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twesterm on 02 January 2009
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vlad321 said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:
vlad321 said:

Sony Clarifies Home's 'Open Beta'

The "social gaming community" will apparently stay in open beta for "some time."

By Kyle Stallock, 12/31/2008


Since the release of Sony's Home earlier this month, many question the reason for the "open beta" descriptor and how long it will remain. According to Jack Buser, director of Home, in a Kotaku video podcast (via Shacknews), the service may remain in "open beta" indefinitely, saying another phase of its existence is to be determined.

Addressing why it's still in open beta, Buser says,

 

"Open beta" is "sort of synonymous with our idea of launch, in that we really want to emphasize that what you see in Home on any particular day is subject to change. Home is a living, breathing, evolving, growing platform."

In other words, if something goes wrong, they can always point a finger and say "hey, open beta." Besides, it's not like the development state has prevented Sony from selling virtual goods like "hotcakes."

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People who are hoping for an actual release can now rest calmly, what you have right now is what it will be. Yes it will change over time but this is the release, there won't be another major release than this. It will be jsut updates and additions to what is already there.

 

 Sony needs to start charging for Home.

 

And if they do that it will go from slight failure to complete and utter failure and waste of 4 years of development.

 

Actually, they need to charge you for microtransactions that matter, not charge you for Home.  I don't want to decorate my apartment if I never even go there (since it starts you in the last zone you were in) and I don't want to buy clothes for my avatar if I don't give a crap about Home.

Their plan should look something like this:

  1. Give me something meaningful for free so I begin to care about Home
  2. After I care about Home, offer me something meaningful to buy.
  3. After buying things I care about Home more, now I care about my apartment and avatar.
  4. Now that I care about my apartment avatar, I want clothes and furniture to buy

Instead it looks something like this:

  1. Release Home in a crippled state
  2. Offer clothes and furniture
  3. ?????
  4. Make money

A perfect example of microtransactions done well is Little Big Planet. 

  1. Let me create things so I care about the game.
  2. I care about the game so I care about my sackboy/girl
  3. Since I care about my sackboy/girl I care how they look and buy more costumes
  4. I cared enough to buy costumes, I play the game more.

In Home's current state I have no reason to care about it so there's no reason to buy anything.  I guess they figured people bought the PS3 based on potential so maybe they'll buy clothes and furniture based on potential.