RipTen Videogame Blog » playstation-home

PS Home ‘Social Games Plaform’ Update Launches Tomorrow – What Will Change

Garrett Hartman — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 18:04:47 +0000

Sony has announced it will to launch its ‘Social Games Platform’ reboot of PlayStation Home tomorrow. The changes are designed to convert PlayStation Home into a viable social games platform.

The update will include four new theme-based districts :

Action
Sportswalk
Adventure
Pier Park – Nearby the Home Theatre and Home Mall.

Sony will also provide five new Free-to-play games for Home. They include:

Bootleggers ’29 – Set in the seedy underbelly of the Roaring Twenties, this PlayStation Home exclusive first-person shooter found in the Action District pits cops vs. criminals in a Prohibition-era game of Capture the Cask. Boasting real-time multiplayer action, a variety of vintage weapons and unlockable rewards, and the unique ability to play as your PlayStation Home avatar, Bootleggers ’29 is a 100% free-to-play game that introduces a classic narrative to the modern shooter genre.
PlayStation Home Hold ‘Em – A series of backroom poker tables hosted in the brand new Sportswalk district, PlayStation Home Hold ‘Em squares players off in a no-holds-barred, winner-take-all battle of the bluffs. Only the best of the best will progress to the high stakes tables and collect all the prizes in this free version of the wildly-popular Texas Hold ‘Em card game.
PlayStation Home Sports Trivia – Test your sports expertise against the PlayStation Home community and unlock a series of themed rewards in this massive sports trivia game, found in the Sportswalk. Packed with over 10,000 trivia questions, this game will challenge the memories of even the most die-hard sports fans.
RC Rally – Build and customize your own remote controlled car and race against friends over multiple courses, performing stunts and tricks and unlocking numerous upgrades along the way. This fast-paced PlayStation Home original game can be found in the new Pier Park.
Cogs – A 3D version of Lazy 8 Studios award-winning Steampunk puzzle game, Cogs can be found front-and-center in PlayStation Home’s new Hub. Build a variety of machines from sliding tiles and unlock exclusive PlayStation Home rewards in this highly-addictive puzzler.

Check out all of these exciting new changes in the video below:

Dead Island Takes Over PS Home, New XBLA Avatar Items, and Pre-Order Goodies

Catherine Cai — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 18:30:23 +0000

There’s plenty going on for Dead Island this week in anticipation for the game’s release on September 6th, which is now just a week and a half away. Zombie fans rejoice.

Recently, Dead Island challenges have been added to PlayStation Home. If players complete these challenges, they gain Dead Island gear and some in-game goodies. The zombie takeover has been so effective that close to 10 million zombies have been eviscerated. Noice.

New Dead Island avatar items have also hit the XBLA marketplace, just in case you felt like picking up a virtual Dead Island towel, cap, or (my favorite), the floating “Dead Island”.

And since the Dead Island team’s artists apparently couldn’t, according to the press release, stop themselves from “continuing to draw pretty pictures”, there’s a new digital strategy map of the entire Royal Palms Resort, which includes the locations of all weapons mods blueprints. The map will be made available to you if you decide to pre-order the game from Amazon, which also includes the pre-order bonus of the Dead Island Digital Art Book.

Dead Island Infects PS Home With Exclusive Content

Chris Carlson — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 15:28:10 +0000

Deep Silver and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe announced today that shortly before its release Dead Island will also appear on PlayStation Home. Players will get an exclusive opportunity to further deepen their Dead Island experience through Home’s Total Game Integration campaign.

Just like the co-op mode in Dead Island this mini game can be played with up to 4 players in different play styles. There are 10 mini-game challenges associated with the game and users who complete all 10 will be awarded with an exclusive in-game weapon “Exploding Meat”.

Players can also have their photo taken with a zombie or take a zombie survival survey where they can prove their knowledge of the undead and earn 4 free PlayStation Home rewards.

