Sony cancels PlayStation Room plans

By Games Industry.biz Published 16 April, 2010

Project won't proceed beyond beta.

Sony Japan has cancelled plans for online PSP service PlayStation Room, a social network similar in concept to PlayStation Home on the PS3.

A short Japanese language statement indicates that following the end of beta testing for the service, development of Room has ended. No specific reason is given for the move, although it is indicated that user feedback from the beta testing will be taken into account for future networked services on the PSP and PS3. Room was announced at the 2009 Tokyo Game Show but was never referred to by any of Sony Computer Entertainment's Western divisions.

The service allowed users to own and customise their own virtual rooms and 3D avatars. Other users could then be invited to different rooms to chat, write blogs and share images. The service was to have been free, with some paid-for additional content.

Picture of Games.

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Comments (48) Latest comment 2 years ago

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

  • Poorandugly #1 2 years ago

    Maybe they are holding it back for the release of PSP2.

  • jonsaan #2 2 years ago

    Good.

  • Beano #3 2 years ago

    Good... sounded like a complete waste of development efforts in the first place.

  • Eldritch #4 2 years ago

    Great, could Sony now please scrap both XMB and PS Home and have that team start working on a new PS3 menu system. Ta.

  • Mkwone #5 2 years ago

    As social interaction between gamers home has been a flop for me. But in terms of promotion and advertising i bet it's bringing in some money. What they rearly need is exclusive content and stuff. Maybe show a film for free thats at the cinema, inbetween cinema and dvd.

  • LockeTribal #6 2 years ago

    Best decision Sony have made in a while I think.

  • zuljin #7 2 years ago

    @Mkwone
    They do show exclusive content, but mostly in America/Japan.

  • Murton #8 2 years ago

    "They do show exclusive content, but mostly in America/Japan."

    And that's the big issue really. The fact that Europe is consistently kept behind both Japan and America in terms of features and content.

    What Home needs is less gaming spaces and more social spaces. Showing films/tv shows in the cinema would be a great idea, perhaps a nightclub playing music of various genres and why not a space purely for meeting people with the intention of playing games? Which is what the whole thing was designed for but is so far incapable of providing.

  • CaptainQuint #9 2 years ago

    I think it's fair to say that Home is officially a flop. I personally never use it.

  • CaptainQuint #10 2 years ago

    Heh heh, I love it when the fanboys downrate. Bunch of sad gimps like them probably make up 90% of Home's population.

  • Pedrolot #11 2 years ago

    @ CaptainQuint

    How did you work that one out? I see alot of people still using Home.

  • Pedrolot #12 2 years ago

    @ CaptainQuint

    So you either write to 'attempt' to annoy people or you are very one minded. Possibly both.

    How very grown up of you.

  • CaptainQuint #13 2 years ago

    I tell it like I see it. If that rubs fanboys up the wrong way then I can live with that.

  • Lemming81 #14 2 years ago

    So when are they going to have the same sensible reaction to Home?

    (btw I LOVE my PS3).
    Edited by 1 at 16/04/10 @ 10:31

  • rprince #15 2 years ago

    @Mkwone: Wow watching a film in Home would be annoying! Instead of little kids shouting and throwing popcorn, you'd get little voice bubbles popping up literally every second.
    Edited by 1 at 16/04/10 @ 10:33

  • CaptainQuint #16 2 years ago

    All I use my PS3 for is Uncharted 2 online, which is brilliant. That and Blu-ray movies, oh and the odd PS3 exclusive; but good ones are few and far between. After finishing the great God of War 3, I'm hoping Demon's Souls lives up to the hype, but after that I see nothing on the game horizon, so back to Xbox I shall go, again. As for Home on PSN, it's a load of rubbish.

  • Pedrolot #17 2 years ago

    Demon Souls is awesome.

    It's very frustraiting yet rewarding. It compels you to carry on and learn strategies to get past certain parts.

  • gandhimaster #18 2 years ago

    Should have cancelled Home too.

  • linksdad #19 2 years ago

    I bet they wish they cancelled home to, but had to much invested in it, both in resources and face.

  • phatb0y #20 2 years ago

    As shit as Home is, I could actually see this sort of thing working on the PSP. Especially in Japan.

    It'd probably be about as popular as the messenger service over here though, ie abandoned after a few months.

  • AllenSpawn #21 2 years ago

    @ earlbasset
    I use Home on a tv screen.... On paper it would definately not be as good ;)

  • coolbritannia #22 2 years ago

    Should have been home.

