PS Home's secret weapon: lizards

By Robert Purchese Published 9 November, 2010

They're coming.

PlayStation Home isn't boring - no way! Not any more, not now there are cool lizard pets for sale.

They're part of the snazzy new PS Home update 1.4 that's set to arrive on Thursday.

PlayStation LifeStyle noticed them when faced with pictures leaked from the beta test.

Also spotted: a PDA that is both simpler and faster. There's also the option to set an instant messenger-style status for your You, who can be Happy, Sad, Angry, Confused, Busy, Wants help, Wants to chat and Wants to play. If only MSN Messenger was as diverse.

Other 1.4 additions, as noted on Friday, are a new group chat for eight people, a revamped wardrobe and better content filtering.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (27) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • TheBoyChris #1 2 years ago

    Mister... Lizaaaaard...

  • slickster #2 2 years ago

    i want a pet pony :o(

  • iamian #3 2 years ago

    I have never been on PS Home... should I bother?

  • Sausagechaos #4 2 years ago

    Reminds me of the 'JAM'

    'Lizards are coming out of my telly' sketch

  • lambtron #5 2 years ago

    @iamian

    No.

  • ron_aldo #6 2 years ago

    I genuinely can't see the point of Home

  • TopKatt #7 2 years ago

    I've got two pet lizards, they're cool.

  • drxym #8 2 years ago

    @iamian, possibly. It is free, it does have things to do, mini games etc. Biggest issue for me (and I would have thought Sony) is the thing is a pain to load, feels clunky, zones constantly need updating, it lacks gaming features, and there is a sterile feeling about it.

    I've ranted about Home in the past because in theory it's a nice addition to the XMB but it takes too damned long to start and lacks feature that gamers want it to have. I'm sure it's great to some that they can buy red high heels or IKEA furniture, but Home is running on a PS3, a device associated with gaming, movies etc. Sony could make a crap tonne of money selling clubhouses, private gaming hosting, trophy rooms etc. What happened to trophies anyway? What happened to movie screenings etc. Features promised in Home still aren't there.

    I think Sony should take a long hard look at why Home exists and purposefully set about fixing it. Maybe the whole concept of Home is a waste of time with the advent of free MMOs. e.g. Free Realms could have "timeout" zones analogous to existing Home zones, but it could also be a full blown MMO with micropayments. It seems pretty stupid that SOE releases free MMOs for the PC, but has nothing on the PS3. It's like the left hand of Sony doesn't know what the right is doing or doesn't care.
    Edited by drxym at 09/11/10 @ 10:41

  • Sulphur_Man #9 2 years ago

    Sounds like a weak update, or should one say, death rattle.

  • Beano #10 2 years ago

    Just make Home a lot faster, less downloading, allow people to play games without queing, allow user music (I hate the Home muzak!) - then they don't need lizards.
    Edited by Beano at 09/11/10 @ 10:49

  • nuanimal #11 2 years ago

    You? Is that what Sony calls the avatars - yous?

    That really bad. There's no way I could explain that to my girlfriend.

    "Right this is the PS3 Home, and your You"
    "I know - I'm me but what's that character?"
    "It's you and called a You"
    "Me?"
    "No your You, but that's called a You!"

    Reminds me of that scene in Rush Hour...


  • lennon #12 2 years ago

    Good god is PShome still going. Last time I went on it was a hideous experience.

  • Toothball #13 2 years ago

    @Sausagechaos

    Anything involving lizards reminds me of that - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krsj2bcnRlM

  • Sausagechaos #14 2 years ago

    @Toothball. Oh that's good to see. Now if Home had a Chris Morris Section I would visit it.

  • Bigglesworth #15 2 years ago

    Wow. Rob really hates Home =)

  • Toothball #16 2 years ago

    @Sausagechaos

    Are you sure? That would probably be quite a messed up place.

    Actually I'd probably try out Home if it did exist.

  • Eldritch #17 2 years ago

    "I have never been on PS Home... should I bother?"

    Give it a try. Chances are you'll leave for good after 15 minutes.

    In a bizarre way, the experience is quite similar to the 360's Game Room.

  • Ryze #18 2 years ago

    I'd like to 'content filter' Home off of my XMB. I clicked it again last night, by accident.

    Useless crap.

    Sorry - I know it's much better now than it was at the beta launch, but it's fucking worthless, as it's not integrated with anything I give a shit about. Or integrated with anything, in fact.

  • Eldritch #19 2 years ago

    @Ryze: I really wanted to like it when it came out, but it was just pants (and still is).

  • makeamazing #20 2 years ago

    I personally dont find Home that interesting, but as long as Sony make a good profit on it, then i say... keep going :).

  • JamesBrophy #21 2 years ago

    ...next a pet Clank, then a pet Dexter and then a pet head crab when portal 2 comes out.

  • Eldritch #22 2 years ago

    There are head crabs in Portal 2?

  • ZuluHero #23 2 years ago

    I like HOME. It's a nice distraction and feels a bit MMOey.

    I spend one evening a week going through all the content that's built up since it launched (of which there is LOADS). Notable mentions (so far) are the Forbidden Siren and Uncharted 2 home spaces.

  • RodHull #24 2 years ago

    Home should allow the occasional mass murderer to rampage on there. That'd make it interesting, yes? Hello?

  • Eldritch #25 2 years ago

    Dead Rising 3 should take place at Home.

  • jefranklin18 #26 2 years ago

    Home isn't that bad if you factor in what it is intended for: a place for people to meet with strangers with a common interest, for example an Uncharted fan could go to that zone and meet up fellow gamers, maybe arranging a multiplayer session. Likewise, the other aspects of Home are to offer marketing opportunities, Audi have a space as does Game. Additionally, there have been "concerts" with Dizzee Rascal (I did not attend) and Groove Armada (which I did).

    It is not going to win any awards for graphical brilliance or being a "satisfying blast" but it makes Sony money and it has many regular users. It is never going to appeal to everyone, especially the "core" gamer but the demand for it is obviously there.

  • Ryze #27 2 years ago

    ^er... if it was better integrated with the rest of the Playstation experience, then people might use it for finding fellow gamers.

    It'd be great to jump from Uncharted's title screen, or from Uncharted's XMB icon directly to the homespace to find fellow gamers - providing the damn thing didn't take an eternity to load up.

    The only entry point to Home is via that infernal icon that gets in the way when we're trying to get to a new demo or other PSN content quickly.

    They might also try allowing Home avatars to actually appear somewhere else in the XMB other than Home... like... as my profile picture. The Avatar editor should be accessible from the friends or profile section of the XMB.

    Sony show time and time again that they don't know how to integrate their different offerings.

    How many years ago did the iPhone start selling millions around the world? And Sony's response has been? Nothing.

    Poor show.