PlayStation Home was a 'Massive Success' - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 03 December 2014 / 7,122 Views
Former PlayStation Home architect Oscar Clark has told TechRadar that the service was a "massive success." Most people feel it was a failure, but it was downloaded 38 million times. There were 19 million active users and at its peak hit three million monthly active users.
It was a massive success that everyone thinks was a failure," said Clark. "Although it wasn't as successful as it could have been for a variety of reasons. Getting a clear strategy was difficult and it ended up being a compromise. That said, it was a pretty effective compromise in most cases. We did see a gradual evolution towards making a much more playable experience, a bigger range of games."
"I think Home was a brave experiment," added Clark. "Home was the first freemium console experience. There were massive lessons to learn… But they've been forgotten about, they've been ignored, they've been treated, in my opinion, as irrelevant. But if you look at what was there, what we did, how people spent money in the console space, the way people engaged in communities… you could completely revolutionise the way you approach consoles as a platform."
"38 million downloads, 3 million monthly active users, this is at the peak… that's not a failure," he said. "I genuinely think it was successful from a commercial point of view. It showed you could make money. There were like 20, 30 studios that made money out of home."
"Like five or six that made a million and a half a year, which is not big in the scheme of things, but individually those studios did pretty well," he continued. "It made it possible for companies like nDreams and Lockwood to be companies at all. So it spawned a whole bunch of people doing interesting stuff. It spawned a whole load of lessons of what could be done in a social context on console. It taught me a hell of a lot."
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A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. Outside, in the real world, he has a passion for the outdoors which includes everything from hiking to having received his B.A. in Environmental Studies. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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So says the UNBIASED ex employee with no emotional attachment , to a creation he put years into , yes I believe that .
So big of a success that they're gonna remove it altogether.
They can't support it forever on a legacy platform that customers are migrating away from as they adopt next-gen consoles. I am surprised, though, that Sony hasn't announced a new version of it on PS4 if it was infact profitable for them.
If it didnt lose money its deemed a success. Shutting it down leads me to believe it wasnt a "massive" success.
I goofed around on this for a few days here and there, playing in the casino, sailing a pirate ship, dancing into peoples crouches in laughter.....etc etc....
playstation home was the biggest disgrace in the last decade
Sure, it did it's thing with teaching them about what people are and aren't willing to pay for in a virtual space.
Albeit only the people who weren't disgusted at the mere sight of the avatars in the.. game?
I thought it was OK. But I had other things I preferred to do, and I haven;t got to grips with this whole socialising in a virtual way thing.
