Playstation Home Thread

[Scaff]

Quick question (don't wanna browse through numerous of pages): Is the open beta available now?

Quick answer......no.





Scaff

 

[Digital-Nitrate]

Quick question (don't wanna browse through numerous of pages): Is the open beta available now?

As Scaff says, no. The recent update allowed previous annual subscribers of Quore to join the closed beta.

BTW: You may want to bookmark the Wiki listing for PS Home, as it is regularly updated to include the current status of Home.

 

[TheMoose]

There has been some info leaked that says this Thursday (20th) it'll be ready for download.
It's still a closed beta however.

From Tawkin.com,

 

[Hereward]

Hmm club houses.........now that solves alot of problems LOL

 

[GT4 genius]

Thats some great info, the clubs thing looks great. (Plans his GTP F1CE club!) The only problem being a max of 32 people in one club, so I guess it will be awhile before GTPlanet has a club for all members.

How will those people who have been selected find out about their invitations to the close beta? By normal e-mail or by PSN message?

Great find Moose.

 

[TheMoose]

Thats some great info, the clubs thing looks great. (Plans his GTP F1CE club!) The only problem being a max of 32 people in one club, so I guess it will be awhile before GTPlanet has a club for all members.

How will those people who have been selected find out about their invitations to the close beta? By normal e-mail or by PSN message?

Great find Moose.

I'm guessing the 32 number will go up once everyone starts using them.
I got my invite by e-mail so that's how I'd expect the next batch would go out.

 

[Robin]

Oh well November 18th came and went now every day is the rumoured release day! 19th, 20th etc... Seeing as I didnt get an invite for the closed beta im really keen to get into the open one. Surely home is complete enough to open the doors by now!

And for those who really dont see the point of home look at it as Second Life, the Sims and a 3D XMB rolled into one, thats quite a sizeable 'game' for free if you look at it like that. And if you like interior design and stuff I guess its a bonus. Sure beats Life With Playstation which I feel was a major dissapointment.

Robin

 

[Scaff]

How will those people who have been selected find out about their invitations to the close beta? By normal e-mail or by PSN message?

Great find Moose.

All Beta invites go out via e-mail (to the e-mail address used for the PSN account), I've taken part in six Beta trials so far, both open and closed, and the invites for all of them have been via e-mail.

In regard to the time-frame for this (as Robin asked), the 18th was never a Sony date, simply more speculation on the web that because an 'official rumour'.

Sony have given a rough time-frame for the EU, which does differ from the US, and will involve ramping up the closed beta massively over the next few weeks and involving more countries. If that stage goes well it will be a relatively quick transition to open beta.

Heres a rough overview of the coming weeks:

1. The version 1.0 Patch Notes will be published in the closed beta forum so they know what to expect and to help plan testing.
2. A couple of days later Version 1.0 will be released into the Closed beta. That will not happen this week.
3. SCEE will be inviting a large number of extra testers into the closed beta to load test and that process will start within a day or so of v1.0 going live. We wont invite them all straight away, we'll ramp it up over a a period of time. We will be inviting non-English speaking testers for the first time. Languages covered will be English, French, Italian, German and Spanish. Please remember these are languages, not countries, so more than the immediately obvious countries will be included to a degree. The lists have been chosen already, dont try changing your language to get included!
4. Once we start inviting people in to the Closed Beta the public SCEE Home forums will become the Home beta test forums.
5. The date of Open Beta start will be announced in advance
6. Open Beta starts and that will be just as it implies, Open to all

http://community.eu.playstation.com...message?board.id=b_EN_PS3_Home&thread.id=7733

Posted on the Playstation forums, by the Home community leader, on the 13th Nov.

Regards

Scaff

 

[Hereward]

Life with playstation is great! I use it alot of the time, be it just a music player or to catch up on news around the globe, but thats going off topic LOL The club thing will work for myself with the use of a few of them as my forum gets bigger but theres no way the vast numbers on GTP could be accomodated with the theoretical 5 clubs and club slots for 160 people.
Whats the limit on friends you can invite into your home space at one time? 32?

 

[Hereward]

Well the updates gone live...v1.0 of home is now out there and fortunatley the atmosphere didn't ignite as feared LOL

 

[TheMoose]

Well the updates gone live...v1.0 of home is now out there and fortunatley the atmosphere didn't ignite as feared LOL

I'm downloading it now.

edit
It downloaded fine but it seems the servers are not up yet, they must still be updating them so I'll try again later.
The icon for Home now shows up under the network icon instead of the games icon where it was before.

 

[Picc84]

So uhm.. Is V1.0 open?

 

[TheMoose]

So uhm.. Is V1.0 open?

Not yet.

 

[Picc84]

>.< I tried...

 

[Hereward]

I woul give it 2-4 weeks while it's "load" tested, see scheduel on previous page. I'm one of the sad few (many) who didn't get in, but from friends I've heard it's running alot smoother now.

 

[WallRunner]

I got an invite into the expanded closed beta from Sony JP, but I'm able to sign on and connect to the US servers if I use my US account, EU servers if I use my EU, etc.

From,
Chris.

 

[Vincent]

I got it yesterday. It was decidedly underwhelming, but that could be because I already knew about basically all the content that would be available by this point (and because of losers that had the beta early and over-hyped it, particularly on youtube).

There is a lot of potential there, but it is mostly unrealized.

 

[Pako]

I got an invite into the expanded closed beta from Sony JP, but I'm able to sign on and connect to the US servers if I use my US account, EU servers if I use my EU, etc.

