The Collegian

Issue date: 8/28/07 Section: Detour

Media Credit: gaygamer.net

This time, we will really be "playing b3yond" what the PlayStation 3 promised us, but not with its high definition 1080p graphics and cutting-edge Cell processor during its American debut on November 17, 2006. In fact, we will be playing beyond those two aspects for a different reason.

Phil Harrison, a top-ranking executive at Sony, spearheaded a project called Home. Home, Sony's second attempt at an online gaming service, is scheduled for release in October 2007. The network combines aspects of the social networking site Second Life and the popular PC series The Sims in order to create a virtual self and a virtual Home. Similar to Xbox Live's Achievements, users are able to display trophies as accomplishments in individual games.

Sony has had a very firm grip on the American video game console market for the past decade. In recent years, Sony began to cede some of its market power slowly to its two closest competitors, Microsoft and Nintendo. In 2005, the Xbox 360 debuted and put a huge dent in Sony's sales. The very next year, it seemed like Sony waved the white flag when the Nintendo Wii arrived on American shores.

Sony's problems included an awkward launch in which both hardware and software were low in supply and the price for the hardware was an arm and a leg. Well, not really. Five hundred ninety-nine dollars is the third-highest retail price for a new console, trailing only the Neo-Geo at $649 and the 3DO at $699, both of which ultimately flopped in the console market at the time when the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo competed for video game market supremacy.

Nintendo quickly appealed to the casual gamer with its wireless motion controllers in the aftermath of the ugly PlayStation 3 fiasco. Sony CEO Ken Kutaragi resigned the following spring. All this happened while their other competitor Microsoft had Xbox Live at its peak and Halo 3 was right around the corner.

While Home is slated to come out this October, don't expect the project to kick into full gear until next spring at the earliest. Like any online gaming network, users must download updates that are issued by Sony in order to optimize the experience of Home. Other ideas fielded by Sony were a significant increase in downloadable content and even an auction service to take on the popular auction site eBay.

The previous service, PlayStation Network, was popularized only by the third-person shooter video game SOCOM: US Navy Seals, which has sold over a million copies, and other games in the series. Lack of consumer interest outside of the SOCOM series drove the network into an early grave.

Sony has gone through a journey of growing pains and learned its lesson from its awkward PlayStation 3 launch. Hopefully for those who spent their life savings on the system, Home will be where the heart is.

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