I doubt it. I use xbox live to play online or chat with my friends usually about playing online. If I need to chill or gather or talk to them for real I just meet them or call them on the phone. Seriously what does Home offer besides making a fake version of yourself that the current PSN doesn't already offer. They need to beef up PSN so is easier to communicate and play games. I mean if that is what Home will do then I guess is fine but nothing worth picking a console over another.

Why is it that every good game is talked up as a system seller on vgchartz? There have been very few true system sellers so far in this generation, namely Wii Sports and Halo 3. A system seller is a game that on its power alone can convince droves of people to buy a system. Everything else is just a part of the library.

eugene said: Live did not sell the Xbox. Compelling games to play on live sold the Xbox. People would rather have free online, but they want to play games that they wanna play, so they would rather pay $50 a year to play the game they want rather than something for free that they dont wanna play. In the end, its all about the games. The mass market is blind to features. Sony is gonna have to spend millions educating people about what HOME is , what blue ray is, and etc. The only thing that can sell it is compelling games that people want to play.

totally agree, as good as home is and I will buy it - I just see it for the Hardcore audience only. The wii's friend codes really annoy me personally but I see the point of them and I know my wifes boss for example is buying a Wii for the kids (even though their torn between the Wii and PS3) as she knows it's online features are secure and it's the first console / pc she has allowed them to explore online due to it's security. I just think Home will have a market that'll be turned on by it but at the same time the'll be a market thats turned off and will never care about understanding it's "full potential". It will sell systems but not Mass market amounts, I do however predict it'll be huge in Japan.

 

Home won't sell systems by himself, man, how many people wants a PS3 just to get Home???
Home is not more attractive to the casual buyer than Second Life by example, and you need a PS3 just to get in...

Home is a nice feature, and a good complement to the PS3 network strategy (Like all of the features of the updates, like the upscale DVD and PS2 games) but alone is not strong enough to appeal to the mass market

Home will just be another variable and reason why people may want a PS3. Just like when discussing 360 and PS3 differences people always chalk up "online" to the 360. That right htere is basically syaing Live helps sell systems as it is an intregal part of WHY they feel the 360 is better. Its a contradiction to use the 360's onlin eplay as a reasonits great and then say it doesnt factor into people buying the system.

Are you dizzy..., what you been smoking mate...

Home won't sell consoles. If anything it will let the PS3 feature-match the X360. The PS3 needs something truly unique to catch up.

Microsoft will almost certainly copy it though.
Like the HD-DVD drive they didn't really sell (just enough to get the point across)
And the "we can do folding @ home too" boast they never followed up on.

Feature equivalence doesn't let you pull ahead, it only lets you catch up.

Interesting replies. I still believe that Xbox Live has sold 360s, although at a slow and steady rate that is difficult to recognize. You want another example? The Wii Remote. Now that is something I believe we can all agree has sold systems. Or how about the size of the Wii? Or the wireless controllers for all systems?

What these all have in common is that they are abstract and their appeal is long lasting -- they don't get people to jump out of bed and rush to get a Wii/360/PS3 the day these services are released, but they influence decisions people make throughout the generation. They aren't games, more of a change of philosophy or system design for which the rewards are difficult to calculate.

Which explains, again, why we can never really prove or disprove whether these things actually have much effect. Big games we can see; the system in question sells 40k more systems than it otherwise would in the month the game is released, and then has no visible effect ever again. Something like the Wii Remote is affecting people even today, influencing parents, for example, who want their kids to play something more active. And again, I expect the PS3 to sell 500-1000 more systems per month (worldwide) throughout its lifespan as a result of home; for reference, that's maybe a .2 to .4 percent increase per month, but I expect that increase to last forever, as Home is permanently integrated in to "what it means to own a PS3 instead of a 360 or Wii." 

Home would be a reason to buy PS3 if Home ends up doing everything that its touted to do. I haven't read much about it since October but the idea that you could view movies that other people owned via their TV in their 'home' seemed cool. I do agree with Fishyjoe that it may be held in a negative light here. I mean Fox news went crazy over DS chat capabilities and how predators could use that. Imagine how crazy they would go

I can see the headline "Sony allows predators to invite your kids into their cyber-home"

I would be interested but I don't think it makes the price point anymore achievable especially when real disposable income is down.

jv103 said: Home would be a reason to buy PS3 if Home ends up doing everything that its touted to do. I haven't read much about it since October but the idea that you could view movies that other people owned via their TV in their 'home' seemed cool.

That will be one of the selling points, but I think Home is the gateway to something much, much larger. It's not really about repackaging TV shows, it's about democratizing media production - you'll get to put your own stuff on a site, mess with it, trade with other people, etc. Think of what you could do with the PSEye and a digital camera alone. It's s not something that will appeal to everyone overnight, sure. But I think it's inevitable some version of this will become an indispensable part of gaming. Basically, it's the plebian, affordable version of what's been going on in the PC gaming culture for some time. Only Sony's pitch will be, we can give you the 3D version of Facebook for the low low price of $200 or less, as opposed to a $1000 computer festooned with $300 worth of applications.

The trick, though, is that Home needs savvy management, i.e. if Sony tries to pull a Microsoft, and charge you rent for every Home pixel, it will crash and burn. It's got to stay mobile, free, close to the ground.