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They did say that they had a lot of plans for the PlayStation Home. Ever since it launched, Sony's marketed Home as that one-stop shop where you can meet and "socialize" with fellow PlayStation 3 gamers with interactive avatars and whatnot.
It was a virtual world, yes, but one that never really got out of that wannabe-social network scene. Now, however, Sony wants to expand the capabilities of Home and actually make it a hub for social games. How exactly do they intend to do this?
For one, they're planning on making the jump to the social games bandwagon by putting up "gaming" systems within Home, where folks can earn points. Explained Jack Buser, PS Home director, "This is a giant leap in the evolution of the platform. We are going to 'up level' games as the heart of PlayStation Home. This means that Home itself is going to become a game. The first things you see when you get into Home are games."
Supposedly, the redesigned version of Home will be opening its doors sometime this fall, which will now feature a futurustic transit place called "The Hub". Here, users can engage in games, quests, community events and other activities online.
As it is a central transport point, users can also then transfer directly into free games or move on about the rest of Home, going from one game genre to the next.
The thing is, it looks like this is a sure indication that they cannot maintain Home with how they originally intended it to be. It did succeed in connecting people for the most part, but then since "socializing" isn't so hot any more virtually, that just kind of went kaput.
The good thing, however, is that Home was made flexible enough in such a way that they can get away with revamping its use as easily as this without disturbing too much of the existing system. The way Home was designed made it very adaptable, and thus very organically transition from a socializing hub to a gaming hub.
If they can offer fun virtual games consistently, then I think this is going to be a better path for the Home to take, rather than just have people rub elbows with each other. They've supposedly revamped their whole security system as well, anyway, so this should be just the perfect time for this overhaul at Home. In all, I have high hopes for this new look of Home.
What about you? You think this will be sizzling hot, or you think this will just fizzle out?
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