One year later, where is Home or Little Big Planet?
Posted by Brian Vaughn at 2/25/2008 4:45 PM 
Categories: Gaming, Little Big Planet, PS3, home, gdc, Sony
Categories: Gaming, Little Big Planet, PS3, home, gdc, Sony
Last year at GDC Sony took the time to show off two items that mesmerized the gaming community: PSN Home and Little Bog Planet. Sony's Home was billed as a Second Life type world on your PS3. Home would allow you to have an avatar and apartment to customize online for your friends to visit and for you to hang out with your friends. Home would also allow you to show off trophies you earned from PS3 games (achievements). The game Little Big Planet was the game that would allow you to control these sock monkey type characters and create a side scrolling level for you to share with your friends. Little Big Planet is a platform game that everyone kind of thought should have been on the Wii, not the PS3, because of it's casual, approachable game style.
So it's been over a year now and neither product has seen a retail release. Nether product has a firm release date either. Home currently is in a limited beta but so far it is rumored that Home will not have the features that gamers really want: cross media bar in game. Currently on PS3 if you are in a game there is no way to see who else is online. Some games support sending a game invite and friends list but since there is no standard for these features it is sporadically supported. In reality all Home will be is a version of Second Life that runs on your PS3. Home will never by like Xbox Live and it seems this is because of Sony Japan feels in game notifications as rude.
There has not been a lot of information on Little Big Planet but it is expected to release this Spring. There have been a few more previews of the game but there was no news at GDC. Right now Sony and Microsoft have two very different views on when to announce games. Sony likes to show off a video of a game that may be one or two years way in an effort to boost hype for their console. Microsoft tends to not announce titles until they are certain they will be out in the next few months. This policy seems to have been in place ever since last year's E3 where they only showed off games coming out that year.
I tend to think both policies have their merits. By releasing information about a game well in advance of it ever hitting your console you can get the media and fans excited about will eventually be coming to your console. By holding out on releasing info about your game you don't have to worry about people forgetting about your game or seeing a too early build of the game and souring the community on the game. It seems that Japan likes to dangle that carrot like they have with Metal Gear Solid 4, Final Fantasy 13, Home, Little Big Planet and Africa. I bet you forgot about Africa, it's been out there since before PS3.
I do not expect the recent announcement that Phil Harrison is leaving Sony will affect this policy from Sony. If anything I expect this to get worse. Phil complained about how Sony Japan dragged their feet with Home and gimped the service. All people want is an in game cross media blade but instead they will get some Second Life rip off. Sony deals in vaporware dealing out big promises but often always under delivers. Microsoft does a better job of managing expectations on games.
Source :
1up yours Podcast 02/23/2008 (available on iTunes)
kotaku - phil-harrison-resigning-from-sony
So it's been over a year now and neither product has seen a retail release. Nether product has a firm release date either. Home currently is in a limited beta but so far it is rumored that Home will not have the features that gamers really want: cross media bar in game. Currently on PS3 if you are in a game there is no way to see who else is online. Some games support sending a game invite and friends list but since there is no standard for these features it is sporadically supported. In reality all Home will be is a version of Second Life that runs on your PS3. Home will never by like Xbox Live and it seems this is because of Sony Japan feels in game notifications as rude.
There has not been a lot of information on Little Big Planet but it is expected to release this Spring. There have been a few more previews of the game but there was no news at GDC. Right now Sony and Microsoft have two very different views on when to announce games. Sony likes to show off a video of a game that may be one or two years way in an effort to boost hype for their console. Microsoft tends to not announce titles until they are certain they will be out in the next few months. This policy seems to have been in place ever since last year's E3 where they only showed off games coming out that year.
I tend to think both policies have their merits. By releasing information about a game well in advance of it ever hitting your console you can get the media and fans excited about will eventually be coming to your console. By holding out on releasing info about your game you don't have to worry about people forgetting about your game or seeing a too early build of the game and souring the community on the game. It seems that Japan likes to dangle that carrot like they have with Metal Gear Solid 4, Final Fantasy 13, Home, Little Big Planet and Africa. I bet you forgot about Africa, it's been out there since before PS3.
I do not expect the recent announcement that Phil Harrison is leaving Sony will affect this policy from Sony. If anything I expect this to get worse. Phil complained about how Sony Japan dragged their feet with Home and gimped the service. All people want is an in game cross media blade but instead they will get some Second Life rip off. Sony deals in vaporware dealing out big promises but often always under delivers. Microsoft does a better job of managing expectations on games.
Source :
1up yours Podcast 02/23/2008 (available on iTunes)
kotaku - phil-harrison-resigning-from-sony
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