Tue, Apr 22, 2008 | 21:45 BST
Home delayed again
SCEA’s just confirmed that Home has been pushed back again. The closed beta will now continue through the summer, with an open beta beginning in the autumn.
“We understand that we are asking PS3 and prospective PS3 users to wait a bit longer, but we have come to the conclusion that we need more time to refine the service to ensure a more focused gaming entertainment experience than what it is today,” said SCE boss Kaz Hirai.
“Our overarching objective is to provide users with new gaming experiences that are available only on PlayStation Home. Spending more time on the development and on the Closed Beta testing reaffirms our commitment to bringing a quality service, maintaining the PlayStation tradition.”
More people are going to be taken on for the closed beta, apparently. No specific date’s been given for the open beta. Didn’t Harrison say Home was going to release in autumn 2007?
21 comments
#1
Tonka
22/04/08, 7:44 am
Home has no home
#2
Tonka
22/04/08, 7:59 am
I love the smell of vapour in the morning.
#3
patlike
22/04/08, 8:11 am
I’m quite surprised by this, to be honest. At least it should be something genuinely good when it launches.
#4
Tonka
22/04/08, 8:13 am
Really? A lot of people with knowledge of network services have said that Sony where in over their heads on this.
#5
patlike
22/04/08, 8:15 am
I’m just surprised they haven’t managed to actually launch it yet. They’ve been working on it for literally years, and I don’t seen what’s so cripplingly complicated about it at all. I mean, yeah, if they’re not up to it then that would explain it, but why such gigantic delays?
Mind you, I bet Konami’s probably asking itself similar questions this morning.
#6
Tonka
22/04/08, 8:23 am
Konami? A MGSO I see. By the sound of it they just keep adding features to Home. They need a good triage or at least do a staged launch.
#7
patlike
22/04/08, 8:26 am
I think the thing that concerns me the most is why they’d go public with it so soon then repeatedly delay it. You’re right: they can launch and add features. That’s what all online services do. So why aren’t they unless it really is borked? As you’ve mentioned, it just casts them in negative light of not being able to “handle” a large online project. Daft.
#8
Daniel Plainview
22/04/08, 8:32 am
Took a lot of balls to delay entirely & not release a half arsed version.
#9
patlike
22/04/08, 8:33 am
Well yeah, there is that.
#10
daikyosenshi
22/04/08, 8:44 am
oh Sony Sony. You never learn:)
#11
Blerk
22/04/08, 8:53 am
Not that I really care about Home but… wouldn’t it have been a good idea to make a basic service, get it released, *then* start adding fancy bells and whistles? Rather than try to invent the whole of the Matrix first and release it ten years late?
#12
patlike
22/04/08, 8:55 am
My thoughts precisely. At the end of the day it’s going to be a bloke running around a “fantasy” cinema and while a Swedish mother repeatedly walks into a wall because she can’t work out the controls. Can’t be that hard to do, can it?
#13
Blerk
22/04/08, 8:58 am
Especially when all the Second Life shit is holding us features that normal people might actually want, like the trophy room thingy.
Not that I want that, but then I’m not a normal person.
#14
Blerk
22/04/08, 8:59 am
Gah. Two typos in ten minutes and your comment editing thing is on the blink again.
#15
Tonka
22/04/08, 9:05 am
I sense Bills claws casting a shadow over Home.
MS kicked the 360 out of the gates 1 year too early
Sony had sweet fuck all to show at GDC
*Bill laughed*
Phil was forced to brag about Home and LBP
*Bill laughed*
The devs said WTF we are nowhere near release
*Bill laughed*
Phil said “Screw you I’m off to Atari. They seem stable.”
*Bill laughed*
#16
mart
22/04/08, 9:33 am
Huh. Those first videos way back when made me question how they were going to pull it off. I guess not even Sony themselves knew.
#17
daikyosenshi
22/04/08, 10:30 am
Xbox 360 has a 30% failure rate.
*Bill laughs*
#18
Daniel Plainview
22/04/08, 1:38 pm
Tonka makes a fanboy joke
*no-one laughs*
#19
Tonka
22/04/08, 1:57 pm
Even when you mock me you do it by copying me.
And plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery.
GTA has a new home
#20
mart
22/04/08, 3:26 pm
Now now.
#21
Daniel Plainview
23/04/08, 1:21 am
Sorry, just can’t escape them