Home is beta until it hits "final quality"

By Tom Bramwell Published 24 July, 2009

Sony has "philosophical targets" to hit first.

PlayStation Home's current legal guardian, Peter Edward, has said the online social service thing will be in beta until it hits "a kind of final quality".

Asked how long the beta label would remain in an interview with Eurogamer, Edward said, "Until we're ready to not call it a beta any more. We don't really get that fixated about it. Anyone who wants to access Home can, there are no barriers to entry, so in that respect it's not like there's anything holding users back.

"We're still developing it, we're still working on it, we're still improving it. We'll remove the beta name when we're happy that it represents something that is not final, because it'll always be evolving, but at least represents a kind of final quality. We don't have a specific target for when that will be."

Sony doesn't have a list of criteria to meet before the beta label disappears either, Edward said. "We have more philosophical targets for when it should come out of beta," he explained.

Elsewhere in today's interview, Edward talked about Home's delayed launch, the reaction since, and issues like harassment and localisation.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (34) Latest comment 3 years ago

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

  • Ryze #1 3 years ago

    This is gonna get messy!

  • insincere_dave #2 3 years ago

    Home is where the twats is.

  • IneptPercy #3 3 years ago

    Wonder if it will be finished within the 10 year PS3 lifecycle?

  • richardiox #4 3 years ago

    hilarious cop-out answers, brillaint!

    by his theory of "it's beta whilst it's still evolving" then Xbox Live in general is still in Beta. As is Steam, World of Warcraft and BBC Iplayer. Ridiculous.

  • b00n #5 3 years ago

    Nice to know a company like Sony doesn't have a specific target to finish a service for their main product. Sounds very professional.

  • Mr_Brown #6 3 years ago

    Its a pointless exercise if they are going to charge for just about everything. Who is going to pay £1.50 for a pair of shorts for your avatar? Obviously some idiots, but is there really a market for this?

  • Xerx3s #7 3 years ago

    No. It's not in beta. It's out, that means that it's gold. I hate it when companies release products and then claim that it's still in beta, it's like they are insecure about the quality of what they put forth. Same goes for all those demo's masquerading as beta's, they are nothing more than elaborate PR stunts.

    Just because you add stuff and have future plans for it doesn't mean that it's in beta.

  • themorganator #8 3 years ago

    @Mr_Brown

    That's why I love moronic BS3 fanboys yelling "PSN is free"... er, no, it's still not finished and you're still paying in other ways.

  • laudy #9 3 years ago

    paying for it in other ways how?

    as far as i can tell, i've only been asked to pay for downloads etc that i actually want
    Edited by 1 at 24/07/09 @ 12:22

  • Ryze #10 3 years ago

    Home needs:

    For the home apartment to load automatically while the console is booting / on the XMB. It needs to start as quickly as is technically possible on the hardware, without slowing down access to the XMB upon booting the console.

    Once the user begins using the home apartment, home sq needs to immediatley begin to load in teh background. surely the apartment doesn't use up the whole of the PS3's RAM?

    ^ that would make it USEABLE.

    The next step is to make is USEFUL:

    - Make it easy to find your friends, and get them all in to the same place.

    - Make it easy to launch multiplayer games from Home.

    - Turn some of the game areas into games lobbies - there should be a SFIV area that makes it simple to start matches and tournaments, as well as being able to check records, replays and spectate on games. Is it easy to pair up with co-op partners in the RE5 Home space?

    - These areas should host game events, such as prize tournaments online.

    - As Home should load in the background while using the XMB, the apartment should become instantly accessible. Noticeboards and TVs in the apartment should provide useful PSN/Home news and anncouncements. This should be customisable - each game space should have an RSS feed of info, news and events.

    etc...
    Edited by 2 at 25/07/09 @ 22:32

  • Uncle_Fishboy #11 3 years ago

    They may aswell drop the 'beta' monker and call it:

    Home (yes we know it's a bit shit)

  • Eighthours #12 3 years ago

    Too many jokes, so little time. :(

  • Markusdragon #13 3 years ago

    So it's a google Beta. Keep the beta tag up for years and only remove it when nobody's looking anymore.

