Sony coy on Home game integration

By Robert Purchese Published 28 February, 2008

Treats for Resistance and Uncharted?

Sony has declined to comment on suggestions it is encouraging first-party developers to add PlayStation Home integration to their games.

Fresh speculation was kicked up by Kotaku, which "learned" that Uncharted, Warhawk and Resistance would be given some rather fancy content.

According to the US blog, Uncharted will be gifted a side-scrolling arcade game described as a cross between Contra and Out of this World.

You will also be able to have a look around game levels as your avatar, which is something you can apparently do in Resistance: Fall of Man, too.

Specifically, Resistance will offer some sort of room hub that you can explore where can wander around the game world or flesh out the story by listening to intercepted radio transmissions between European and US forces.

Apparently Warhawk will also feature a lobby area known as a war room, where you can meet with friends, set up and launch battles. Furthermore, developer Incognito is putting a to-scale strategical map table in the middle of the room, where you can plan out your strategies like a real life army person with a loud face.

We already knew Warhawk was going to be include Home functionality, thanks to patch 1.3 notes from director Dylan Jobe earlier this month. But the map is new to us. And exciting.

PlayStation Home is currently in beta and has just undergone a batch of meaty changes. You can see these on YouTube.

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 (39) Latest comment 4 years ago

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

  • Freek #1 4 years ago

    But aren't those games going to be in the budget bin by the time Home is actually released to the public?

  • IronGiant #2 4 years ago

    There's still a large number of people playing Resistance and Warhawk online.. including me! I just hope the COD4 developers take advantage of HOME, the war room feature would be fantastic.

  • IronGiant #3 4 years ago

    In-game advertising is inevitable from MS and Sony, get used to it. Micro payments are already here.

  • dsmx #4 4 years ago

    At least with in game advertising on the ps3 you won't be paying for that "honour".

  • JHuxley #5 4 years ago

    Hmm. If this is true, I might actually be bothered about Home now.

  • Carlo #6 4 years ago

    /mouth drops

  • CrumpledPaper #7 4 years ago

    Hmmmmm...that warhawk strategy map thingamajig sounds really really good actually..

    "But aren't those games going to be in the budget bin by the time Home is actually released to the public?"

    If you can pick up Warhawk at a budget price, you should be ashamed as a gamer if you don't. It's a really fun game.

  • ecureuil #8 4 years ago

    What the fuck is wrong with you people? This is genuinely good stuff from Sony. Will the hate from you idiots ever end?

  • DrDamn #9 4 years ago

    Very interesting stuff. This is also what they are doing to existing games. There are lots more possibilities when you factor this in at the initial design stage of the game.

  • Putty-Man #10 4 years ago

    Does Playstation Home = Xbox Live Dashboard but in 3D?

  • agparrot #11 4 years ago

    F*** Home Integration!

    Put bloody LBP Achievements in games - so killing 100 stormtroopers in Star Wars: Whatever earns you some LBP darth-vader helmets, or something.

    This is Living!

  • Darkedge #12 4 years ago

    so you can explore the levels from home and essentially cheat by finding secrets and ways to play levels when you aren't being shot at? Niiice.

  • Dizzy #13 4 years ago

    This all sounds rather silly.

    What game was that again were you had a tactical map (RB6?) to plan strategies? 99.9% of people just press A to get it over with.

    Still I guess.. if you want a better (less empty) version of Sadville it sounds promising..
    Edited by 1 at 28/02/08 @ 13:04

  • JediMasterMalik #14 4 years ago

    This is the kind of stuff which makes Home more than just a 3D chat service, more of this, thanks.
    Edited by 1 at 28/02/08 @ 13:06

  • Ryze #15 4 years ago

    I'd like to see the performance of the finished product, personally.

  • DrDamn #16 4 years ago

    @northy
    "My point is that it could be in the game rather than as part of home. Home is basically taking stuff that should have been in the (advertising free) game and putting it into the advert loaded home. But you guys obviously know best so I'll stop pointing these things out since they obviously offend you."

