EA founder questions PS Home goals

By Robert Purchese Published 8 December, 2008

Worried Sony wants to take on WOW.

EA founder Trip Hawkins has questioned the goals of PlayStation Home - suggesting that going after a Second Life- or World of Warcraft-sized audience would be a bit silly and probably result in custard pie on face.

"What I can't really tell yet about the various announcements [Sony has] made about online and what they're doing so far, I can't tell whether they're going more towards this mass market idea - the way I'm describing this 'omni-market' - or if they're being lured into essentially trying to compete with Warcraft or Second Life," Trip Hawkins told Hatchet Job.

"My own personal opinion is: if Sony makes Home feel too much like a [World of] Warcraft environment, they're just never going to create the kind of audience size that you're going to see Nintendo and Microsoft create.

"Because clearly Nintendo is orientated towards the mass audience, and even Microsoft has learnt a lot of valuable lessons from things like Xbox Live Arcade," he added.

PlayStation Home, the online virtual world for PS3 owners, should launch into open beta before the end of the year. Hopefully that means quite soon.

It's been rather a long wait and Home's release date has been pushed back on numerous occasions.

Sony's still coy on exactly when the open beta will begin, but has invited hundreds of thousands of community members into the closed testing so far.

We'll keep you posted.

Head over to our PlayStation Home gamepage for the bigger picture.

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.

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

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Comments (46) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • iokthemonkey #1 3 years ago

    And Trip is doing what now?

  • NotSoSlim #2 3 years ago

    Well as EA a supporting it iguess they see something...£££

    At the end of the day Home will be successful if the content is provided. The more the usebase grows especially wen the PS3 is cheaper then the more(if the content is there)will use it even if it is just 2 do nothing. Clans will use it but again only if done right.

  • Eraysor #3 3 years ago

    Home won't be like WoW, because WoW doesn't require an initial payment of £300.

  • iokthemonkey #4 3 years ago

    I just find it strange: why does he mention World of Warcraft?

    Does this mean every time you want to add somebody to your Friends List you have to go kill 10 rats and you can level up if you grind enough games of Checkers?
    Edited by 1 at 08/12/08 @ 15:03

  • the_dudefather #5 3 years ago

    'suggesting that going after a Second Life- or World of Warcraft-sized audience would be a bit silly and probably result in custard pie on face.'

    Like WAR?

  • mcbi4kh2 #6 3 years ago

    Home won't be like WoW, because WoW doesn't require an initial payment of £300.
    Quite right, Sony are forgetting PC hardware is free.

  • markypants #7 3 years ago

    @Eraysor - riiiiiiiiiiiiiight... you playign WOW on thin air then? PC/MAC = £

  • Dizzy #8 3 years ago

    >And Trip is doing what now?

    He has a company that makes games for mobile platforms.

  • timpig #9 3 years ago

    Trip Hawkins LOL

    Still waiting for my 3DO M2, 'Trip'.

  • jonsaan #10 3 years ago

    this guy is obviously not on the Home beta then!

  • iokthemonkey #11 3 years ago

    >And Trip is doing what now?

    He has a company that makes games for mobile platforms.

    ----

    Ah, I wondered what had happened post 3DO.

  • Triggerhappytel #12 3 years ago

    "Like WAR?"

    I was going to say the same then I realised it was Trip Hawkins who left EA decades ago ;)


    I don't think there's anything wrong with Home - it's intended to be a community portal more than anything; the relation to WoW is such a tenuous one it barely deserves mentioning. Hopefully the whole thing will be considerably more vast and enjoyable than the current build though (I know it will be but I'm just saying...). However, the fact that it's all free should essentially protect it from any real criticism.
    Edited by 1 at 08/12/08 @ 15:24

  • dadrester #13 3 years ago

    i was very sceptical for ages, but i actually quite like home... quite a good place just to meet folks who want to play some mp games. once game launching is back in it'll start to have a real use for me.

  • Thunderbolt #14 3 years ago

    Its free if you want to be generico living in blandsville.

  • the_dudefather #15 3 years ago

    @Triggerhappytel

    doh, probably should have checked first ;)

  • Machetazo #16 3 years ago

    "What I can't really tell yet about the various announcements [Sony has] made about online and what they're doing so far, I can't tell whether they're going more towards this mass market idea - the way I'm describing this 'omni-market' - or if they're being lured into essentially trying to compete with Warcraft or Second Life," Trip Hawkins told Hatchet Job."

    Are the people who would play The Agency, or DC Universe Online (for example) really going to be from the same audience pool that would otherwise have signed up to WoW? I don't think so. If they were, why haven't they already made that jump? The comparison's even more leaky when you start trying to find out some logic between comparing audiences for WoW/Free Realms! So, I disagree with the notion that an MMO running on a PS3 would find it's largest competitor being WoW - until some figures show that WoW pulls players that would play MMOs on their console, then it's daft to suggest, given that WoW isn't available on console, AND, there's a clear barrier to entry of hardware for a lot of PCs that are sold, as the PC audience becomes increasingly mainstreamed.
    That's the gaming side, and then comparing Second Life with HOME? Huh? How is that possible?
    I think Sony are just offering/setting up to offer products and services that sufficient number of people have expressed an interest in seeing available.