  • Darren #14 3 years ago

    Home as it stands is a huge disappointment IMO and one I don't think will deliver even in its final build (whenever THAT is) because it's so haphazardly designed with constant loading and downloading between areas which makes just loading it up a tedious exercise to be honest. The appeal of having a virtual character (with PAID for clothing) and a virtual apartment is totally lost on me and if I wanted to play games online I can do so directly from the game itself so why would I load up another piece of software just to be able to do that? Even stuff like the video trailers haven't been done very well because they're poor quality and you cannot even watch them full screen.

    I'm going to delete my Home beta and free up that 3 GB of wasted space... at least then I won't keep accidentally loading it by mistake, thinking it's the PS Store!

  • Doctor_What #15 3 years ago

    @ themorganator: Really, how is PSN not free? It's gives free online multiplayer. That's really what it's there for. I'm genuinely curious about what sort of criteria you're judging on.

  • PrivateJoker #16 3 years ago

    "Home is where the twats is."

    No, that would be Eurogamer.

  • raion #17 3 years ago

    I stand with xerx3s on this one. you NEED criteria, and you NEED objectives. once all those have been met, you slap the 1.0 build on it, and then you proceed to update it.

    "yeah," you're saying "but while development is going on, you constantly have new ideas and new stuff you want to put into it" and I agree, that happens all the time. that's why you keep focusing on the damn initial stuff, release it and then work on whatever cool new stuff you tough of! otherwise you just keep going on forever...

  • Toothball #18 3 years ago

    Presumably they'll be calling it Beta until people actually start using it...

  • Ryze #19 3 years ago

    ^
    ^

    Page hits?

  • subtlesnake #20 3 years ago

    "Another story posted as news that is really just regurgitated parts of the interview posted at the same time. "

    Welcome to the internet.

  • betahoven #21 3 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:36:16 17-12-2011

  • stepneg #22 3 years ago

    "Its no suprise all the comments are filled with abuse.

    If you take the most flamebait part of a 3 page article out of context and post it as a separate story its bound to result in loads of fanboys going off half cocked. "

    It may of helped if Home wasn't buggy, pointless and plain old shit, no matter what the story that's not going to change without a rewrite.

  • lagoonalight #23 3 years ago

    Oh man you wankers really hate Sony over there don't you. Every article about these kinds of products from Sony seems to get the same responses from the same people that comment on how glorious the 360 is.

    I don't agree with everyone here. It's free, it has a ton of minigames and many of them are quite fun. You are not emboldened to go there and spend the rest of your online life. It is a ****load better than avatars of any sort just basically doing nothing and the loading does need to be streamlined but it is far from terrible. The xi puzzle that many of you did not participate in was a stroke of genius and very fun and challenging for your brain as opposed to lets go run around and shoot things all day every day for the rest of our lives. Face it: if you people could shoot people in Home you would love it.
    Edited by 1 at 24/07/09 @ 17:41

  • Teamallstar #24 3 years ago

    @ themorganator: Really, how is PSN not free? It's gives free online multiplayer. That's really what it's there for. I'm genuinely curious about what sort of criteria you're judging on.

    There a cost for Qor, there is a cost for everything in home and then there is the cost of sitting around waiting whilst your system downloads a 40 minute update and then another 40 minutes to install and update whatever game you just paid MONEY!

    Would you rather pay nothing for something that doesn't work properly or a small fee for something that works perfectly?

    When will you not realise that some things aren't worth it even when they are free!

  • Erebu #25 3 years ago

    @ Teamallstar

    Yeah and I guess playing online for free doesn't matter at all!

  • Invisible_Cow #26 3 years ago

    @Erebu: Personally, I'd rather pay £3 per month for a decent service that makes it easier for me to play online with friends, than something which is free but does the opposite of those things.

    On topic: do people seriously still care about Home? Out of all the people I know who have a PS3 there's not one of them who uses it.

  • Velios #27 3 years ago

    I made a female character, and was followed by a procession of teenage boys nudging up to me so that they were pressed up against my avatar's ass.

    i didn't log in again

  • Ryze #28 3 years ago

    @lagoonalight

    They really ought to make a game space in which you can shoot each other. COD:MW2 could possibly host a Home space where you can Nerf each other or play laser quest / paintball.

    It'd get people in there!

  • busboy33 #29 3 years ago

    @lagoonalight:

    " Every article about these kinds of products from Sony seems to get the same responses from the same people that comment on how glorious the 360 is."

