according to a virtual PSP, which dictates locations and customization.

Starting off in a virtual meeting area, Woldeman showed how players will create a 3D avatar, with several faces and hairstyles to choose from. Rather than use a button to rotate the image, a player can use the motion-sensing features of the Sixaxis to move their character's head around. They'll also be able to download more faces and clothing options in the future. Virtual banners and TVs in the meeting area will display advertising for Sony games. Woldeman walked over to the avatar of one of the members of the Sony Europe team and greeted him via voice chat.

After that, he walked into a space resembling a game room. Players will be able to try out pool and bowling, all with realistic physics. There will also be an arcade for gamers to download arcade-style games on virtual machines. Woldeman demoed EVAC, a Choplifter-style game with cartoonish graphics, before moving on.

 

[Zenien]

Woldeman then went into a virtual apartment. After demonstrating how the apartment mechanic works, with varieties of custom wallpaper, furniture, TVs, and picture frames (players will be able to customize pictures with images stored on the PS3 hard drive), he invited his buddy from SCEE over. His friend's avatar showed up in the apartment, and they proceeded to virtually kick it on the cyber couch. While this initially seemed a bit unexciting, Woldeman announced that the apartment will actually be used as a meeting place for clans.

The apartment, or any gamer domicile, will be the focal point for group-based gaming; that is, players will be able to jump into multiplayer games, such as MotorStorm, then regroup back at the host's apartment afterwards. The action then moved to an even bigger house, in which Woldeman's avatar pulled up a 32" Bravia (Sony product integration is legendary) and loaded up a movie trailer from the PS3's hard drive to play on the virtual screen.

Woldeman then took the trailer concept even further, as the virtual PSP whisked the audience away to a Home Cinema, in which communities can watch and comment upon movie trailers available from Sony. Naturally, it resembles a multiplex. The company recently signed a deal with Grouper, which will allow users to post created content for friends within the Home Cinema. Woldeman took his virtual self into a theater showing the recently-released trailer for Resident Evil: Extinction. Outside of the theaters, other avatars were seen watching a trailer for Spider-Man 3 on a big screen in the lobby.

From there, the action moved into the idea behind the Home Network. Resembling a screen filled with bubbles, the Home Network will enable companies to create huge communities based around publishers, developers, game titles, publications, retailers, or advertisers. We saw icons for EA, Ubisoft, and God of War II, for example. Within the inner workings of the network, Woldeman moved into a Sony Sports area, which showed off what resembled a virtual Dave & Buster's, or an E3 booth, rendered in game form. Players will be able to visit each area and download trailers, wallpapers, or other images to their hard drives.

It was then that Woldeman unveiled the next big step in Home. Within the Hall of Fame, players will have fully 3D, animated trophies representing milestones attained in-game. They will have the ability to display their most impressive trophies within a personal space, and will also be able to pull up a rotating trophy case that will have information on each game they've played, as well as let them check other gamers' trophies. From there, Woldeman closed out the session by walking his virtual avatar into an area that, for all intents and purposes, resembles the Senate chamber from the Star Wars prequels. It was filled with mostly empty slots for unreleased PS3 games. Players will be able to go back to that Hall of Fame area to check for trophy requirements on games that they haven't purchased. Also, tellingly, it was unveiled that PS3 owners with existing save data will be able to attain trophies based on their in-game milestones on games available now.

 

[Zenien]

With that, Woldeman turned the action back over to Harrison, who unveiled the most important details. Beta testing on Home will begin next month, though no firm date has been determined. The entire service will roll out this Fall.

From there, Harrison hopped over to another PS3 debug unit to show off the progress on SingStar PS3. While many of the details regarding SingStar's uploadable/downloadable content were revealed nearly a year ago at E3 2006, we saw a few slight advancements with the product. One of Sony's top-selling titles for Europe, SingStar's interface dovetails with Harrison's theories on Game 3.0. Players will be able to shop within SingStar's virtual store, preview the music video for a song, and purchase it, all while continuing to browse the store. There was no mention of background downloading for PS3 owners, but one can imagine that if SingStar has it, early adopters should find their gripe remedied soon.

Harrison then re-iterated that SingStar will also enable user-uploaded content. Using a camera, players will be able to record their best performances and upload them to the game's servers for critique. It was also announced that players will be able to download custom in-game wallpapers for their SingStar page, which resembles a MySpace profile of sorts. Europe, the biggest market for the franchise, will get first dibs on the game this summer. In North America, the game will release this fall.

SingStar's interface allows for both e-commerce and personalization.


Post-SingStar, Harrison revealed another exclusive PS3 title. The team behind the PC cult hit Ragdoll Kung-Fu has now formed a game studio, known as Media Molecule. Little Big Planet is a wholly unique IP that embraces user-created content. Media Molecule founders Mark Healy and Alex Everson took the stage and presented this new first-party title.

