Electronic Arts Founder Skeptical of Sony’s Home

Trip Hawkins, the guy who founded Electronic Arts and led it for the first period of its existence (now working at Digital Chocolate), said that Sony’s Home virtual space could be a big disappointment if it tried to compete with virtual worlds like Second Life or with MMOs such as World of Warcraft.

Hawkins, who has also headed 3DO, makers of Heroes of Might and Magic, stated for Hatchet Job that “What I can't really tell yet about the various announcements made about online and what they're doing so far, I can't tell whether they're going more towards this mass market idea - the way I'm describing this 'omni-market' - or if they're being lured into essentially trying to compete with Warcraft or Second Life”.

Basically, Trip Hawkins argues that Sony and Home are facing a lot of competition because both Nintendo and Microsoft, with the New Xbox Experience, are targeting the mass market. After all, a new social environment could bring little value to the user of a gaming console if there’s no actual clear reason to use it. Home needs to bring something new, which is different from what Second Life is offering (basically, social interaction) and from what World of Warcraft is delivering (competitive multiplayer).

Sony has been playing up Home for some time now, saying that some of the features recently launched for the PlayStation 3, like Trophies, will tie directly into the experience the social space will offer. Initially, Home should have been released during summer but delays led most commentators to believe that it would not be live until 2009.

At the moment, the product is in closed beta and Sony says that open beta and official launch will come quickly, possibly in 2008.