I think Sony HAS missed the boat but I certainly think they have the luxury of time on their side.

In other words the boat will come around again. Access to the PSN is free so it's not like they have to worry about losing customers. I could put my ps3 in the closet until September; all that time not paying a cent for my account. If I were paying for access I'd be throwing a shit fit about its lack of functionality.

The rise of the ps3 has really just begun. I think the sales figures for GTAIV on the ps3 will surprise a lot of people. I'm choosing that version simply because I'm not convinced my 360 will make it through the summer without dying (my first one lasted from 4/07 to 10/07.) The summer release of Metal Gear will sell a lot of consoles for Sony. After that I think they'll want to release Home as soon as possible so they can kick Microsoft's ass this holiday season.

That picture is awesome.

Also, I have no faith of this ever happening. I mean I'm sure it will, I just no longer care at all about it.

Yep, it sucks that there is a delay....but if they give ingame XMB, that will be fine. It is free and all.

The boat has already left the dock.
Which would partly explain why people on care about the In-Game XMB.

Home is misconceived. A service based on having an apartment. How absolutely pointless. It is not geared to you or me, it is geared to the neopet users who want a virtual home that their mommies and daddies will pay money to furnish. Don't kid yourself, Home is Sony's attempt at microtransactions and is utterly pointless.

It is being delayed because, so far, it is an abysmal failure. They should just can the whole thing.

I'm looking forward to the games coming out this summer/fall more than Home. I was never that interested in Home from the start, it looked interesting, but nothing that I was really looking forward to.

Ive never been too hot on Home myself. However the obnoxiousness of delaying it over and over again is getting old. I keep hearing "they need to make it perfect first" and so on...However, this isn't the real release thats getting delayed, they keep delaying an OPEN BETA for gods sake. Dont be confused..they arn't delaying a finished product to make sure its done "just right". They are bumblefucking an open beta.

Regardless, Id prefer "in game XMB" anyway. At least give us in game communication of sorts..Custom soundtracks is icing on a theoretical case at this point with sony. Communication is a must..their online is broken badly.

If home being delayed effects IGXMB im going to really be pissed. Any guesses what they have up their sleeve for the spring update now that open beta Home has been canned anyone ?

"it is an abysmal failure"

Wow, I didn't know you could fail before you even start.

I think home will be cool to screw around in, but I just want in game xmb to get me all the features that are lacking on the ps3.

However, this isn't the real release thats getting delayed, they keep delaying an OPEN BETA for gods sake. Dont be confused..they arn't delaying a finished product to make sure its done "just right". They are bumblefucking an open beta.

One and the same for these type of things. Who's going to use them the most? People on the internet. Who's going to get all the information before actually using the product online? People on the internet. With these sort of applications is there such a thing as no bad publicity? No, there is tons of bad publicity with online communities/tools and people not liking whats in BETA will definitely aid in ruining the chances that HOME has in being something to get people to use their PS3.

If you're not interested then how delayed this item is shouldn't bother you anyway. Games will still be made, XMB will still be improved, and the 360 will still be the one play people go to play multiplayer games until some major stuff happens at Sony that obviously isn't really on their priority list of things to improve.

Delay Station 3!

I still don't see why they can't just open this up as an open beta. Isn't the point of a beta to work out the kinks?

It doesn't work that way for online applications. Once people try it, find that they dislike it because things are broken or not enough is implemented, they leave and the chances of them coming back are extremely limited because they'll find something they do like and stick with that.

With online tools you have to hook them early on, especially in beta. The only thing that could get you past that is some very heavy hype (World of Warcraft and Warhammer Online are two examples of this), but Home doesn't have that and is already operating with a market of gamers who are married to their 360s because it already provides the online tools they want.

What Sony is hoping for is to provide something completely different and new than what the 360 provides, for free, while still working to implement the features that the 360 has. Piling more people onto the XMB in-game feature is not financially sound and will have a less effect on the ongoing process the more you add onto it, so they have the people working on something else that they hope will get people talking about the PS3 for reasons other than games.

The talk they've made with establishing release date expectations is a bad mistake on their end, but it happens with these sort of things. But, if it comes out and a lot of people like it in place of other online social environments, then they will have hooked a ton of people into an addiction necessitating the use of the PS3. The more you use one over the other, the likelier they are to stick with it overall (I know, I'm one of those people, but because I'm a sound elitist and my 360 sounds horrific when playing from the disc drive).

Anyway, I think I explained why it's not a good idea with this sort of thing somewhere in there, so /ramble_off.

I say it is a failure because Sony wants Home to be something new and compelling and, so far, they don't know how to do that. I've heard from an inside source what Home is suppose to do and I've heard from a beta tester what Home can do and currently, they are so far apart I honestly can't see their goals being achieved with their current version of Home. I would not be surprised to see a massive change in intent or application of Home in the near future to bring the goal and reality closer together. Honestly, I hope Sony can pull it off but I'm pretty sure that is why it is being delayed again. Lofty goals with average execution.

@loki d20

I understand that. That's why I think they should make it where you have to jump through a couple hoops to get into the "open" beta. At least enough to make people realize that it's actually a beta and not even a demo per se. I might be giving a lot of people too much credit in thinking they'd understand that though. I don't know how many people I came across that didn't understand the Halo 3 beta wasn't necessarily indicitive of the final product.

Halo 3 is a bad example - it's yet another hype machine in general.

But, it has been proven that you can't trust people with open betas overall. Especially if it's the beta of a program being run by a company that is known for being lambasted by the public. Look at SOE and how people dislike their games without any material regarding them and blame them for the faults of games that they actually save from being outright canceled and you'll see that the majority of people when it comes to Sony products will have to be won over immediately or not at all.

Well...that sucks for sure. A lot of people were excited to see how Home would integrate "achievements" into their upcoming lineup of games. Not anymore.

Hell, I don't even own a PS3 and I couldn't wait for Home to come out.

I'm not too sad about this... I'll get it once its here ( its free anyways :-) ) but I don't think I'll be spending too much time on it...

im starting to think home is going to become the biggest vaporwear of this generation.

Can't Go Home Again Baby?

<3 JM.