Ben-DutkaThe potential of PlayStation Home is difficult to measure. There's no knowing what Home will look like in one year's time…
Perhaps it'll feature more games than ever. According to what nDreams CEO Patrick O'Luanaigh said during this week's Develop conference , Home presents a ton of benefits to game developers. nDreams has already produced Xi, the first "alternate reality game" for Home, and O'Luanaigh says Home has a lot more going for it than other possible platforms, like Facebook and iPhone. He said the Home Development Kit for designers is an "incredibly robust game-creation engine" but most companies aren't aware of this just yet; they spend most of their time creating promotional spaces within Sony's virtual community. But in fact, it's actually a "great MMO engine" that could be utilized quite easily. Furthermore, you don't have to compete for the attention of users all the time; thousands of little games are trying to outstrip Zynga and Playfish on Facebook, but almost nobody is trying to target Home's 12-14 million regular users.
Of course, there is a downside: PS3 users are expecting sharp, impressive 3D graphics within Home, which can be complicated from a casual standpoint. But even so, things will grow and more games will come with time; said O'Luanaigh:
"Home can be a game development platform in its own right. People will soon realize it's not just about chatting and apartments and clothing … it's about creating great experiences online that are different. And Home is brilliant at online stuff because it's built right in."
I was toying around at the Sodium Hub last night and it's pretty darn cool. If those are the types of games he's referring to, we could certainly use more of those. Give it a try, devs!
It does have a lot of MMO potential
Skateboarding
MMORPG
Fight Club events? (fighting against friends in a ring?)
We'll see
How about having a car based Home space? We currently can 'cruise' in our avatars in many different spaces. But think about it, in many cities, especially holiday spots, people literally cruise the strip in their shiny car, just to show off. I've been wondering whether Home might be able to support a Gran Turismo space where you can customize a car – similar to how we can customize our avatars – and then cruise the space in the car, and perhaps participate in some driving based mini-games. Kind of a Home space for petrol-heads.
Fight Club. Hell yeah.
I am Jack's thumbs. Without me, Jack could not do a thumbs up to this.
I wounder how different Home will look in a years time because it looks a lot better then a year ago from now.
I completely agree with this dude. Home has a great potential for games, especially MMORPGs. Good grief you have your avatar and world navigation already provided for you, If you're developing an MMORPG Home does a lot of the heavy lifting for you.
Sodium is a good example, but it can go so very much further. there is a space on Japan's Home that actually functions identically to a traditional online RPG. You have to battle monsters with swords and spells, and all of that is done within the Home environment with your home avatar. It's no more than a few steps from that to a fully realized MMORPG in Home with Home avatars.
I have been so hoping that developers would catch on to this, at least one group in Japan seems to have done so.
What space is that? I'd love to try that out, sounds awesome!
I can't remember the name. My wife found it. We'll get back on there tonight and I'll post something on the forum about it, perhaps a screenshot of which space to select to get ther.
I really hadn't been on home recently until I decided to log on last night and see if any progress had been made. I was surprised to see the new spaces, options, decked out mall. I also gave sodium a shot and it is a quick easy fun little game that I would definitely like to see more of.
Serious possibilities as far as game development goes? Most definitely
I've always wanted them to make a battle arena where you could actually go in and fight other people on home. Or imagine a card game being released onto home. You can get exclusive cards from some spaces, you get a starter pack for free in the card shop, and then you can buy cards to add to your collection if you want. That would be cool. I'm not into trading card games, though I used to be, but that would be an easy and universal game they could create on home and I know I'd enjoy playing it with my friends online.
I must say, Home has grown since the last time i was in there. I hadn't visited Home in some time. I couldn't believe all the content they added.
There is a new PS Mini's space devoted to PlayStation minis, and there's also a Wipeout space with a couple of minigames, both of these were added just last week.
You know I'm loving the idea of more mini games and most of all implementing mmorpgs into home. I was a big fan of the original pokemon games and I was just thinking how easy it would be to implement a pokemon rpg into home.
Have area's for catching pokemon, training, battle arena to fight other players. Could even keep your captured pokemon in your apartment spaces.
The possibilities for home are endless and I'm really looking forward to seeing what they do.
How about an updated version of the Golden Saucer?
Heck yeah!
depends what games there talking about.
sports games like table tennis or something like that, than meh.
but one thing that would be perfect for home is a virtual arcade!
bring back the old arcades, have a room filled with old arcade styled machines.
than you can hop onto one of the machines, talk to your friends, and select from a large list of old arcade games.
id love to see old arcade games like house of the dead and time crisis on there!
but they have to make it so there are always enough machines, thats one bad thing about home your constantly waiting to play something.
or even make it that everyone can buy some for their own apartment, than invite friends in there so yous can play arcade games together!
now thats something that would get me to sign into home.