All of the action takes place on a planet covered in user-created plots and obstacles. Utilizing a miniscule cloth character, Healy showed off the way that the game merges seemingly innocuous icons with a fully interactive and customizable environment. The game thrives on the use of real materials, from rocks in the environment to plants. It is up to the player to interact and solve puzzles within the level. It appears to be a 2D side-scrolling game; Harrison and Woldeman hopped onto another pair of Sixaxis controllers and got right into the action with their own goofy custom characters.

Ultimately, the band of four had to work in conjunction with one another to continue throughout the level. Each of the characters collected spongy bits of material, which fortified them. After some ten minutes of running around came the finale, in which the entire gang rode a skateboard down a hill (and took a snapshot of themselves). The audience seemed fairly sold on the odd concept.

 

[THE LIZARD#1]

Thanks Z!

 

[Fading]

Wow, honestly I'm impressed. Didn't have time to read your posts since I just clicked, and finished watching the video just now.

So a freeware HD MMO type deal where you set up your character, your room or house or whatever, and go around meeting ppl to play multiplayer games with, or can share any music or movies or whatever that you have on your harddrive with.

I know that sounded a bit like an ass kiss, but that's a pretty sweet freeware deal. The only problem I see though is that by the time you meet up with people to ask if they want to play a game you've probably been in the that home program itself for a bit.

Nice find.

 

[Zenien]

Apparently you can also choose to 'warp' to any areas, or the homes of the people on your friends list, so that would speed things up a bit.

You can apparently go into a persons room and boot directly into different online games or something.

 

[BatMatt]

damn thats awesome

 

[JM0087]

WOW

That amazing, the PS3 is getting better and better.

 

[Havok83]

thanks for the posts Z. I hope it works out as great as it sounds.

 

[The Guardian]

I JUST SAW THIS ON IGN, INCREDIBLE STUFF, SONY IS REALLY PICKING UP STEAM, I LIKE IT!!!

 

[Ice-man]

just read about this on psu, but your post is even better. this is rly awsome. cant wait till this comes out.

now im deff buying the ps3 soon.

 

[Fran]

What? This is basically a port of real-life.

I mean, it's kinda weird.

 

[GoldenAgeHero]

so its like sims?

 

[kytrigger]

It sounds good I guess. This is one of those things where I'm not that excited simply because I don't think I will use it that much. I don't really play games online right now, and don't really plan to (but i guess that could change.) Either way, this does sound like they are doing something really interesting, and not half assed either which is definately good.

 

[Fran]

"A virtual apartment"

HOLY ****!

So basically, you can live in an apartment online AND in real-life! Awesome!

 

[THE LIZARD#1]

What is the significance of this? I've only skimmed through a little bit of it but everyone seems to be freaking out about it. Is there something i'm missing?

*Scrolls up*

F88k now I got to read.

 

[Zenien]

This might help explain things.

http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/9861

 

[THE LIZARD#1]

This might help explain things.

http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/9861

Thanks Zenien

Man I felt so bad for Phil during his speech, that sucks that it didn't work. He looked so nervous.

WOW! Just got done watching this and i'm literally just in astonishment.

 

[nosebleed.]

If this pans out then there are going to be soo many PS3s sold. This blows the Nintendo Mii advantage out of the water and makes the Xbox live user interaction seem paltry in comparison. The issues I see with this are lag issues, load time to get into home and how much all those micro-transactions will cost. I mean, I spend enough money in real life trying to customize my home...how much more am I going to have to try and spend customizing my "apartment"?

 

[Benstamania]

It certainly has the potential to be counter-productive... but it also looks to have taken the "Mii" idea and taken it to the next level.

If it isn't mandatory - it could be fun (for a while). but if it is required for online matchmaking, etc, i can see how it quickly would become a PIA.

 

[Zenien]

Nintendo is PISSED about 'Home' and Littlebigplanet. Let the post GDC mudslinging begin.

Nintendo to Sony: "Stop Stealing our Ideas"

Following Sony's announcement of its new online community software, PS Home, Nintendo has gone on the offensive, deeming the service "an example of Sony's 'Mii-too' approach."

When asked of the company's thoughts on Sony's online plans, Nintendo told CVG: "This is an example of Sony's "Mii-too" approach. But as Mr. Miyamoto states, Nintendo years ago considered and rejected the type of approach Sony is now taking", presumably referring to creating a virtual online world.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=159573

The keynote ends and the conference disperses. Everyone seems to be smiling. Except for Reggie.

 

[Electro UK]

That's ******ed. Sure the Six-axis was a bit of a rip off, but these ideas arn't original enough on Nintendo's side to be considered idea stealing.

 

[Zenien]

Home will have a closed public beta in April
Home will be up this Fall
http://www.homebetatrial.com/

 

[sandwraith]

Wait, do we have to purchase Home? Is it a free download or a patch?

 

[Fading]

Wait, do we have to purchase Home? Is it a free download or a patch?

It said freeware in the video, so I'm guessing free, but xtras probably cost. Like things for your room or whatever. It also said you can share music, and join eachothers games, so I don't know if the music sharing cost a bit or not, but I doubt it.