14 DAY TRIAL // Online services are beginning to be the most important factor for people who want to buy a new console these days, from the great multiplayer network that is Xbox Live to the Wii Channel filled with new things to the PlayStation Store, which even offers full games for both the PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation Network.
But Sony wasn't content with just the PSN, and launched Home into open beta stage in mid-December last year. Since then, a lot of things have happened, the service having grown by leaps and bounds in terms of both active users and third-party developers and publishers present.
But the snowball effect will now begin to really make its presence felt in Home, as Jack Buser, the director of PlayStation Home for North America, revealed that, in the following time period, the online service would grow by at least three spaces per month, with the latest being the Guitar Hero one.
“You'll see about three new spaces launched a month - I'll be shocked if we ever go under that number, we have so much in the pipeline,” said Buser. He offered as example the fact that a “good space” from Home sees a quarter of a million people visit it each week, with 75 percent of them spending more than 10 minutes there.
He also highlighted the role of Home within the Sony services. “Online games consoles have had the concept of the friends list for some time. We noticed at Sony a problem with the friends list with the first group - you don't really know them. We wanted a place, a neutral environment, where players could go and really get to know each other outside of the context of a particular game. If you look at some of our competition, they really struggle with the idea community, how to foster a community on their platform. Home is the true community for PlayStation 3.”
How do you feel about Home? Do you spend a lot of time there interacting with friends or you just pop in from time to time to see what the new things are? Leave us a comment about the online service.