Microsoft boss expresses PlayStation Home doubts

360 News | Reckons it could be too ambitious.

Microsoft Game Studios executive Shane Kim has predicted that Sony is about to overstretch itself with PlayStation Home, and claims that the costly and complex infrastructure requirements of the PlayStation 3's forthcoming online service will be its eventual downfall.

"I doubt [Sony's] ability to implement it and execute it in a really rich and compelling way," Kim told ShackNews when asked about Home, which is expected to launch in late-2007 as a free download. "PlayStation Network is not Xbox Live, it's not even close. To think about layering [Home] on top of that - wow. The hardest part is not even creating the system, it's regulating the behavior and all of that too. Boy, that's a massive investment in infrastructure.

"I actually believe that most gamers will always find more value in what we have on Xbox Live and now Games for Windows Live and how we're building that out, which really started all about gaming features and now has added more like instant messaging, Video Marketplace, etcetera. That's what I think is a much better approach, and that's what our approach is going to be," he added.

Kim also dismissed the possibility of Microsoft using a similar avatar-based layout to that seen in Home. "I don't think we need anything like that," he said. "I've spent some time with the Linden Lab guys [creators of Second Life]. To try to build Second Life on Xbox Live - or YouTube, Facebook, any of those big social networking services and sites - it's a lot of work. It's all software, and we're the software company in this market here."

Related PlayStation Home Content

PlayStation Home Preview
21 May, 2008 We go hands-on, and have a chat with the developers.

Sony details Home integration
29 Feb, 2008 Resistance, Uncharted and Warhawk the first to be featured.

PlayStation Home beta kicks off
03 May, 2007 Only internal staff and testers for now, though.

17 Comments

ugh the boot

5 years ago

Oh well I guess Microsoft should worry about it's own business model and let Sony worry about their own.

Personally I don't think Sony would be almost ready to release a beta version if it hadn't already encountered some of these obstacles.

I seems like Microsoft are actually a little scared....because if Home does succeed....that will mean Sony's hardware and online component will be better than Microsoft's and all they need are the games (which are coming) and then it could all be over for Microsoft. Personally I think there is room in the market for both (Sony stuff seems way more mainstream and catering for the masses) so hopefully neither of them fail at their intended goals.

I like these predictions actually....gives us something to discuss here at Palgn cuz lately it's been hella boring here.

Karai Pantsu

5 years ago

So what were we supposed to take out of that statement, Shane? That Home will ultimately fail because you guys are too lazy to implement a similar system? Or perhaps I'm just reading selectively there

Honestly, as appealing as Home is to other people (apparently) I'm not all that keen on it. Being one of the seemingly few people who don't play MMO games, don't have a myspace or a blog, and doesn't enjoy The Sims puts me in the position where I'd much rather see Sony focus on making the PSN more robust and fully featured in practical ways rather than 'lets play house' ways. If they manage to do that while implementing their social-networking guff then all the better, but when it comes down to it I know which of the two I'd choose if a choice had to be made

Skiller

5 years ago

Personally I'm glad home isn't itegrated like XBox live is, I *hate* using anything that might even go near the 360 OS because every time I do it want's to access XBox live, and if my net connection is busy (which is most of the time) that means I have to wait 5-20 min for it to finally allow me to continue gaming. Hell it's wrecked achievements for me, "look I got a new achievement, lets see which ones I still need...", after pressing the guide button I go do other stuff for a while and hope that when I get back the blade has loaded up.

As far as I'm concerned Sony made the right decision, especially since some people won't even want home and will have the option to not have it bog down the system, unlike with MS products (I also happen to hate IE slowing down my system and opening it up to security issues but don't have the option to remove it

).

But XBox live does have it's good points... I just can't remember what any are.

Karai Pantsu

5 years ago

Funny, I've had the exact opposite experience to that - The X360 frontend (specifically marketplace) is pretty quick and easy on my end, whereas the PS Store takes freaking forever to load and navigate around.

Chris-Leigh

5 years ago

ugh the boot wrote

I like these predictions actually....gives us something to discuss here at Palgn cuz lately it's been hella boring here.