Certain items will only be obtained through this PlayStation Home event. Each week will introduce more levels and unlockable content including a premium PlayStation Home reward “Exploding Zombie Outfit” for players that pre-order Dead Island directly from Home Square and the aforementioned “Exploding Meat”, a powerful weapon for use in Dead Island that can only be acquired by surviving the PlayStation Home onslaught.

PlayStation Home users will also be able to pre-order Dead Island through a themed kiosk directly from the Home Square.

PS Home Update 1.5 Coming this Spring – Will Introduce Real-time Multiplayer

Garrett Hartman — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 23:13:05 +0000

At a GDC roundtable today, Sony announced an update version 1.5 for PlayStation Home which will introduce real-time multiplayer support for games, as well as improved graphics and physics.

Sodium 2: Project Velocity (sequel to the popular Home attraction Sodium) was shown by developer Lockwood as the first title to take advantage of some of the new Home features.

Since its launch two years ago, PlayStation Home has evolved into a dynamic social game platform, and with the update to version 1.5, we’re giving developers the tools to create even more compelling high quality game experiences,” said Jack Buser, director of PlayStation Home, Sony Computer Entertainment America. ”Lockwood is one of the first to push the capabilities of this new technology with Sodium2-Project Velocity, and the result is incredible.

Version 1.5 of the Home core client is scheduled to launch Spring 2011 and is promised to allow creation of “fast-action” FPSs and racers.

Hopefully a reason to check it out again.

Star Wars Furniture for your PlayStation Home

Brandon Fenty — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 20:14:35 +0000

This may represent the first time I’ve been excited about anything to do with PlayStation Home. But who can resist an AT-AT table? This set goes on sale tomorrow for $10. Furniture makers, if you’re reading this please make it a real thing too! Playstation fans – show your love for Star Wars and pick these up asap!

MAG Getting New Space in PlayStation Home

Dylan Duarte — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:45:53 +0000

MAG players who align themselves with the Raven Industries faction will be pleased to know that they now get their own personalized chunk of PlayStation Home, from which to plot and plan their world domination.

Releasing alongside Raven furniture items, the Raven personal space is a “strategic outpost situated in the heart of the jungle.” It’s also apparently a “must-have addition” to any Raven member, thought that seems like less of a fact than that first line.

Sony Exec: PlayStation Home Is Good Mmmmk?

Dylan Duarte — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 09:02:53 +0000

While I personally thought PlayStation Home was boring, Home director Jack Buser says the numbers prove me wrong. I’m glad we got that cleared up.

According to Buser, the numbers for Home are very satisfactory indeed.

Over 100 games on the service
Average user session over 1 hour
Over 50 unique spaces
14 million people have tried Home

The latter sounds impressive, but as Joystiq questions, how many of those 14 million people regularly use the service? I’m one of those 14 million people because I popped in once or twice, but I immediately popped the hell out. And how many of the games and spaces are being interacted with? People are obviously doing something for that hour. Making a sandwich in the kitchen, maybe? Still, Home seems to making Sony money.

“We haven’t talked too much about the platform itself, but what we have said is that every mature virtual item we have ever created has been profitable. We’ve released over 5,000 virtual items on the platform, and we know that once those items reach maturity, they are profitable. So you see us creating a tremendous amount of virtual items, because it is such a high margin business for us to be in.”

This is news to me, as I thought the scuttlebutt was that Home was a failure. I’ve certainly gotten negative reactions from everyone I’ve talked to about it. But if enough people are enjoying it to make it worthwhile, than more virtual power to them. Just stay in PlayStation Home and out of Dylan home.

GDC09: Guitar Hero Coming to PlayStation Home

Sal Romano — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 22:33:41 +0000

Activision has announced today that Guitar Hero fans will have a place to rock out and bob their heads in unison in Sony’s online service, PlayStation Home. The Guitar Hero room is called “Backstage with Guitar Hero”.

