OMG OMG I KNOW HOW "house" lmao. or maybe "utopia" :) lol jks

 Exactly. Only Hardcore gamers/2nd life hobbyists waste their time with things like home. The majority of the casual wont fall for it.

The TRUE reason MS don't respond to HOME .........
"US subprime crisis"

The dashboard update is MS's response to it. The update in terms of avatars specifically goes with the term middle of the road between Home and the Miis. The XBL primetime is what is supposed to be the separating factor. Whether this takes off or not has yet to be seen. Now of course the dashboard update has several technical upgrades such as the 8 person private chat as well as other goodies that make the service run a lot better and have a lot more functions for the hardcore gamer.

Home is great. The concept is great and while Sony peddled it way too early which has certainly slowed the hype train for a lot of ppl, I think it will be a success. However it's not going to make a big difference, if any, in terms of console sales. Personally, I would have rather had Sony spend the dev time and resources on making the service a lot better from a technical standpoint. This goes for MS as well but to a much lesser extent. Obviously my opinion is based on what I know now and it could very well change once I get my hands on both of the new services.

they copied nintendo soooo badly with avatars (mii's). but yeh of course, nintendo and nintendo fanboys dont care, they only hate Sony. LOL.

Yeah but you can actually use them as an online identity unlike the Mii which is hampered by Nintendo's retarded friends code.

What I think is a little funny, is that I would posit that HOME is Sony's response to how successful Live is. The PSN has consistently been playing catch-up with Live and is now hoping for a home run with Home to put them ahead.

I'll make no predictions as to how it will turn out, but I would think that clearly MS doesn't have to respond, to Sony's response, until they see how big of an impact that response (Home) has (lots of responses in that sentence).

I understand the Sony fans anticipation that this is going to revolutionize the on-line community; the hope to see Sony succeed in everything they do is apparent in many folk who post here. I just don't think that Microsoft is sitting somewhere fearing, Home.

Now, if it's a runaway hit that becomes a huge selling point for the PS3, then I'm sure they'll have to address it then. But that time is NOT months before an unproven, and mostly unknown product is released.

I'm sure this isn't a popular opinion here, however please realize that I never suggested Home would be a failure or in any way suck. I just don't assume that it's going to be the best thing since sliced bread either.

I don't see what the big deal is. Don't get me wrong - I liked habbohotel when I was 14, but I think internet chat sites are best left for PCs - I spose you could plug a mouse + keyboard into the PS3.

Anyway, I don't see home as something that MS and Ninty need to fear

The update to XBL is the counter to Home. As for home becoming the new online gaming king no way. XBL has over 10 million subscribers. Oh and you can video chat too. So i really don't care about avatars when i can see the other persons face.

Why should MSFT respond to Sony's Second Life when real life is hard enough?