  • Mkwone #23 2 years ago

    Captain, is everybody who disagrees with you a gimp and a fanboy?

    Call me crazy, but i think there might be some people who shock horror, do actually like the service sony offer, not because of a blind allegiance with the company or a below average I.Q but because it offers something they want. Fine it might not be what your after, but don't be a tosser and have a go at those who do like it.
    Edited by 1 at 16/04/10 @ 12:10

  • M_of_the_sys #24 2 years ago

    "but don't be a tosser"

    Woah woah woah. Lets not ask the impossible now.

  • Eldritch #25 2 years ago

    -12 for that kind of comment? LOL

  • Murton #26 2 years ago

    "I bet they wish they cancelled home to, but had to much invested in it, both in resources and face."

    It's turning quite a hefty profit through the those micro transactiosn though. Don't forget that it made a million dollars in its first month after launch. Which is quite impressive since most of the items at the time cost peanuts and there was and still is a lot of free content on there.

    There's always plenty of people on there so they're obviously doing something right.

  • GamesConnoisseur #27 2 years ago

    Home could work if properly supported and not held back by the hardware/software limitations... there is no way on earth I would put up with constant loadings in between levels and the avatars.

    If it was instanteous and more accessible from the off, ease of reach to any of the XMB features within Home then I could see it take off a lot more than it does at moment. Even perhaps to attract me back in.

    Because there are BETTER social gathering/MMO on PC that does all that. Glad that Sony decided to cancel Room as this does show they can make logical business decisions.

    Now they need to throw a lot more efforts than they have to date with Home, but even if they decides Home is a losing project, they would likely NOT cancel it in the same way with Room. As too high a profile and probably would just give it token support to keep it alive for the fans and tiding it over.

    However, Home does have its supporters and they clearly have more of a ownership to say how the service should be supported than us lots who throws stones but never really properly participated.

    Captain: I assure you that Demon's Souls is worth it, a hardcore gamers's game.

  • CaptainQuint #28 2 years ago

    @Mkwone

    Not at all. For instance, I don't think you're a fanboy nor a "tosser", since you chimed in with a reasonable comment. What I find rather telling is the voice (or left click) of silent minority - those who downrate comments which strongly criticise their beloved IP, bless 'em. I mean, look at my post above in which I speak about the pros and cons of the Sony platform: -11 (at time of writing), it's hilarious, I hope I make it to a straight -20, by the end of the day. It is idiots like that who are the real fanboys and gimps - the breed of gamer that can't stand it when someone tells it straight.

  • CARL05 #29 2 years ago

    All the people who are dissing Home seem to have never even used it judging by their comments.
    It's a good service and why would Sony be stopping it, it's a thriving community, you would know that if you ever went on there.
    Also as Murton points out, it's making a profit which is why it is deemed successful and will not be going anywhere for the moment, sorry Quint. dick

  • jefranklin18 #30 2 years ago

    @CaptainQuint,

    I down rated you for the statement "I think it's fair to say that Home is officially a flop. I personally never use it.", which is an illogical argument. One person's experience does not make it an official flop; the fact that many do use it, has a strong following on the Sony forums and that Sony are making revenue from it, indicates everything but, I would argue.

    EDIT: grammer.
    Edited by 1 at 16/04/10 @ 14:18

  • CaptainQuint #31 2 years ago

    @jefranklin18

    Which is precisely where you interpreted my comments incorrectly. There's a reason why I placed a full stop between the two sentences rather than just use a comma to instead form a single sentence - since that would've wrongly connected the two separate statements together. The two sentences are unrelated. The usage of the word 'personally' should also make that clear - it suggests that I'm speaking for myself and myself exclusively. The first statement is made in relation to the evident (oft reported) underperformance of Home, as a social medium within PSN. The second statement merely reflects my own 'personal' usage of it.

    Understand?

  • alcides #32 2 years ago

    oh noes.

    wait... don't care.

  • berryl227 #33 2 years ago

    Captain just a question but why the obsession over being negged? If you make a statement which is likely to inflame people what do you expect? Also this is no different then many x box posts where people are negged for criticising the x box. I find the whole issue rather tiresome.... Sigh.

    Anyway on home it clearly has it's fans whenever I pop in to see what's new always seems thriving. Avatars all pimped with those lucrative micro transactions. Some of the rooms are interesting but for me it seems those who get the most out of home are people who can sink serious hours into it. Hours which I'd rather been playing a game as time is a premium for my gaming time. I think in this respect home doesn't offer that quick way for people to meet up and play games together so largely gathers dust on the xmb.