“Backstage with Guitar Hero” will grant VIP access to both a themed backstage lounge and massive concert venue where they can meet up, hang out, check out videos for upcoming titles on the franchise, and share their rock and roll secrets.

There is yet no word on the release date for the room.

“BACKSTAGE WITH GUITAR HERO®” TO DEBUT IN PLAYSTATION®HOME

SANTA MONICA, CA – March 25, 2009 – Activision Publishing, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) today announced that Guitar Hero® fans will have another virtual destination to join together and rock with the launch of the franchise’s very own space in the PlayStation®Home, the 3D social gaming community that allows users to interact, communicate and share gaming experiences together online for the PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) computer entertainment system. “Backstage with Guitar Hero®” will give Guitar Hero rock stars around the world exclusive VIP access to both a themed backstage lounge and massive concert venue where they can meet up, hang out, check out videos for upcoming titles on the franchise, and share their rock and roll secrets. “Backstage with Guitar Hero” will continue to evolve over time adding new functionality.

PlayStation Home — We Are Not Impressed

Dan Landis — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 18:25:49 +0000

So, has anyone downloaded PlayStation Home yet and found out just how awesomely boring “the future” is? Well, I haven’t, and I’m pretty sure I don’t need to. A friend, a diehard Sony supporter that declared Home would kill Xbox Live, invited me over to check out his sweet in-game bachelor pad. I’d honestly be pretty impressed if his real place actually looked the way it did in PlayStation Home, but it doesn’t.

My friend does not have a sweet bachelor pad in real life. What he does have, though, is shit to do — something Home is sorely lacking. He can buy nice furniture to make his in-game crib better than his real-life crib, and his kids can pretend like they have their own place instead of living at mommy and daddy’s place… but that’s pretty much the extent of Home’s good points.

After 20 minutes of walking around his place and having him show me all of the things I could do, I concluded that Home sucks. It’s essentially a glorified chat room but only for your friends that have PS3′s. Sorry, Sony, but I think a PS3′s hard drive space is better used for your 500MB updates and 2GB mandatory installs. After all, aren’t PS3′s supposed to be able to play videogames?

Seems I’m not alone in my feelings of Home. G4′s Attack of the Show hosts Kevin Pereira and Olivia Munn took a thrilling stroll through Home-land and were equally unimpressed. Olivia Munn also seems to have no respect for the PS3 controller, tossing it on the floor in palpable disgust.

Exciting, no?

In closing, I made fun of my friend for being such a diehard Sony fanboy before I left his place. Funny thing is, as much as he defends the PS3 and claims it to be the far superior system, he actually plays significantly more on his Xbox 360 and has twice as many games for it but refuses to accept that he actually likes his 360.

He claims he’s just “passing the time” as he waits for all of the awesome PS3 exclusives, at which point he’s going to sell his 360… or so he says. My response to him was “You waited so many years for this and looked how that turned out.”

Great job, Sony (and fuck you, Garett!).

[To be fair, Home is still in Beta, but it's been in Beta for like 20 years so I don't imagine any drastic changes anytime soon.]

PlayStation Home open beta launches tomorrow

Sam Naylor — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:57:59 +0000

The PS Blog has the news that PS3 owners have been waiting for since, well, they got their PS3- the Home open beta launches tomorrow, December 11. As an ‘open’ beta, this means that all PS3 owners can download and use PlayStation Home; the words ‘open beta’ are becoming more and more synonymous with ‘you can use it, but don’t complain if it sucks’ nowadays. In case you hadn’t heard about Home, it’s an open platform for social interaction, similar to Second Life, with customisable aspects. More after the jump.

