Joystik does Home

In this article on Joystik, via Gamasutra they say:

Are marketers beating down the (virtual) door to get into Home? And how much does Sony really earn from the service annually? Until we get less vague statistics and hard numbers, we might never know.

This is true, why WON'T Home staff release numbers. Most Sony related things they release numbers each quarter. Home has been around two years and they haven't said shit. So I decided to read further into the the Gamasutra article. I wanted to pick out some pieces.

Recently, an employee with Veemee, developer of the Home space London Pub, even found it necessary to reportedly say that Home is "not shit" during the Game in Scotland event earlier this year -- apparently he felt that enough people thought Home was shit to warrant such a comment.

Wow, they actually had to go out of their way to say "Home isn't shit." Impressive.

PlayStation Home director Jack Buser acknowledges the skepticism and criticism that the service has garnered since its December 2008 beta launch. But he thinks there's an explanation for it.

"Home is new. We're doing a lot of really new stuff that I think the industry is still wrapping its head around," he said. "We're seeing a lot of innovation in the space, and some of us have hit success."

He added: "And I think it takes some time as the industry as a whole, whether that be consumers or whether that be the media, to start to shift their focus to these new types of platforms and see how people are actually spending their time with the console and with gaming in general. I think we are part of that evolution, part of that conversation."

I'm seriously wondering how in the fuck Sony could ever deal with Jack Buser piloting the SS Bullshit. His PR speak is so weak and terrible. However, a quick peak at his myspace page his education includes:

So an effeminate musician from Kentucky, with a minor in women's studies. This is who they pick? So with this in mind reading comments out of his mouth sound so ridiculous:

I think it takes some time as the industry as a whole, whether that be consumers or whether that be the media, to start to shift their focus to these new types of platforms and see how people are actually spending their time with the console and with gaming in general. I think we are part of that evolution, part of that conversation.

If anyone figures out what the fuck he's saying, please let me know. I long since lost my phony2english dictionary.

They're understanding that through micropayments, they can gain social context and social capital, or they can through gameplay context, upgrade their gameplay experience through microtransactions. And that's just becoming part of gaming.

Oh my christ it hurts to read stuff this stupid sounding.

"Our heritage is games, it's in our DNA, but it's also in the DNA of our users,' said Buser. "Games are the glue that can bind the social network together."

Why People Don't Advertise in Home

Written by: Kapow

According to a report by Brandweek, advertisers are largely ignoring PlayStation Home, opting to pursue opportunities on Xbox Live instead. Ad agency Publicis Denuo's John Rafferty told the site that "from moment one, it kind of felt clunky. And once you got through that, there wasn't much there."

Jack Buser, director of PlayStation Home, argues that it offers "a chance to cut through the noise and actively engage directly with a large, targeted, and highly desirable consumer base." However, it appears that advertisers that want to work with Sony are interested in pursuing a different relationship -- one with the PlayStation Network itself.

This year Sony sat out Engage, and it seems that all’s quiet on the Home front. The product has disappointed both users and advertisers. In fact, Red Bull remains one of the few non-endemic advertisers to carve out space in the world. According to some digital buyers, Home exemplifies Sony’s slow-footed nature when it comes to embracing advertising.

Sony says that PlayStation Network, which launched three years ago, has 40 million users globally, compared to 20 million paid subscribers for the older Xbox Live. Meanwhile Home, which debuted in December 2008, just passed 11 million users globally.

“I don’t see how it’s relevant to the casual or hardcore market,” said Leigh Alexander, news director of gaming site Gamasutra. Alexander explained that Home was developed during a period of intense hype around virtual worlds—where many were predicting that average adults would socialize via avatars with people across the globe and even gather virtually to watch movies and play games. But most people remain satisfied with reality-based social networks like Facebook. “Everyone was looking into making the Web more 3-D,” she said.
“One of the lessons we are learning on the Web—users want to do things as quickly and easily as possible even if that means static Web pages.”

Thus, Home is a nonstarter for many buyers, especially when PlayStation often demands labor-intensive six-figure deals. “There’s just a huge barrier to entry for advertisers,” said Denuo’s Rafferty, who added that after an early push, he’s heard little from the Sony sales team regarding Home.

Courtesy of Joystiq and Brandweek. Hit the Brandweek link for the full story