    The idea of a party outside a game title is a good one and couldn't be done just in game though. I.e. Form a party of friends play a couple of rounds of Warhawk and then go for a race in GT. All integrated and without spliting and reforming the party.

    Yes certainly some of this stuff could be done in game. Home allows for other stuff like the above and provides the hook to put this stuff in as well. I'm excited not just by what has been announced but the other possibilities this extends to.

  • Beano #17 4 years ago

    "Does Playstation Home = Xbox Live Dashboard but in 3D? "

    No far from it - Home is a virtual world focused on meeting people and no attemp to clone Live or Xbox dashboard.

    PS3's "dashboard" is the XMB ;)
    Edited by 1 at 28/02/08 @ 13:13

  • Dizzy #18 4 years ago

    "99.9% of Dizzy's posts consist of him telling everybody else how shit Sony and the PS3 is. "

    Seriously... are you guys excited to enter a Second Life clone to game?

    BTW it is probably only 40% of my posts ;)

  • Beano #19 4 years ago

    "Seriously... are you guys excited to enter a Second Life clone to game?"

    Again.. you are not forced to do it. It's an OPTION !

  • Zomoniac #20 4 years ago

    Too late. If this was the central hub on which the whole interface of the machine was built it could've worked brilliantly, with a Live-style every single game supporting it, leaving logs, each game putting things in your trophy cabinet and whatnot. But coming out two years after the machine, with game support for it being optional, it will end up becoming the occasional novelty. It could've been so much more.

  • Royal Fool #21 4 years ago

    I was under the impression that one of the goals of Home was always to expand and extend what people were getting from their games by giving out trophies, decorations, accessories and whatnot.

  • Arwin #22 4 years ago

    It's getting already much better than I originally thought. I'm impressed! You have to watch those linked movies ... it looks beautiful and a lot of functionality is in there already. Also an interesting list with games for which you could set up multiplayer matches from Home, including CoD4, Tekken, and at least 8 others.

    If the above rumors are true, then I think Home is going to be a tremendous success.

  • Benno #23 4 years ago

    Microsoft will no doubt have something major up their sleave for live

    I wouldn't buy your 12 month live cards in advance people, i reckon this time next year xbox live will be completely free

  • JDub #24 4 years ago

    It looks like some nice ideas there - for free. Could pave the way for new ideas down the line, etc. Remember if you don't like it, you can always avoid and use the standard XMB... :)

    Alas, ads are here to stay...
    Edited by 1 at 28/02/08 @ 13:40

  • Benno #25 4 years ago

    Btw have you guys been watching the videos linked in the news article

    I am very impressed, looks like true next gen stuff

    Very nice job from sony

  • woodnotes #26 4 years ago

    "I wouldn't buy your 12 month live cards in advance people, i reckon this time next year xbox live will be completely free "

    Why would MS want to lose around $300m of additional annual revenue?

  • Beano #27 4 years ago

    "Why would MS want to lose around $300m of additional annual revenue? "

    They don't "want to" - but may be forced if/when PSN and SteamWorks puts pressure on Live.
    Edited by 1 at 28/02/08 @ 13:56

  • Xerx3s #28 4 years ago

    Interesting.

    beano: I don't know. I doubt that it will go that fast. Even if it would happen, don't you think that ms would give some kind of refund? Not sure but I seem to recall that if I quit now, they refund everything from the end of this month to the end of my period. Not that I care since I only paid 14 € for 2 years. ;p

  • Beano #29 4 years ago

    "Even if it would happen, don't you think that ms would give some kind of refund?"

    If Live goes free, I doubt they will refund anything... they' probably "give" people a "free" XBLA game... a game which nobody want anyway like the poor Undertow as a compensation for the Live problems :|

  • Les #30 4 years ago

    "They don't "want to" - but may be forced if/when PSN and SteamWorks puts pressure on Live."

