Home won't sell PS3 - NCsoft

By Tom Bramwell Published 17 October, 2007

It's the other way around.

NCsoft's director of product development believes Home's fortunes are dependent on PlayStation 3's installed base, and not the other way around.

Thomas Bidaux told our sister site GamesIndustry.biz that Home is "very interesting", but he believes it will "remain quite limited" unless it offers something significant beyond customisation of avatars.

He is also unconvinced that it will encourage take-up of the console. "One of the limitations is linked to the PlayStation 3 - so the success of Home is 100 per cent tied to the PS3's penetration into the market," he said.

"I don't think you can say you will sell more PS3s because of Home, but if the PS3 had the right penetration in the market, then yes - Home will be very interesting."

Bidaux also made the point that Sony's history of keeping a console on the market for a significant length of time, and its strength as a hardware company, were critical to NCsoft's decision to partner with the company on a range of games.

"[Y]ou don't want to roll out an MMO and make it obsolete because of a new platform a year after that," he pointed out. "You want to have your MMO for many, many, many years - as many as possible.

"So the PlayStation 3 is a good platform for us, and we assume it's going to be around for quite a long time. Early adopters, and the early days - we don't really worry too much at that point."

Bidaux also acknowledged that both Sony and Microsoft's hardware strategies are "valid" and "interesting" in their own ways, and agreed that people probably get a bit carried away trying to compare them.

Perish the thought, obviously. Head over to GamesIndustry.biz for the Thomas Bidaux interview.

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. Follow him on Twitter.

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

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Comments (19) Latest comment 5 years ago

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

  • BadBoyBonner #1 5 years ago

    Will anything?

  • philw #2 5 years ago

    This is all presuming they ever launch the bloody thing.

  • BadBoyBonner #3 5 years ago

    "Perhaps this guy should be offered a job at Sony. At least he makes sense."

    Obviously that precludes his CV from being looked at by Sony.

  • Arcadiian #4 5 years ago

    Home is something i'd buy a PS3 for, it's the only thing it'll be doing that my 360 isn't. More games I like would have to be released too, of course. o_O

  • mattjohnston #5 5 years ago

    I've always said that Home is something that won't initially sell the console to people on its own merits, but it will be an incredible bonus for people who already do have a console. And with the average buying customer, word of mouth means a lot more than a back catalogue or industry expectations or whatever. If Home turns out to be a fun and extendible life simulation feature, I'd say it has every chance of becoming as popular as The Sims. I guess people who read Eurogamer aren't very likely to be in the target demographic of people interested by that though.
    Edited by mattjohnston at 17/10/07 @ 10:21

  • Artemis_Matsas #6 5 years ago

    I agree with the previous posts. This guy does make sense. A rare thing these days.

  • Arwin #7 5 years ago

    I do think Home could sell the PS3, especially if it successfully integrates lobby features, achievements, game portals, arcade games, game and video trailers, avatars and myspace/sims like stuff. Not to mention advertising in a way that is actually not that disturbing (in 3d worlds a 2d poster just doesn't take up as much space ;) ).

    If you think about it properly, Home is really pretty big. Of course it'll be tough for Sony to deliver all of it properly, but I'm hoping they do, and if they pull it off, it'll be selling systems for sure.

    Of course, right now the pricecut will sell PS3. ;) But later on I'm sure it'll give the system a good push.
    Edited by Arwin at 17/10/07 @ 10:49

  • drumbaby #8 5 years ago

    Home won't sell PS3s en masse, but it'll certainly be a great thing to have on the PS3.

  • Lov3 #9 5 years ago

    If Home is good it would sell a PS3 to me.

    Perhaps this guy is right, and the same isn't true for most other people, I don't know. I just thought i'd share that.

  • SeesThroughAll #10 5 years ago

    It's true, it's just a numbers game. If the PS3 sells enough, then Home becomes popular. If it doesn't, nobody will care about Home.

  • Quine #11 5 years ago

    No one I know cares about this and their main concern is that it will just be an obstacle to booting up the game, being what consoles are actually about.

    It probably sounds great to marketing types looking to jump on the whole user-generated content bandwagon, but then what do they know about the games-playing public?

    Saying Home is tied to sales of PS3s is hardly an earth-shattering revealed truth IMO...

  • SeesThroughAll #12 5 years ago

    No one I know cares about this and their main concern is that it will just be an obstacle to booting up the game, being what consoles are actually about.

    Hint: Don't use Home then, stay at the XMB and you can boot games without any obstacle.

  • crouchy #13 5 years ago

    As always Eurogamer trying to be controversial with there tabloidesque articles but as regularly seems to happen comes off as aimed at fanboys. I'm sure Sony expect the games to sell the PS3. You know games such as Final Fantasy, MGS, Gran Turismo, GTA, God of War, Killzone, White Knight Story, Wipeout, Getaway etc etc etc. Home definately has very big potential though when the big software arrives.

  • belziah #14 5 years ago

    100% agree with the man

  • hula hoops #15 5 years ago

    Why everytime I read the word "penetration", I giggle and found it rather amusing.

    And no, I am not a virgin teenage nerd with spotty face in case you wonder.

  • McLovin85 #16 5 years ago

    i'm just wondering what formate Home will take.
    do u think it will be like WoW and everyone can walk around with everyone else and interact but only within one server.
    or will it take the guild wars approach and be 'one giant server' that you then choose lobbies from in areas that are very populated (i.e. the cities in guild wars)
    what do u guys think?? just curious to know.

  • zedzee #17 5 years ago

    I'm going to have to agree and say that Home will not sell PS3, but it will be an interesting thing to have for gamers and something that will definitely attract the 'casual crowd'.

    Wouldn't it be cool though if you could interact with non-Sony console gamers in it or 'take it' with you on the PSP?

    Also, why isn't anyone developing server software that will allow different consoles to play the same game in the same arena? So a Sony gamer can play against an X360 gamer in the same arena of something like Virtua Tennis, Sims or Unreal Tournament?

    Surely for the developer who writes such libraries, they'd make a fortune licensing it to all three console vendors (and PC) and all software developers?!

  • Scythe #18 5 years ago

    And in other news, the pope has been revealed to be a catholic and bears have been discovered defacating in the woods.

  • Retroid #19 5 years ago

    I'd much rather they spent the damned Home dev budget on BC

    >:(