    These comments by Trip, just seem to be scarcely informed headline-seeking.

  • ronuds #17 3 years ago

    I think the point more being that Sony has spent a lot of time and money making Home - and if you think they're doing all that for a "few people to hang around in" then you're being a little shortsighted. They want a lot of people to use Home, and if it turns out the opposite, they likely won't be happy.

  • DrDamn #18 3 years ago

    Well he's right in that it's ill conceived and likely to flop, but his reasoning seems a bit ... well strange. Doesn't look like he actually understands what is already out there for a start.

  • Xerx3s #19 3 years ago

    Kudos to 1Dg4f. :)

  • superted1974 #20 3 years ago

    I think I will like it and use it a bit but.....

    Is Home really "free"

    How much has it cost to develop and host?

    How much more expensive is the PS3 compared to Xbox 360 (which has a subscription service)

    You do the math(s)

  • 1Dgaf #21 3 years ago

    Trip's a really interesting chap. I run the HatchetJob website / podcast.

    We spoke to him for about an hour and broke it into little chunks. WoW was something he mentioned before, specifically saying that investors had overrated the power of MMORPGs, partially because they didn't understand the origins of them in social terms. ALso that hardcore gamers, in MMORPGs or otherwise, will have to get used to people buying and selling electronic items and an unfair playing field.

    His vision of the future is, I think, one in which people use technology to increase their real-life social lives. However, I think he feels that applications to do this will be quite specific and not too much like large virtual worlds / areas to congregate online, instead it being much more of a one-to-one model.

    SOmething that struck me about the conversation, in the epsiode linked, is where he says that essentially he rates success in commercial terms and not artistic, which says a lot about EA at the moment. Even though he left a while ago, I'm that attitutde had an effect on the company.

  • Xerx3s #22 3 years ago

    It's relative though, isn't it? I think success is when you achieve what you set out to do for that specific thing (hence my comment on it being artistic in terms of games).

  • Farfarer #23 3 years ago

    Careful EG, EA don't take kindly to reminding them that Trip was their founder :p

  • Les #24 3 years ago

    "Is Home really "free" "

    Nothing is really free.

  • 1Dgaf #25 3 years ago

    Xerxes,

    Perhaps. But when I spoke to him, I got the feeling that he felt bad when he had tried to make/supported creative games that didn't sell well, so he concentrated on things that DID sell well rather than titles that were original / creative. Also, he says that commercial success is a good way to motivate people.

    EDIT:

    And, actually, I think that's quite a big change in someone's outlook on life. Clearly the guy has always been interested in making money - which makes sense as a businessman - but I just wonder if he had a profound change in his outlook as a person after games like MULE not selling well.
    Edited by 1 at 08/12/08 @ 16:45

  • influenceuk #26 3 years ago

    "mcbi4kh2: Quite right, Sony are forgetting PC hardware is free."

    PC hardware is free? where? or are you robbing your hardware from a local computer store?

    I can't see what all the fuss is about, I have been on the Home beta since July, it's ok but nothing special. It's simply just an enhanced social network only usefull to meet up with your friends, have a quick game of pool, then go play resistance 2!

    I really don't think its anything like WoW!

    Edited by 1 at 08/12/08 @ 16:45

  • DoctorZoidberg #27 3 years ago

    Make an avatar, log on to a virtual world, walk around chatting etc etc....

    Its tenuous, but its there.

    Maybe not the best comparison, like comparing shoes to socks, similar, but in a different way.

    Me personally, Something like home would never interest me. I have my friends I play games with, im not really interested in meeting random strangers in a 3D world. Sounds a bit 90's geek cliché to me.

    But if it makes you happy etc etc.

  • noller #28 3 years ago

    Sony have an army of unthinking drones, from which they can drain will and fanatacism and convert it into pure, uncut budget.

    See it from a positive angle: If they wouldn't, you'd have nothing to bitch about.

  • mcwildcard #29 3 years ago

    influenceuk: "PC hardware is free? where? or are you robbing your hardware from a local computer store?"

    Not too hot on sarcasm, are you mate?

  • noller #30 3 years ago

    PC hardware is free? where? or are you robbing your hardware from a local computer store?

    I think he was being ironic.

  • elephant_stone #31 3 years ago

    So where are these similarities between WOW and Home?!

    Im confused, I didnt get the chance to choose a guild or class or weapon or skill or etc when I first logged into Home!?

  • 1Dgaf #32 3 years ago

    "So where are these similarities between WOW and Home?!