    . . . where? Who?
    Did ANYBODY even mention the 360 above you? I missed it.
    Pretty ironic that your comment about knee-jerk morons spewing the same comments regardless of the news (or the facts) has at least one example in this thread you can point to, eh?

  • drxym #30 3 years ago

    I think the server backend for Home is clearly working fine. What sucks (and sucks a great deal) is the client software. Yes it's slick, yes it works but by god its slow to start and reeks of some terrible design decisions.

    First impressions count and at the moment the Home startup (after initial setup) is something like this. Click Home, wait a while, HDD warning appears which must be dismissed, wait a while, Home logo appears which must be dismissed, wait a while, server message appears, wait a very long while during which some pointless messages about validating purchased content and downloading essential files appear, then eventually Home appears. That is if you're lucky since if you land in a zone which has been updated you are faced with another click through screen and must endure a download operation which could take another 20 minutes depending on connection. If you go off to the loo or to make a cup of tea during this process you will come back and discover yourself stuck on one of the click through screens.

    The startup experience is excrutiating. This is how it should go. Click Home, home starts and dumps you in your apartment or favourite zone in 60 seconds or less. There should be no click-throughs or cryptic information during this time. If the zone needs to be AUTOMATICALLY BEGIN DOWNLOADING IT and offer the user the chance to go to their apartment or somewhere else while they wait.

    Fundamentally the infrastructure is sound but the experience is terrible. Sony really need to work on this. After all, its in their commercial interest to have as many eyeballs in Home looking at adverts as possible.
    Edited by 3 at 26/07/09 @ 10:55

  • IronCladChicken #31 3 years ago

    @lagoonalight
    I really don't know how popular is with PS3 owners, but looking from the outside in Home genuinely does seem to have been a bit of a mis-fire for Sony - certainly misjudged.

    I'm guessing it's because of the usual reasons;
    1. Someone at Sony thinks up the idea during those 6 weeks 5-4 years ago when Second Life was really popular with the media
    2. The idea gets green lit - Managers think this title will be the second coming and give it their unconditional love (with companywide emails/grand company presentations, etc)
    3. Second Life proves far less popular than the news media (CNN/BBC, etc) had predicted
    4. Management very quickly disassociate and distance themselves with the project (lots of positive burbles and low key mumbles when discussing the project; however they no longer use the term 'we' instead using 'you', etc.)
    5. Funding starts to dry up/become more limited as the company diverts cash to what’s believed to be more profitable outlets.
    6. The project becomes less about producing a product and more about internal politics.
    7. Due to the lack of support & popularity in-house of the project in-house the idea loses direction and steam.
    8. Product gets released (too much time/money spent on it not to), but never receives the support it should.

    It seems a shame too; if someone was able to take a risk and inject a bit of originality & inspiration it could still be a fantastic product & a great selling point for the PS3 (which I’m guessing was the point in the first place – that and a new source of ad-revenue)

  • poopmonster #32 3 years ago

    Anyone who's ever worked for Sony will know this is how they treaty many betas lol. Drag it on baby...

    Anyway, Home is a pile of absolute garbage. It's bloated already as a social interface, and it's full of morons. Here's a transcript of the first conversation I had while following the tutorial:

    Other player: "Hey are you new?"
    Me: "Yes"
    Other player: "I'm going to my mate's place for a party, wanna come?"
    Me: "No thanks, just looking around atm"
    Other player: "my name's amanda, i'm 19"
    Other player 2 (runs up): "hey wanna f**k?"
    Other player: "yea k"
    (they run off together)

    It was like that everywhere. And you had to listen to it...because Home loves speech bubbles. I mean it REALLY loves them. And the colour cyan, which I mostly remember from the ZX Spectrum and The Sims.

    And why the hell would I want to go to the "movie theatre" to watch slow-streaming trailers of crap movies when i can just go to apple.com/trailers for hundreds more, and all instantly accessible?

    Even Second Life (which I hate on principle) held my attention longer than Home. They're both crap, but Home is crapper.

  • poopmonster #33 3 years ago

    lagoonalight writes: "Face it: if you people could shoot people in Home you would love it."

    No fucking kidding.

  • influenceuk #34 3 years ago

    It will never be ready. It's just a pointless exercise, and waste of money that could be better spend developing some decent content for the PS3.