Currently, Sony’s Home is in open beta. The revolutionary dance party simulation gives players a chance to connect on an emotional level with a sickeningly diverse amount of lobbies catering to taste, atmosphere, and sensibility. The deep, soul-binding social connections forged through dance or chat is rather unexpected considering the game is only in beta -- a status that may not change to full release anytime soon.
In a recent Kotaku video podcast (via Shacknews), Sony’s director of Home Jack Buser made it quite clear that he was comfortable with Home being in open beta:
We quite like the name ‘open beta,’ so you can expect us to stay in open beta for some time. Whether we exit out of that into some other phase of our existence, that’s [to be determined].
Later on, he would add that
Home would continue to grow “rapidly” with new items, spaces, and other bits and pieces of content. Buser didn’t say if there would be any new dance macros, which at this point, needs to be addressed. Players should be able to lead off the robot with their left shoulder, not the right. C’mon, Sony.
[via 1UP]
Contest:
8:00 AM on 01.01.2009
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i love free ice-cream. if you don't, fine, don't ruin mine.
they can spend their money on anything they want to as long as they don't ride to congress in private jets asking for a goverment bailout.
-- Topher Cantler
Agreed. This is nothing more than a too-late attempt to capitalize on the popularity of "social networking". I mean, really ... are people going to walk around Home to try to find people to talk to or game with when there are so many other places to do that? At least the avatars looks like people, unlike the new XB360 Dashboard which is clearly trying to make people look like a Microsoft Mii.
I'm still not giving up on Home yet because they seem to be making various changes every time I log in (once ever two weeks or so), but as it stands right now it does not give me any warm, fuzzy feelings. We'll see how it goes over the year.