14 DAY TRIAL // The console war is a series of very fierce battles in which the top three manufacturers, Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony, fight for every customer and attempt to make their own products the most attractive ones on the market by any means necessary.
A major aspect that some customers take into account when buying a console is the online service that they receive, and, as such, both Microsoft and Sony are attempting to offer the best online experience out there. While the Xbox Live community is one of the biggest, Sony hopes that through its combined services, the PlayStation Network and the new Home system, which is still in open beta, it will gain the edge on its rivals.
But Home isn't aimed just at gamers, says Peter Edward, the director of the service, but also at developers, who should really be excited as the service offers them a strong relationship with users, who can give them real-time feedback about their products and titles. He goes on to say that, as opposed to regular games, which depend on the time that people have them installed on their systems, things are much better with Home.
“There's the opportunity to strengthen the relationship with the user. Traditionally, whether it's an offline or online game, your relationship with the user is restricted to the time that they have that disc in the machine and they're playing it. Fundamentally, it's based around the game and that's it – when they move on to something else, you lose them completely. With Home, it allows you to maintain that contact. If you've got a game which has a representation within Home as well, and people are going into that space and mixing with other fans of that game, or of that genre, or even of that publisher or developer – the relationship with the developer is way longer than if it's just a one-off hit from a shop. I think all of the opportunities that go along with that are the most exciting thing for a developer.”
Edward then goes on to say that game creators can increase the attention that future titles receive from the gamers, and can easily promote recent titles with various competitions and prizes awarded for the players. Things are starting to go very smoothly for Sony and we might see Home turn into a very important tool for the company in the near future.