The astonishingly popular PS2 and PS3 quiz show game, Buzz!, will have a room in the upcoming Home interface on the PS3. According to a blog by one of the designers of the Buzz! Home space (which he calls the Buzz: Road Show), players will be able to stand on various colored lights to submit their answers, and up to 64 people will be able to play at a time.

In the article, Cumron Ashtiani, the designer, shows some early concept art and talks about his feelings on the Home creative process:

The Avatars are part of the Home system and so not customisable for their surroundings. I think stylistically the characters for Home could have done with a bit more exaggeration and style. There were several technical limitations with he tools at that time in that we couldn’t have animated objects, no characters other than the Home avatars or lights and so movement could only be provided with shader based UV scrolling.

Check out his blog for some really amazing looking artwork. Of all the things I’ve heard and read about Home so far, this might be the most interesting– and I’m not even a big fan of Buzz. Somehow to me this just seems to be Sony taking Microsoft’s idea of letting your avatars compete in “1 vs. 100″ and just running numerous laps around it.

After reporting on the survival of Eight Days and The Getaway not long ago, we weren’t expecting to bring you news that both games had been suspended indefinitely, and perhaps even permanently. 

In April, British newspaper The Guardian was given a tour of SCE London Studio – the development team responsible for Singstar, Home and Eye Toy – where they spied Eight Days entering full production and The Getaway waiting in the wings.

Though Sony London’s innovative and family orientated projects have been met with huge success, it’s their technical ability that impresses hardcore gamers.  Their London tech demo promised so much for the teams’ graphical progress, even making it into Polyphony Digital’s Gran Turismo 5: Prologue.  We were hoping to see these projects in the near future, but SCEE has announced that production on both titles has ceased:

It has been agreed that production of both Eight Days and The Getaway will cease immediately due to the redistribution of resources and budget.

This decision was made following an internal review of all games and it was deemed that with the incredibly strong list of exclusive first party titles coming up both this year and in the near future, resource should be reallocated to enhance those projects closer to completion.

Worldwide Studios has a reputation for innovative and entertaining games, with titles such as LittleBigPlanet, SingStar,Buzz, EyeToy and Eye of Judgement, and will continue to push the boundaries on all PlayStation platforms.

It was unclear whether this meant the games were permanently canned, but Gamesindustry.biz reports that “it has now been confirmed that these projects have been shelved permanently, and work is not scheduled to restart at a later date.”

Could PS3 development difficulties be to blame?  Not necessarily on these particular projects, but on other PS3 titles. SCEE’s teams are so well versed in the language of the PS3 that they are often shipped off to aid other developers in getting the best out of the system.  To illustrate, Sony Cambridge helped out on Heavenly Sword, and Sony London are said to be working on Killzone 2.  SCEE’s comment that “resource should be reallocated to enhance those projects closer to completion” adds credence to this theory.  Whatever the reasons, we do hope the team gets to show their true muscle very soon.

We’ll keep you posted if the situation changes, and I personally believe these projects will be tackled sometime in the future.  What other projects SCEE has up their sleeve, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Jack Thompson, in his typical flair, has denied having anything bad to say about Buzz! The Schools Quiz.

The US diva, I mean attorney, was quoted in British newspapers as saying:

Video games have hurt far more people than they have helped. I don’t see how they can be of any more benefit than normal teaching.

As I suggested, this was a pretty moronic and unsupported statement, where the self-funded Buzz! quiz was only a teaching addition for schools, not a replacement for traditional methods.

JT has now got in touch with The Daily Mail’s editor via an angry email, where he says:

I was NEVER contacted by anyone at your paper about this story, and I never said or wrote the below. I don’t think such a thing and thus would not have uttered it anywhere, anytime.

Fair enough, but being the diva he is, he likes to end his interlocutions with scorn:

Your writer lied about this, and he/she ought to be sacked for this utter fabrication.

Why not take them to court Mr. Jack? Then again, you don’t seem to fair too well there. DIVA!

Source: Play.TM.

Thanks go to MonkeyThumbs for the tip.