Can PlayStation Home offset the PS3’s high price?
There’s no doubt Sony showed up at the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco this week to cause a stir. And from early reception, they appear to have done just that. Slashdot was quick to praise the company’s newly unveiled Home community on Wednesday noting the rare applause for a Sony event, “This is the reason to buy PlayStation 3. The demo [got] a huge ovation… It’s crazy.”
Next-Generation duly recognized the seemingly good news with a dose of reality, “Sony is still trying to sell an extremely expensive games machine, with a limited number of blockbuster games, and a legacy of poor performance… Doubtless the PS3 story still has some set-backs and disappointments ahead, but finally, we get the feeling the worst is over.”
So can the PlayStation Home network offset the PS3’s high price?
Unless Sony turns the online community model on its head, it’s doubtful Home will become anything more than a value-add for PS3 owners for two reasons. First, as we briefly mentioned on Wednesday, social media only thrives via a low barrier to entry, and the $600 PS3 price tag is anything but. In comparison to Second Life (which Sony admittedly took a page from), membership is free. Sure, it takes Lindens to “play,” but that’s variable depending on what Second Life users want to do. So until Sony makes the PS3 more accessible (read: less expensive), don’t expect the Home community to grow much.
The second issue is Home’s lack of a true user-generated content a kin to Second Life shops, rides, goods, and services. Granted, such in-community experiences may be available someday on PS3, but from what Sony showed, it doesn’t appear to be the case right now. Text and chatting features are only a small part of Second Life’s allure. Home better go beyond user conversation if it hopes to entice console gamers for the long-term.
This isn’t to say we don’t applaud Sony’s embrace of social media. Home looks to be one very slick feature with mounds of potential, and we hope it does well. But it seems the PS3’s premium price will continually inhibit mass adoption until Sony properly deals with the issue and finally dubs outlandish Blu-ray and Cell development expenses for what they really were: sunk costs that shouldn’t dictate the current decision making process.
Fuck yeah, PlayStation Home can definitely save the PlayStation. I mean, it’s still a very expensive device, but people that could afford it have a reason now to buy it over the XBox, despite the higher price.
To pick up American customers Sony will need to reduce the price of the PS3 premium to 414 dollars like they did in Japan. Playstation Home won’t carry Sony in the competitive gaming industry. Rishi
When I heard what the price of a PS3 is going to be here, I think I nearly had a heart-attack. That said, after reading about PlayStation Home, I’m back to “buy it the day it’s available” (in South Africa). I may have to massively upgrade my internet connection though ;)
I don’t know if the Playstation Home announcement is really going to save the PS3, if you look at it, its just a bigger version of second life linked to a console. Also most gamers do not own a PS3 and with really not that many exclusives I just don’t see gamers spending 600 dollars.
hell yeah
ads… will there be an ad blocker for this game. lol.
To save PS3 – it might be useful to have some decent games first. Then make sure that PSX & PS2 backward compatibility is fixed up. Make the Blu-ray drive perform a lot faster, put back rumble and drop the price a few hundred.
As it is with no games – PS3 is not worth saving.
wall if home dose or not come ps3 still is the best. thay say ps3 going to drop price around xmas like £100 in uk and $200 in amrica and if it dose then xbox watch out ps3 coming hard, i own a ps3 no truble all my m8s say im rich but i class as im normal becuz i ddont like to brag but thay call me rich becuz i got massive house 5 very gd cars and more ecuz im geting wii like in 4 days and might by xbox i will alwasy be an ps3 fan boi.
i cant w8 for home to come out tho but i dont say nothing need to save the ps3 becuz ps3 will be sold fast when drop prices
GuVi
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Archive Can PlayStation Home offset the PS3’s high price?
There’s no doubt Sony showed up at the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco this week to cause a stir. And from early reception, they appear to have done just that. Slashdot was quick to praise the company’s newly unveiled Home community on W…
[...] Slashdot was quick to praise the company’s newly unveiled Home community on Wednesday noting the rare applause for a Sony event, “This is the reason to buy PlayStation 3. The demo [got] a huge ovation… It’s crazy.†… GigaGamez – http://gigagamez.com By Blake Snow [...]
[...] Blake asks if the Playstation Home can make the PS3 worth purchase. [...]
[...] that powers the PS3 (among other things) and costs a hefty $90/chip to make. So if declaring sunk costs won’t do the job, maybe a streamlined production process can enable an earlier than expected [...]
[...] is strange and seismic on several levels. Most obviously, Sony just announced the online world Home for PS3, widely seen as a console-based competitor to Second Life. To make things even stranger, [...]
[...] is strange and seismic on several levels. Most obviously, Sony just announced the online world Home for PS3, widely seen as a console-based competitor to Second Life. To make things even stranger, [...]