The lights are on
Update: Fear not Home-dwellers in Europe and North America. Your virtual avatar and domicile are safe., according to Sony.
"PS Home will only terminate in Japan and Asian regions/countries," a PlayStation representative told us via email. "PS Home in SCEA and SCEE operates independently, so this announcement does not apply to the service in those territories."
Original Story:
Sony Computer Entertainment Japan has announced the imminent closure of the PlayStation Home service in Asian territories. The service, which entered beta testing in 2008, will be sunset in March 2015. No items will be sold after September 24, 2014.
PlayStation Home was Sony’s attempt to recreate the success of Second Life on the PlayStation 3. The service is free, but cosmetic items for avatars and housing are provided at a cost.
Regions within Home are modeled after PlayStation games, including Sully’s Bar for Uncharted, the LittleBigPlanet Playground, and the Abstergo Lab from Assassin’s Creed. These include themed decor and minigames.
Sony has used Home as a broadcast location for its press conferences and special events. We’ve inquired with the publisher to see if there are plans to sunset the service in Europe and North America.
[Source: SCEJ via Kotaku]
Our TakeI visited Home a couple of times in its early days and I never understood the appeal. I imagine there are some that will mourn its passing, but for me, it’s just a passing oddity.
It was an interesting idea at the time. I remember when special demos were only available there. And they still have themed areas for games, like the awesome Siren: Blood Curse area and the recreation of the Assassin's Creed 2 hideout (it's that outdated....) but, nothing is added in terms of games and the demos are still those old ones so.. not surprised by this.
I too never understood the appeal, though I also never understood the appeal of Second Life.
Wow, I didn't realize this was still a thing!
I tried Home because I heard that there were mini-games in it. But for some dumb reasons, only one person could play any of the virtual games at a time. That is literally one of the worst pieces of game design I have ever seen.
Never bothered. People were done with it the moment they tried it. And trying to imitate Second Life? Really? I never remember being able to buy bustiers and have fake, digital sex with randos.
I think I clicked on Home once on accident when I was trying to get to the PS store.
Playstation Home was a terrible idea. Tried this about 3 years ago. There were a ton of empty areas. The occasional person popping in then immediately leaving happened everytime. The wait time to play a single game were horrible. And it didn't help that, once you were able to play, the game sucked.
does that mean the players in Japan are homeless???? anyone, anyone, come on!
I love that this article reuses the photoshopped picture of Home from Game Infarcer about how it turned into a wasteland. Man, Home really didn't live up to the hype, but in retrospect I guess it was good to kill time and see a little more of games you liked if you were super bored.
Good riddance. Home is boring.
Home needs to be buried in the back yard without a grave, no one will miss it!
i was hoping for a this was like GTA and so on. you can get a job, drive cars etc but its not
Nobody actually used this, right?
I think the last time I logged on to PS Home was in 2011 just to see the E3 virtual booth. But prior to that I hardly ever used it anyway.
Oh wow I just assumed that Home was discontinued quietly in the corner...just wow