As a stand alone product, Sony’s Home is sure to satisfy the demands of most users. As we’ve seen previously, the promised functionality is unique for consoles and Sony looks to deliver a completely new experience for consumers. We mentioned a few problems last time, all of which can be remedied at some point down the line through new updates of the software (and the underlying PS3 firmware). However, one area of service which Home was supposed to address remains unresolved: Creating a consistent user experience across all games on the console.

As it currently stands, we can categorize the various online/community functionalities provided by the PS3 and the Xbox 360 as layers of service (leaving aside Nintendo’s offering for now):

• Layer 1: At this basic level, the system provides a central point where users can create and maintain friends list, message and chat. Sony does this in the XMB, and Microsoft in the Xbox Guide.
• Layer 2 is built on top of the first, and provides a consistent interface accessible from within any and every game. Microsoft has again provided this functionality in the Xbox Guide, which is always accessible, whether in game or not. Sony has provided libraries for developers, who choose whether to implement such functionality (at a cost of extra memory).
• Layer 3: This high-level layer is the so-called “next-gen” in community services, embodied by the experience provided by Sony’s Home product, which takes the concept of interacting with other users and players to a new level of interactivity. Microsoft currently offers no equivalent experience on the Xbox 360.

Unfortunately, Sony seems to have skipped implementing a 2^nd layer altogether. With Home, Sony will provide a new experience, but users will still be unable to use any of Home’s features from within a game. Home must run as a stand-alone each time any the functionality is accessed. Beyond sharing the friends list, there is no integration with existing Network Platform features.

Sony ought to continue patching up features available on Network Platform (as they have done previously), providing a more complete user experience. Unfortunately, the design of Network Platform is such that implementing some of the cross-game features - the 2^nd layer of usability described above – will be a challenge. Developers are not required (yet) to support such functionality in their games, and until Sony makes this a core requirement, it won’t become reality. Developers have zero incentive in implementing cross-game features that will only take away from the resources they can use for their own games.

Overall, Home looks very promising as both a social community building product and as an experiment. However, it fails to address this gap in the layer of functionality. We remain hopeful that Sony will address this longstanding, unresolved issue.

Posted by Raoul on Monday, April 9th, 2007 at 7:32 pm.