No video streaming for early PS Home

By Robert Purchese Published 18 September, 2008

What will lifestyle friends do now?

Sony has scrapped the video streaming feature from the public beta build of PlayStation Home.

Its future seems uncertain; Wired was told Sony is "looking into" the matter by PS Home director Jack Busen.

He went on to detail the "Lego-block"-like approach to user-generated content at Sony. This, Busen explained, means giving parts to the community and letting them create what they want.

Video streaming from the PS3 hard drive would have meant you could waddle over to each your friends' virtual apartments and watch films together or maybe other things.

PlayStation Home is still without a release date, but is expected to roll out in open beta format before the end of the year.

We rather liked it. Head over to our hands-on impressions of PlayStation Home to find out more.

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.

You may also like...

Comments (25) Latest comment 4 years ago

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

  • moggsy #1 4 years ago

    The word 'vapourware' springs to mind...

  • menage #2 4 years ago

    Can't you do this on the new xbox 360 dash?

    Moggsy: Indeed

    Does anyone really want this?
    Edited by menage at 18/09/08 @ 11:03

  • MKorkia #3 4 years ago

    LOL! They just don't want to other people see what you have recorded with PlayTV!

    (Buy the way, did anybody buy PlayTV? :-o )

  • moggsy #4 4 years ago

    @Arbiter

    Since when was Alan Wake supposed to be the saviour of a console platform though? ;-)

  • Beano #5 4 years ago

    "It's a lot less vapourous than some things. *cough* Alan Wake *cough* "

    *cough* Live *cough* Anywhere *cough* ;)

  • keyboardmonkey #6 4 years ago

    LOL! They just don't want to other people see what you have recorded with PlayTV!

    This would have been very useful for someone who has left the UK but still wants to catch episodes of TopGear etc... without having to wait 6 months.

    I was surprised about this as surely it is a method of distribution, (just like P2P, and distributing films that way automatically makes you a pirate) and if only one of you is buying films rather than all of you then there's quite a bit of lost revenue.

  • Apostle #7 4 years ago

    Lost all excitement for Home..

  • mcbi4kh2 #8 4 years ago

    Probably the only thing I was looking forward to about home.
    Edited by mcbi4kh2 at 19/09/08 @ 11:54

  • drumbaby #9 4 years ago

    "Since when was Alan Wake supposed to be the saviour of a console platform though? ;-) "

    Since when was Home?

  • The_Programmer #10 4 years ago

    PlayStation Home is still without a release date, but is expected to roll out in open beta format before the end of the year.

    You mean that it'll still be a beta when it's released at the end of the year? I thought that Sony promised that the release version will be out by the end of the year.

  • Ryze #11 4 years ago

    Sounded like a dumb idea anyway. The quality would be as good as PSP remote play at best.

    All limited by your broadband's up-speed.

  • Ryze #12 4 years ago

    @keyboardmonkey

    That is VERY true!

  • Goodfella #13 4 years ago

    Since when was Alan Wake supposed to be the saviour of a console platform though? ;-)

    Since when was Home supposed to be the saviour of the PS3?

    Edit reason: Damn, drumbaby beat me to it I see.
    Edited by Goodfella at 18/09/08 @ 11:55

  • MrXBob #14 4 years ago

    Will nobody ever listen?

    I (and quite a few others) said many times that this was never going to happen anyway. It's pretty much impossible to make it work smoothly even for dedicated online systems with huge bandwidth - nevermind for a stuck-together network with all those drooling fanboys rushing online at the same time. Never gonna happen.

    What a shock! Sony promised, hyped, removed and then glossed-over a feature. Again.

    So lets just sit back and wait for the Sony defence force to come in telling us it's a pointless feature that nobody wants anyway and they're glad it was removed.
    Edited by MrXBob at 18/09/08 @ 12:37

  • moggsy #15 4 years ago

    @drumbaby & Goodfella

    You're both perfectly correct. It isn't is it. It's just a very poor chat room front end that has been in development hell for years and will probably never be released. It's the perfect definition of 'vapourware'.

