Sony: Xbox Live is Static and Can't Match PlayStation Home
Sony Computer Entertainment’s big news at this year’s GDC is the announcement of PlayStation Home, basically what appears to be ‘the answer’ for PS3’s life online. Phil Harrison’s keynote Wednesday at the Game Developer Conference explained the features and appearance of PlayStation Home, which some call the closest realization of William Gibson's Cyberspace.
Old, but apparently relevant sci-fi classics aside, parallels between Second Life and PlayStation Home were immediately drawn, but Sony touts its free online service as superior to the MMO. “Home is a much more rich, user friendly experience than Second Life, allowing for ease of entry and use, as well as being fully-functional with the technology and capabilities of PS3,” said a Sony representative in the ThreeSpeech blog.
With Microsoft’s Xbox Live service as the benchmark for online console gaming, most Sony faithful were hoping for a PS3 online experience that would equal the competitive offering. But Sony’s belief is that it has a product that’s incomparable to Xbox Live.
“Home is a first of its kind 3D community that allows for open interaction between consumers, SCE and third party partners. It is a truly interactive, global community of users,” the representative added. “Xbox Live is a static, 2D, text-heavy environment that can’t match the rich community features found in Home. Xbox Live community interaction is much more passive and limited to the members on that friend’s list.”
While it’s unclear if PlayStation Home will become a mandatory way for gamers to connect with each other, but the current PlayStation Store is to coexist with the upcoming service. “Home is a real-time online 3D, networked community available on the Network, while the Store offers free and premium digital goods delivered directly to your PS3,” Sony said.
It’s also unknown if PlayStation Home will be an optional component for online gamers, though Sony revealed that a download of under 500 MB is required in order to add the feature to the PS3.
A Home Beta Trial Web site is now available online with placeholder graphics and art for the pending public beta test set to begin in April. The full release of PlayStation Home is slated for this fall.