Heh, welcome to the mid-year rut. God, how I hate it.

renegadesx

5 years ago

I don't understand what would be so hard about it, from what I seen, it just looks like a hybrid of Sims and Animal Crossing.

Skiller

5 years ago

Karai Pantsu wrote

I find the PS3 store pretty slow too (maybe slower) if the net is busy, but it's not integrated into the rest of the OS so it wont bother me in-game or when doing stuff that should be offline, which is what my rant was about, XBL bothers me every time I bring up the blade to pause/check time/turn off controller or console/adjust setting/ect.
When the net is freed up the PS3 store is noticibly faster to get to what I want compared to XBL marketplace due to the stupid scrolling in xblm an the fact it doesn't cache stuff (or at least not efficiently).

Karai Pantsu

5 years ago

Yeah, things can be a little slower while in-game, but I find that most of the time I'm not waiting more than a second or two for something to come up. There are times when it completely loses it's **** though, which is thoroughly annoying. That said, I much prefer being able to access what I want when I want (without having to leave a game) with the odd problem, over only being able to do one thing at any given time.

ittekimasu

5 years ago

well i'm hoping that home does come out and that we as a pal reigon get a chance to participate in the open beta. like others i find it somewhat annoying having to load the psn store everytime i decide to open it, if only they have been able to cache so this wouldnt be the case every time.

i can see that they will improve the shop abilities eventually but i guess this will only after they have implemented home,.

Jellyfish

5 years ago

Karai Pantsu wrote

The PS3 reserves one of the baby cores (I've gone blank) for OS use. I'm not sure if there is a dedicated hardware thread for it in the 360. It also seems that guide issues are going away as developers are getting used to it. Anyone remember launch version of PGR3 and trying to use the guide

Later games (eg Crackdown) now flow effortlessly between game-state and guide-state.

drinniol

5 years ago

PGR3 kicks you to the main screen, mid-race, if you lose the Live connection. Such horrid, horrid, horrid implementation. I lost more than a few victories to the wireless playing up.

DEJA VU

5 years ago

ugh the boot wrote

i agree

Vervain

5 years ago

drinniol wrote

PGR3 kicks you to the main screen, mid-race, if you lose the Live connection. Such horrid, horrid, horrid implementation. I lost more than a few victories to the wireless playing up.

If it's game specific then most likely it is a fault with the people that made the game and not Microsoft. On the other hand if it isn't game specific or publisher specific than it is Microsoft's fault.

arbok

5 years ago

Shane Kim is one of the people I hate the most in gaming, he's so ******** proud of himself all the time, it makes me sick. He hasn't got a clue what we want, he only knows what he wants.

Who the f*** wants Games for Windows Live memberships anyway - why would you ask someone to pay to have to talk to their friends in a game online, when they have been doing it for free all along? What is this integrated wireless bullcrap so you can get achievements on your mobile phone? What's with all the shameless promotion on these useless products, so I buy the same game three times? What's up with the $200 hard drive and the US$679 Elite system? Why is the system so caught up with science fiction, fantasy, first person shooters and geek out games, the system is a friggin nerd fest. No wonder you can't break into the mainstream market, you have no idea what sells. Could you imagine Coke and McDonalds geeking out on their advertisements?

He should worry about his own brand before anyone elses.

At least Sony is offering their online service for free, if it fails, sure somewhere along the line the gamers will be paying for it through first party sales, but at least they're trying to be innovative.

Well i love video games, and Ive got both systems, but seriously Shane Kim get a clue.

Tom101007

5 years ago

so its essentially the normal slad anyone who offers any threat to you thing, why am i not surprised? ive seen this before... blowing out someone elses candle wont make yours burn any brighter, we can all learn from that

poweroffarts

5 years ago

If ps3 home is sucessful then Microsoft have a lot to answer for. I like home and I also like having it free.

LeonJ

5 years ago

Home is a crazy ambitions idea. If they manage to pull off half of it it will be a massive achievement. I have no faith in Sony to deliver in this area though.

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