Home won't be an anti-climax, says Hirai

Sony Computer Entertainment boss Kaz Hirai has promised new PS3 service Home will be worth the wait.

It was supposed to launch last October, but a series of delays followed and now the service is due to go live this autumn. Speaking to the factweaving newsforgers over at GamesIndustry.biz, Hirai dismissed suggestions there could be an anti-climax when Home finally arrives.

"I would put it the other way around," he said. "Because we got so much buzz, had we launched it before we thought it was the right time and the right features and functionality to launch it - with the high anticipation, people would go there in droves the first time around, they would check it out and say, 'This isn't fun at all, so I'm not coming back again."

Hirai said there are no regrets about the decision to delay Home - despite the endless, ah, dinging that's been going on.

"Okay, we've been dinged, I've been personally dinged many times," he confessed. "But if I know we're doing it for the right reasons and that once we launch the service this fall it's going to be something that the consumers, once they go there, see that it's actually going to be a fun service. That to me is a lot better than doing it the other way around."

And, he added, Sony is keen to avoid yet more dinging in the future. "I've said this on many occasions, and right now we're aiming for a fall open beta programme, but no beta should be opened before its time. It's important enough of an initiative for the platform and for SCE, that we don't want to prematurely launch it and then be dinged for having a bad service."

Stop the dinging. The DINGING MUST STOP. The full interview is on GamesIndustry.biz.