    +1

    People are used to the internet being free (except for access through the ISP itself). Outside of porn there are few sites that generate substantial cash flows from subscriptions. And with the online services of Sony and Nintendo being free pressure will rise on MS to follow. TBH, I think it's the only option if MS is really serious about reaching a mass audience.

  • Beano #31 4 years ago

    I have both PS3 and 360 and think that MS implementation of Live into the 360 dashboard is brilliant... so I respect that people are willing to pay for it (although personally I'm not renewing my gold subscription the next time). But I'm baffled that "gold" members are still shown adds on their 360 dashboard for a premium service while no ads are shown in Sony's XMB and PSN is free. And yes - I'm aware that adds will be in Home - but that's also a free service.
    Edited by 1 at 28/02/08 @ 14:39

  • DrDamn #32 4 years ago

    This Home thing is not something Sony have just knocked up. Huge amounts of development must have gone into it already. If MS don't have something similar in the works already then we won't see something from them with the 360. I can see them adopting some common ideas though - like non-game specific lobbies for example.

    @Les RE: Live being free ...
    "TBH, I think it's the only option if MS is really serious about reaching a mass audience."

    Thats a good point. Live itself is one of MS's strongest cards in the battle. The subscription is always going to restrict it somewhat though.

  • monkie_king #33 4 years ago

    Not understanding how this integration is meant to work. The Warhawk map room, that's running inside the Home engine? So then once you've planned your strategy you have to drop out of home and load up Warhawk? And then instead of the post-game lobby you get kicked back to Home (which has to load up again) for the map-room?

    And how does this "explore levels" thing work? Is it going to load the Uncharted/Resistance maps into the Home engine? That seems kind of unlikely without major engineering work to port from their proprietry engine.

    It all sounds very nice in principle, but I'm struggling to see how it would work in practice.

  • DrDamn #34 4 years ago

    @Monkie_king
    You bring up your Home PSP and select create a game. Big list of games appears and you pick one. Stuff like CoD4, Warhawk and Tekken were in the vids linked. You set up the basic parameters like spaces and private slots in the Home interface and then the game launches for you and those in your party. When you drop out you can drop everyone back out into home and continue from there.

    Not sure on the explore levels thing. I suspect that would be more in-game and akin to a Wii Mii being imported. I.e. your avatar is used instead of the game character.

  • ps3rules890 #35 4 years ago

    PS3 + HOME = XBOX LIVE DEAD.
    That how I see things from this angle
    and I didn't read the comments yet.
    Anyway what could go wrong
    with this kind of plan sony made.

  • monkie_king #36 4 years ago

    oh, it needs a PSP as well?

    And with the explore levels thing, if you are just importing your avatar, how do you explore the levels? Presumably you'd need Drake's moves in order to get around, operate switches, solve puzzles to open doors etc. Is it just like a noclip hack where you can fly through the scenery. It just sounds deeply improbable whichever way you stack it.

    edit: actually, the map thing is only Resistance, which sounds more plausible. Uncharted just get the 2D minigame, which doesn't really seem to have much to do with Home at all. I suppose it's a bit like Animal Crossing where you could play emulated NES games in your virtual house.
    Edited by 2 at 28/02/08 @ 15:44

  • moggsy #37 4 years ago

    This sounds more like it - especially the 'war room' stuff.

  • DrDamn #38 4 years ago

    @monkie_king
    You don't need a PSP they just use a virtual one in Home for menus in an attempt to maintain the 3D environment. I.e. you press a button to bring up menus and your avatar pulls out a PSP and you view centres on it's screen. There is then a virtual XMB to access options etc.

    The Avatar explore levels is implied to be in both Resistance and Uncharted. They've obviously found some way to do it.

  • SeesThroughAll #39 4 years ago

    Wandering in game levels sounds like the developers ported them from their game engines into Home as lounges.

    According to Harrison, using your avatar in a game is not possible yet. Sounds like Sony didn't really consider it from start (wonder why), and only started working on it after requests in last year's GDC.
    Edited by 1 at 29/02/08 @ 12:51