In short, Home is a place to meet Internet friends, customise yourself and your house, and visit special places- for example, as reported by Gamezine, Far Cry 2, Uncharted, Warhawk, MotorStorm and SOCOM will all have special areas within Home, and more big names in the industry are on their way. Plus, non-gaming companies are getting involved as well, so expect to be admiring people dressed in Diesel fashion drinking Red Bull while watching a Paramount movie on a Bravia HDTV. It’s just like real life, kids! Still, it does sound like a nice service, and I’m looking forward to trying it out. See you there.

PlayStation Home Beta Out Today? Depends on Who You Ask

Chad Lakkis — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 19:23:45 +0000

A member of the Official Sony PlayStation message board got tired of waiting for his invite to the Home Beta (originally scheduled to go out yesterday) and decided to take matters into his own hands by calling up the all knowing customer support team for some answers.

The first rep he spoke to (call recording here) stated that if he applied via email, per the company’s instructions, that he would be finding out soon, and then adding that “it should be arriving today.”

While this news may sound good for those who genuinely want to believe, he tried back again, this time getting a different rep (call recording here) who responded by saying that the company doesn’t tell them those things and that he should check the site for answers. Give that girl a Klondike bar.

Source: boardsus.playstation.com (via: feedonps3.com)

Resistance, Uncharted, and Warhawk Playstation Home Integration Announced

Dylan Duarte — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 02:43:24 +0000

Playstation Home is getting more appealing by the second and the way in which Resistance: Fall of Man, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, and Warhawk will utilize it is nothing short of awesome.

The Playstation Home portal for Resistance will function like some sort of museum, allowing players to use their avatars to explore some unforeseen areas from the game and experience bonus content such as back story. This is an absolutely ingenious way to further flesh out the game’s story while keeping the experience on the console.

The folks over at Naughty Dog will be allowing you to explore Uncharted’s world with your Home avatar without any fear of being shot, in addition to providing you with a supplementary Uncharted mini-game. It’s a 2D side-scroller that’s been described as “reminiscent of both Contra and Out of This World.”

Finally, the features that Warhawk will utilize with Home are by far the most exciting. The Home lobby for the game will act as a military war room in which players can get together and discuss battle plans, to the extent of even using a 3D map of the level and little army men avatars to lay out their tactics in 3D. This brings to my mind the scene in Star Wars Episode IV in which the Rebel Alliance discuss their strategy to bring down the Death Star. My heart just skipped a beat due to all this excitement.

According to Kotaku, Sony is pitching ideas like these to developers to get more out of their games. If these three titles are any indication, we have a lot to look forward to with Home.

Playstation Home To Release On March 20th?

Patrick Steen — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:25:12 +0000

Could Playstation Home be out within 24 days? A web countdown suggests as much, though its reliability is unknown. Make your mind up after the jump.

There have been signs that Home’s release is imminent, with a Warhawk patch adding game launching within Home, XMB accomplishments integrated into Devil May Cry 4, a significant update to the Home beta, and news that internally Home is well past v1.00 – the version that when made available will signify the launch of the service.

A website countdown has now been discovered, suggesting that Home will be released in less than 24 days. Although an announcement was expected at last weeks GDC ’08, a March release is certainly not unexpected.

Combine the countdown with this insider report…

A game must be able to integrate into Home, a game must support “Accomplishments”. Right there, two important things, the PS3 system for achievements is called “Accomplishments”, and Home is coming out VERY VERY VERY Soon.

…and like a teenager on a McDonald’s diet, the imminent release of Playstation Home gains weight.

Home Sweet Home: 25 Minute Tour of Playstation’s New Online Network

Patrick Steen — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 17:46:43 +0000

When do we get to go Home? Christmas is a time to be at Home with the family, so we can only hope that Sony gives us a present too. Wishful thinking maybe, but Christmas would be the perfect time. What better way to get away from the trials and tribulations of family bother, than to bury your attention into perfectly creating Father Christmas or Gary Glitter in Playstation Home and then making him dance like a numpty!

Well with that in mind, here’s a recent tour of Playstation Home, showing off some of the most in depth character customisation outside of Mass Effect.