    Im confused, I didnt get the chance to choose a guild or class or weapon or skill or etc when I first logged into Home!? "

    It was part of a larger conversation, his point being that the idea of a metaverse, an online world in which people congregate and work together, probably isn't going to be the right model for companies to follow.

    He reckons people want to meet in real life and get laid.

  • iokthemonkey #33 3 years ago

    It was part of a larger conversation, his point being that the idea of a metaverse, an online world in which people congregate and work together, probably isn't going to be the right model for companies to follow.

    ---

    Much as I think they're a waste of time, millions of people love their myspace, facebook, bebo, etc pages...

  • 1Dgaf #34 3 years ago

    "Much as I think they're a waste of time, millions of people love their myspace, facebook, bebo, etc pages... "

    Good point - but he covers that. He says that Facebook, thus myspace, bebo etc, are ways for people to meet up in real life. Facebook is another dating channel in many ways. Second Life is the opposite - people go there to mingle online, primarily.

    He covers the basis for his thoughts in show five - it's to do with the industrial revolution and dissapearance of village-like communities.


  • iokthemonkey #35 3 years ago

    Good point - but he covers that. He says that Facebook, thus myspace, bebo etc, are ways for people to meet up in real life.

    ---

    Hmm. I'm not sure about that. It sounds a bit parochial to me.

  • 1Dgaf #36 3 years ago

    "Hmm. I'm not sure about that. It sounds a bit parochial to me."

    Maybe. I don't use Facebook or MySpace, but I know people that do. THose people seem to use it exclusively to expand their real life social network, whether it's dating or setting up sci-fi meetings in the pub.



  • iokthemonkey #37 3 years ago

    Maybe. I don't use Facebook or MySpace, but I know people that do. THose people seem to use it exclusively to expand their real life social network, whether it's dating or setting up sci-fi meetings in the pub.

    ---

    I don't either, but I HAVE seen people with literally 1000s of "friends" on there, "friends" I doubt they meet up with in real life. I'm certainly not denying some people DO use it as an extended SMS service/life alerts organiser, but I bet there are a lot who never meet their "friends" and I'd imagine a lot of HOME will be the same...

    Of course, it's all really conjecture at this point, but still...

  • 1Dgaf #38 3 years ago

    Iok,

    Another good point. My only comment is that the people with thousands of friends normally seem to be trying to shill/promote some social aspect too. Bands, comedians, that American chick famous for having loads of friends that parlayed it into a TV series.
    Edited by 1 at 08/12/08 @ 18:00

  • iokthemonkey #39 3 years ago

    The thing I'm wondering about though, is that with the PS3 not being as accessible/widely installed as the PC userbase, will it function as Trip is suggesting? What I mean is most people I know have a PC so would probably have access to mybeboface.com but I only know, I think, 3 people with PS3s... So is it mass-market enough to support the kind of extended-friend community he's talking about or will it become an entirely new community?

  • 1Dgaf #40 3 years ago

    I don't know. I think it's a bit of a chicken and egg situation.

    At the moment, people seem to buying PS3s because it's a mix of console and Blu-Ray player. Now, if you said it was those things and a place where you could mingle in virtual rooms before playing a game, well, I'm not sure that would increase sales.

    If you said it was a console, Blu-Ray player, and way to find out about cool parties and find he-whores and maginas, well, I suspect it'd do a lot better.

  • 12312345 #41 3 years ago

    coming from EA the money men.
    m8 ur company can only dream of such a product.
    go bk to to your yearly rip offs.

  • lockload #42 3 years ago

    Well ~Home is a boring as hell i was excited when i got the invite but theres nothing to do

  • iokthemonkey #43 3 years ago

    I don't know. I think it's a bit of a chicken and egg situation.
    ---

    From my perspective, it seems facebook etc became popular due to their ability to be used as a tool by an existing "community." As you say, friends using it to organise meet-ups etc. And in that instance, maybe Trip's comments about it being a face-to-face social network make sense. Maybe.

    However, with Home I think it's more of a reversal, in that rather than being friends who communicate via their machine, it's more likely that "new friends" will be made and communities formed BY Home.

    Does that make sense?

  • Marshall2008 #44 3 years ago

    Take on WoW....

    If so they just fucked the PS3 lol.


    NO ONE can take on WoW !!!!!!!

    It destroys ALL comers. Just ask EA, WAR. lol

  • 1Dgaf #45 3 years ago

    I asked Trip about the WoW comment and got this response:

    "The only reason I noted WoW and HOME together is that they are both from
    hardcore game companies with a hardcore bias. Hence they both care
    about 3D graphics and immersion based on audiovisual realism, and their
    concept of "social" is to be gameplay competitors online. By contrast,
    what I call the Omni Consumer is more socially motivated and is more
    likely to adopt technology that is simpler and more convenient and that
    they know their friends can handle, plus the Omni Consumer may be
    seeking social benefits like making a date in real life."

  • spudsbuckley #46 3 years ago

    Home is just Second Life for the PS3. Simple as.