14 DAY TRIAL // Sony isn't going to have a happy holiday season, mainly because its PlayStation 3 console isn't registering the sales the executives of the Japanese company were hoping for. Between the massive amount of popularity that the Nintendo Wii has and the low price of its Arch rival, the Xbox 360, the PS3 doesn't seem to have that many aces up its sleeve.
But things are beginning to change, as Sony has just launched Home, its new online service, which is hyped up to be the next step in user interaction. This new online program, which will sell quite a lot of PS3s, at least according to Dan Hill, the manager of the new service, hasn't had the smoothest launch possible, as users who awaited Home for quite some time found themselves unable to log in or interact with other people.
Worst of all, a few hackers even managed to exploit some of its weaknesses, but, thanks to Sony's promptness, a patch was released last week, which solved quite a lot of issues. However, it not only solved problems, it also created a couple of new ones, as Sony pulled out of the service the pretty useful voice chat feature. But now, after almost a week without hearing voices in Home, Sony has decided to implement the feature again, through the launch of its 1.05 update.
The patch, which went live yesterday, promises to have full support for voice chat and take the user interaction aspect a step forward. “PlayStation Home update 1.05 is scheduled to be released on December 22. With this new update, users will be able to use the voice chat within their personal space and clubhouses to communicate and share with friends online,” read the press release.
Although some people might use this voice chat feature to say things that other users might find offensive, this system does make it easier to communicate with those on Home. Let's hope that Sony's online service won't be plagued by other problems in the future, and that it will get out of beta stage as soon as possible.