Well, I personally think that Home is a social network for a reason. I've had a blast hanging with friends on there, and even met a few new people. That's really the purpose behind Home, not to dazzle everyone with the next best thing. Well, that's what I believe the purpose is, anyway, because the games certainly aren't going to draw in many people. =)

People are mad that 3 people at IGN didn't like HOME?

 Microsoft are socialist am confirmed.

My take is that people are just a little annoyed at having been duped by the Sony PR machine again.

A lot was promised and so little was ultimately delivered.

Also its been a heck of a wait.

I have to agree with IGN, it's rubbish but then again it's just been made for advertising, as I type the money is rolling in from Home.

But aren't you complaining about free editorial content both on this site and IGN. If you do not like the content you are not forced to read it and you do not pay for it. If you feel you are allowed to complain that their editorial articles are not of high quality then you are validating their right to write those very articles. So which way is it?

I do not have a PS3 so I cannot comment on Home. I can say that weather the opinions of the authors is the norm or not they do provide some concrete information about what the home experience is like, though not enough for people to make their own objective judgments with.

The thing that continues to confuse me about home is what needs for the community is it trying to fill. Is it supposed to be a synchronous social experience that can stand on it's own? Is it supposed to be a better PSN that also has social elements? Is it supposed to be like facebook/bebo where you can have asynchronous social experiences? Is it supposed to be entertaining beyond the social experiences? All of the above? I think this is the biggest failure of Home, a lack a clear well communicated purpose. Without a real idea of what it is supposed to be it will not be a factor in my decision to buy a PS3 or not.

So in terms of impact on sales I think home will be a dissapointment until the value is clearly defined and marketed.

We pay for so many "items" that if not for the PR we woudlnt have. 

Todays free market is as competitive as the ones we have to pay for. Whats wrong in streching the truth a little?  I know quite a lot of profitable companies do even though they take our money for these lies !

It's better to see it as a place to play mini-games and such. At least, that's what I've been seeing from it.

DMeister--here's the problem with your "complaining about something that's free" concept.  Playstation HOME, much like Little Big Planet, Metal Gear Solid 4, and Resistance 2, was supposed to be one of those landmark Sony events this gen that put the PS3 a cut above the rest and got the MAINSTREAM GAMING AUDIENCE buzzing about the PS3.  And the mainstream audience usually isn't the type of people that post to VGChartz.  We're mostly all gaming dorks here, so we read a lot of news and sales figures and weigh game libraries against each other.  We think about our purchases and we research things before we buy our games.  That does not represent the mass majority of hardware or software buyers. 

The mass majority, unfortunately for Sony, has not been given any solid reasons yet to want to buy a PS3.  We can sit here and argue features, the ten year plan, and the Cell processor until we're blue in the face, but the mass quantities of console buyers out there don't know or care about that stuff.  They know Wii Sports.  They know Halo.  They know Gears of War.  They know Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros.  They MIGHT know a bit about the Metal Gear Solid games if they're a little bit older.  They most definitely know about GTA, which they can get on the cheaper 360.

Unfortunately for people who are really in Sony's corner this gen, nothing about the PS3 has really gotten Joe Schmoe to talk about the PS3.  BluRay isn't flopping, but the PS3 is not the cheapest option on the market anymore; whether or not it's the BEST option is immaterial and/or unknow to most shoppers.  Resistance 2 was a follow up to an original IP that was not very succesful.  LBP has done well, but is not a super smash breakout hit, and I attribute that mostly to PSN not being able to handle what the game needs to do and a botched launch. 

Then along comes HOME.  Hyped for years by Sony, supposedly a revolutionary way to trump Xbox Live and be kind of a 3D online social networking tool.  And all it is really is a big advertisement space.  Right now it's going over as being "nothing special".  Even Sony admitted that HOME is not going to push consoles, and their number one priority right now SHOULD BE TO PUSH CONSOLES.  Sony is running out of options here and HOME needed to go over well.  My opinion:  they should not have rushed the beta out just because of NXE.  Big mistake.  They should have abandoned HOME and spent the money on marketing and securing some more IPs.  They are running out of options.

THAT is why people are complaining about HOME.  They wanted so badly for it to be groundbreaking, and it's not.  Could it be in the future?  Yes.  Is that doing it any good now while it's being outsold by the next closest competitor by 3 to 1?  Absolutely not.  And now all the financial analysts are looking at Sony at this stage in the generation and getting a pretty good picture about where this is all headed.  That's why all the recent articles and analysis.  Many things were supposed to save the PS3 this year and none of them did.  Especially not HOME.

Didn't expect much else. All these non-game virtual worlds are useless. Now that doesn't change the fact that millions of low watt bulbs have walked around in Second Life, so it doesn't exactly mean that this will not be successful but it will definitely not be of interest for me.