  • CaptainQuint #34 2 years ago

    I couldn't give a fuck about being rated up or down mate, I just find it funny - the petty things people ratedown about, like me saying I like some ps3 games, but I usually end up back on the xbox. It's friggin' laughable.

  • SEVQA #35 2 years ago

    Sony cancels PlayStation Home plans!!!

  • hyuhek #36 2 years ago

    Would we really have wanted Habbo Hotel on the PSP?

  • Acrid #37 2 years ago

    I bet Konami wish they'd cancelled Silent Hill: The Room

  • laharl80 #38 2 years ago

    Someone making the tired old xbot claim of PS3=one good game and a blu ray player isn't really in a position to criticise fanboys are they.

  • morriss #39 2 years ago

    lol

  • CaptainQuint #40 2 years ago

    Heh heh, as usual with the fanboy contingent: they completely make things up in an attemp to support some sort of rubbish attempt at an argument. At absolutely no point have I said "one good game and a Blu-ray player", despite the dumb misquote which suggests otherwise - on the contrary; as a PS3 owner I've enjoyed several superb games, including Heavy Rain, God of War 3 and Uncharted 1&2 - the latter of which I continue to play on a regular basis. See, despite what some fools here (the tin hat brigade) might think, I've got nothing against the Sony machine and even really like it (just as well, considering it cost me nearly £300.00 huh?).

    Keep coming back with the stupid-arsed responses, fuckos - you're doing all the work for me - proving my point that zealous gamers can't help but make themselves look completely daft, in their blind pursuit of a defence for their precious toys.

    I'm typing on iPhone, so replying is easy and actually rather entertaining :-)

  • SpaceMonkey77 #41 2 years ago

    It was a nice concept, but should have been implemented early in the PSP's life to matter, along with trophies.

    Sony seem to have their heads screwed on more in the home front, but their hand held division gets little thought it seems. I dare say that E3 will be very interesting, to see if Sony do poduce a PSP successor, to battle the coming tide of iPhone and 3DS.

    I stll enjoy my PSP 1000, especially for import games, where many fruits are available. There's still a lot that Sony could do with PSP, but time isn't on their side anymore, and frankly, I no longer trust them to see sense on PSP's faults and fix them.

  • Death-Jester #42 2 years ago

    I thought Home was going to be quite good - I love all that kind of design-your-own-living-space type of gaming (most of the time in Sims 2/3 I spend making a house, then not using it, I just like to design stuff). It was actually quite a bit of a selling point for me when deciding on getting a PS3. Imagine how disappointed I was to learn that about 95% of the furniture in the game you have to pay for! It's bloody ridiculous! I had one quite long play session in Home, when I first got my PS3: I went around the shops, moved a few bits of furniture in my room, and left. I have never touched it since, and every time I turn my PS3 on it's there, a glaring reminder of how I was suckered into buying a PS3.


  • coolbritannia #43 2 years ago

    quint, go ask for monster hunter on 360 if you think the negging in here is bad....

  • man.the.king #44 2 years ago

    @CaptainQuint

    "I tell it like I see it. If that rubs fanboys up the wrong way then I can live with that. "

    Well what do you know... I tell it like I see it too, and what I'm seeing in your posts is the emotionally conclusive "facts" of a 360 fanboy. Now, if that rubs you up the wrong way, I sure can live with that :)

  • Ducklord #45 2 years ago

    I've always thought EG would be better removing the negative karma and simply keep the positive. That way the idiots who spout rubbish can simply be ignored.

  • CaptainQuint #46 2 years ago

    *Remains un-"rubbed up the wrong way" and doesn't mind the banter at all*

    Still trying to get my head around the concept of being a 360 fanboy though, what with me shelling out a few big ones for the sole privilege of playing games on the 'competitions' device, and loving it.

    But what heck - what do I know? ;)

  • Murton #47 2 years ago

    Ducklord: "I've always thought EG would be better removing the negative karma and simply keep the positive. That way the idiots who spout rubbish can simply be ignored."

    That's +10 worth of truth right there, unfortunately I can only give 1.

  • man.the.king #48 2 years ago

    @CaptainQuint

    "Still trying to get my head around the concept of being a 360 fanboy though, what with me shelling out a few big ones for the sole privilege of playing games on the 'competitions' device, and loving it. "

    I'm sure many people with multiple consoles love one, hate the 'other' console, but still get exclusive games for the 'other' console because they don't want to miss out on the experience. Doesn't make them any less of a fanboy cunt, though.
    Edited by 1 at 18/04/10 @ 20:25