A place to call Home

Sony's oft-misunderstood virtual world finds its identity as the perfect compliment to the PS3's biggest games.

Since Home first launched into open beta in December of 2008 the challenge for the team hasn't been getting people to sign up-the platform has been downloaded by over 8 million gamers-it's been getting people to stay. Recently the team has been making advancements in the Home gaming department, with many new spaces offering interactive experiences to mirror some of Sony's most recognizable IPs. I sat down recently to talk about the future outlook of the platform with Home director Jack Buser, who took me through a few of the new game spaces, and told me how they plan to keep gamers engaged in the space.

One thing Jack Buser has learned since Home's inception is that implementing new concepts into the space requires the concepts to fulfill a few requirements. "For something to be in Home, it must be fun, repeatable and social," Buser told me. This goes hand in hand with the team's interesting tenet when creating new Home content: The "four 30s" rule. Buser and his team have recognized that in order for gamers to stay and play, they have to be engaged within the first thirty seconds. Keeping them there for thirty minutes is the next goal, then thirty hours, thirty days, etc. To put it bluntly, the team's realized that players aren't keen on dancing for hours on end; they need something to do.

A place to call Home

The R&C Firing Range game features surprisingly deep gameplay.

Buser is hoping that angling Home as a "game platform" will engage more players for longer, and creating Home games to coincide with big titles in the space is their first answer. The first of two new game spaces Buser showed me was the Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time space, which the team designed hand in hand with Insomniac to maintain the look and feel of the series. Buser's avatar, sporting a nifty Ratchet costume complete with striped ears and a tail roamed the large compound, where a giant machine was churning out the series' signature boxes on a giant conveyor belt. The space contained two mini-games, one "light" and one "heavy" as Buser put it, for gamers to jump into. The first was a simple "find X amount of X and bring them back" type game, tasking Home players to find lost sheep scattered around the area and bring them back to an alien fans will recognize as Grummel. Completing Grummel's task will net players R&C-themed items for use in Home.

Comments [22]

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zeroyasha13

I like the Unchart 2 one. The games in Home are getting better and better now. oh and LAST!

TRUPREDATOR

these are very interesting ideas until they wear thin.they will have to keep coming up with new fresh ideas or it will never keep people involved.i have messed around in home for a little bit of time.the only thing that kept me involved was the hidden underground area they had for awhile/with all the viral clues that was awesome cant understand why they did away with it.

neji64

i read Audi going to have a room in Home soon. Home cool and all but like Andy said it don't keep me coming back. i think the last time i seen Home was like July i'll do the update frIday.

shytown420

i like home it very cool way to meet new ppl and go around to fine some free stuff for ur avatar or ur home space. i glad there putting new spaces and more mini games to keep me there for a little while longer.

numba1gamer

Gamepro needs to post the rumor of the week going around that MS plans on a blu-ray add-on for the 360. And I mean they actually plan it to happen, the rumor says that a microsoft employee blatantly let it slip.

The more people who know, the greater possibility of pressure on MS to announce it officially?

360275

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