    Yes, Alan Wake is too, but that's just a game. Home was supposed to be so much more than that.

  • mcbi4kh2 #16 4 years ago

    @moggsy
    It's just a very poor chat room front end
    Were you part of the beta?

    will probably never be released.
    err, I'd be willing to bet all the tea in china that it will.

    It's the perfect definition of 'vapourware'.
    Duke Nukem forever is the perfect definition of vapourware, something that has had a closed beta for thousands of PSN users, in my view, isn't.


  • Ryze #17 4 years ago

    Why'd they want to give away a PS3 public slingbox anyway?

    It'd never last once the pirates or the porn started.
    Edited by Ryze at 18/09/08 @ 23:09

  • Skinme #18 4 years ago

    You'll probably find that there was issues with copyright infringement. Allowing someone else to watch what you are is an absolute minefield when it comes to property rights. How Sony ever thought they could win over TV and movie studios I don't know. The only way this could work is if it was user generated only, and even then look at the fact that YouTube (Google) is being sued for showing TV programs/clips owned by Viacom (Paramount, MTV, etc).

  • moggsy #19 4 years ago

    @mcbi4kh2

    Were you part of the beta?
    No were you? Did it reveal some major feature which no one is allowed to discuss?

    will probably never be released.
    err, I'd be willing to bet all the tea in china that it will.
    That's a lot of tea - do you trust Sony that much?

    It's the perfect definition of 'vapourware'.
    Duke Nukem forever is the perfect definition of vapourware, something that has had a closed beta for thousands of PSN users, in my view, isn't.
    Thousands ain't millions. I'll believe it when I see it opened to every PS3 owner. Like MS have already said - don't hold your breath though.

  • mcbi4kh2 #20 4 years ago

    No were you? Did it reveal some major feature which no one is allowed to discuss?
    Don't need to be part of the beta to know it is more than a glorified chat room.

    You're right thousands aint millions but having thousands using software every day kind of promotes it from vapourware.

  • mkreku #21 4 years ago

    It's not needed and it's free. If you don't want it, then don't use it. Why whine about something that's being given as a freebie (or maybe not if it turns out to be vapourware)? I don't understand some people.

  • Xerx3s #22 4 years ago

    "*cough* Live *cough* Anywhere *cough* ;) "

    How is that vapour ware? It's already in the toolkit.

  • Ryze #23 4 years ago

    @mkreku

    I believe it's because many suspect that it wont work very well once it's given to the public, and that regardless - it's a flawed concept.

    I'm curious to see what happens when 100,000+ people all decide to gather in one place.

    Will the world be full of chambers with regularly denied access?

  • mcbi4kh2 #24 4 years ago

    @BritishBlue
    I agree, there are however morons on both sides (although there does seem to be more on the ps3 bashing side). I wish they would both leave.

    @Ryze
    Couldn't the same be said about any online service? Look what happened with the Socom keys here. If everyone at once goes to the same place then yes of course there will be problems.
    Edited by mcbi4kh2 at 19/09/08 @ 11:30

  • bioreit #25 4 years ago

    As has been mentioned previously, this more than likely has to do with licensing issues. I can't imagine many content providers - especially now with the advent of Play TV - being happy that one person pays for something but many more get to enjoy it effectively for free. I know that the Autumn update for 360 in the US allows NetFlix streaming in just that way, but I guess MS and NF hammered out a deal. I was also pretty sure I read something, somewhere, which hinted that normal movies could also be streamed across the new 8-person parties, although I doubt that, due once again to licensing issues.

    Technically off-topic, but just wanted to say that my experiences of EG comments are that the Xbox fanboys are more numerous than their PS3 counterparts, but often seem to be winding people up on purpose, or are a bit half-hearted, with a couple of obvious exceptions... Whereas many of the PS3 ones are almost violent in their distaste and disgust for anything Microsoft and have a complete and total lack of logicality to any of their discussions. Don't get me wrong - both groups are idiots (as are the PC- and Wii-lovers), although an occasional source of amusement...