Sony hits a home run with seven mill Home users in seven months, PS EU content hindered by localization issues |
Out of the seven million users, three million of these are from Europe, he said. Meanwhile, 80% of the total number of users are aged 18-35, which indicates a broadening user base of the PS3.
The fact that European users also spend an average of 56 minutes online in Home for every session is getting the media agencies "very excited." Characterized Edward, "Reaching this number of PS3 users via other media would be incredibly costly." Other Euro data reveals that they have in fact downloaded six million virtual items, whether paid for or free.
"This is a commercial business, it's up and running and it's making money," further said Edward in his first term report for Home. The US$ 1 million profit generated by the service from micro-transactions on its first month alone corroborates that statement.
It becomes rather curious, therefore, to see that the European Home version is lagging behind in terms of content as compared to other regions when it turns out that they comprise a huge chunk of the user base.
In an attempt to explain, Edward zooms in on the problem of localization:
I think localization is a big part of that. The expectation that spaces will be localized into at least the EFIGS (English, French, Italian, German and Spanish) languages leads to delays. There are other issues that you're no doubt aware of if you've read the post, [ones] more specifically related to the European business itself which I can't really comment on, but I think technically the big issue's localization, and I think that's something that's always been an issue with the European market.
Since year dot there's always been the issue of Europe getting things later than everybody else, and normally speaking that comes down to localization. Home is no different in that respect which is why it's so important to get that stuff incorporated from the very beginning.
The post he was referring to would be EU Home Community Manager TedTheDog's post acknowledging the lack of content in their Space, but promising "better months ahead".
Related Articles:
- TurboGrafx 16 games announced for Japanese PSN Game Archives
- Rumor clouds part: PS Cloud details fake
- PlayStation Home is still comfy in beta stage
Via EDGE
The QJ.net Network |
 |
| Site | Feed |
| QJ.NET | RSS |
| Nintendo DS | RSS |
| PlayStation 3 | RSS |
| PSP Updates | RSS |
| Wii | RSS |
| Xbox 360 | RSS |
| MMORPG | RSS |
| Personal Computer Games | RSS |
| iPhone - iPod Touch | RSS |
| QJ.NET Forums | RSS |
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
Comments [refresh]
Umm thats a surprise.... What happened to all those media outlets and fanboys basing home and how big of a failure it was goin to be!!! Where's all those nay sayers now??
7 million people on-line doesn't mean it's a great service. I'm willing to bet a lot of those people signed in once and haven't tried it since, like me. I love my PS3, but Home is not for me.
Lets not forget that thanks to Sony's ageist network, many of those accounts are extra accounts people made after finding out Sony limited what they could do because they entered in the right age.
ageist really?
I guess thats the same way that the movie industry is ageist by having age limits on there films.
For a better measure of the success of Home, we need to know how many individual gamers (not accounts) visits it REGULARLY. I also think we can judge the success of a service like Home by the 'buzz' surrounding it, and few gamers ever seem to talk about Home except in topics relating to Home.
For all the promise of Home, people just aren't talking about it, I mean, you just don't see regular website and magazine reports of the latest and greatest events surrounding Home, and you don't see gamers talking about all the great things they'd seen and done on Home recently.
Home lacks the 'buzz' you would expect from something that truly excites gamers. Even PS fanboys, who you would expect to use Home as a stick to beat 360 fanboys with, don't seem to be that excited over Home.
IMO, this shows Home has significantly failed to live up to it's promise, but who knows, that could all change in future, even if I remain skeptical.
Sorry to sound like I'm ranting against Home, I'm just not impressed by it at the moment, and therefore I feel that (excluding the fanboys) many of the 'nay sayers' you speak of have a valid point.
I'm glad sony has actually been able to make money off of this. Apparently, there are some regular users of HOME after all.
60% lied about their age to get rated M content...hey its true even I have done things like that before..and don't act like if you havent either
haven't...damn my "not as skilled" typing
Actually yes, they are ageist to, but Sony is far far more ageist then the MPAA.
I think that most of the people who talk about Home are doing it in Home. This could be why YOU aren't seeing it.
Yes, people in Home are talking about Home, just as people in any online game will talk about that game, but isn't that's really just stating the obvious?
Perhaps you're perfectly happy with Home, great, perhaps you don't have any criticisms and you feel it offers everything it initially promised, if so, that's fine since it's your opinion, but for me it has under-delivered, and the general interest in Home seems underwhelming at best.
Home needs more than gamers who visit once or twice and no more, it needs something to keep gamers like myself coming back for more, something which gets the gaming community and gaming media talking about it, and so far, it isn't really happening. I guess Home just doesn't do it for me. Sorry.
But like I said, that could all change in future (I hope it does).