From,
Chris.

Yep, me to. Haven't tried it this morning...

Edit: Got logged in. Once the final release comes out, this interface should eat up all sorts of time. I like it's clean, and smooth interface for sure! 👍

 

[Jay]

How are you guys getting invites? Do they randomly select PSN accounts or do you have to a part of some Forum or applied to be a Beta tester?

 

[myke6699]

I got my invitation today. What I love most is the how much I can actually make my Home character to look like me- it's better than the character custimisation in Tiger Wood's and even more than Soul Calibur (the only two games I'm familiar with that have the option). Although right now clothing is quite limited.

 

[Digital-Nitrate]

How are you guys getting invites? Do they randomly select PSN accounts or do you have to a part of some Forum or applied to be a Beta tester?

It must be random, as I never asked to be part of the beta, but yesterday I recieved an invite:

from: PlayStation Underground <PlayStation-Underground@playstation.sony.com>
date: Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 4:47 PM
subject: PlayStation(R)Home, Welcome to the Beta

WELCOME TO HOME BETA
Dear PlayStation®Network member,

Congratulations, you have been selected to help beta test PlayStation®Home!

We appreciate your help in making the PlayStation®Home experience the best it can be! Please log in to Home this evening from 6 pm - 8 pm PST for a big celebration of Version 1.0 and a load test of our new features.

How to download
After you have signed in with your PlayStation®Network Account:
- Go to the PlayStation®Store on the PLAYSTATION(R)3 system XMB&#8482; (XrossMediaBar)
- Select "Redeem Codes"
- Enter the code (below)
- Click "Continue"
- The download will be available on the next screen



Please note: The unique code is case sensitive and must be entered exactly as displayed.

Thank you for your continued support of the PlayStation®Network, and we look forward to seeing you in PlayStation®Home.

Yours truly,

The PlayStation®Network
Sony Computer Entertainment America

I have not decided on whether or not to join the beta. I'm not big on being someone's unpaid tester... but I might check it out just for kicks.

 

[Jay]

Thanks for the answer.

 

[L_Hamilton]

Any word on when it might come out?

 

[Digital-Nitrate]

I have not decided on whether or not to join the beta. I'm not big on being someone's unpaid tester... but I might check it out just for kicks.

So last night my wife wanted to check it out after all so we downloaded it (just a quick 77 MB file)... which I thought was odd, but then after installing it said it was going to reserve 3 GB of space on the HDD (which I suspect is there to insure that there will always be room on your PS3's HDD for current and future Home content).

In fact, after it finished reserving the disc space, and once I was in Home (which looks amazing BTW!). Then when I went to the Home World Map and selected a new location in Home for the first time, it then downloaded the necessary files to the PS3's HDD.

I suspect this is done this way so that Sony can update each area in Home any time there is a change, thus it won't be necessary to download a full update, just the area that has been changed. 👍

BTW: Here are the current locations and size of the file to download:

• 35.9 MB for the Central Plaza
• 31.3 MB for the Mall
• 21.3 MB for the Bowling Alley (also where the Pool & Arcade Rooms are)
• 9.2 MB for the Home Theater (which looks great BTW)

In addition, you can download for free a Clubhouse Creator pack from the PSN store directly from Home, which allows you to create your own private clubhouse and invite whom ever you like to join. 👍

OK, first impressions were amazing! Hands down, both my wife and I were completely blown away by the unbelievable amount of options in creating your "avatar". Seriously, it's unbelievable how precise you can be in creating the physical features of your avatars. My wife is already having fun making celebrity look-alike avatars, it's that freaking realistic!

Unfortunately, currently the opposite is true regarding clothing options. OK, so there are a few various choices as far as clothing, hats, shoes, accessories, but clearly Sony is hoping to try and recoup what must have cost millions to develop Home through DLC for Home, which I can't fault them for that at all.

I did notice though some folks socializing in the open areas in Home has clothing that was not showing up in our "closet", and so I asked them and they said you can win special clothing items by "winning" some of the arcade games. The clothing he had one was from the PS Home arcade version of echochrome that he won by "beating the game". I didn't ask any more details that that.

Now back to the avatars themselves. You can save many different avatars that you make, and there is also a "random" option for those that don't want to take the time to make one themselves.

The communication in home, both physically and verbally is exceptional, and very easy to do once you get a feel for where all the different "action" and "message" options are located... and even that is very intuitive. 👍

Granted, for specific detailed conversations, using a mic or the PS Eye is going to be ideal, but we were generally impressed how much of a "conversation" we could have with strangers simply using the action and preset text messages. 👍

I liked the zoom feature in Home where if you are viewing a poster, or video, you can zoom in to see it fill most of the screen and from a centered position, rather than looking up at the screen.

Currently there are only three different songs to choose from in the "dance area", but they were entertaining enough, and I was surprised how well the "dance" options work in Home. My wife was digging the salsa moves they have.

Honestly, I really had very little interest in Home before messing around with it, and now I have to admit, this looks like it's going to be a blast. 👍

The service itself was rock solid. We never had any lag or drop outs, and if I were to guess there were at least a hew hundred people socializing in each of the areas in Home... well not the Home Theater area or the Mall, but certainly the Plaza and the Bowling Alley were full of folks.



Bottom line: Home blew me away, bloody clever thing it is, and I'm now looking forward to it. I can already see it as being a great place to meet up with GTP members in a GTP clubhouse while waiting to start a game. 👍

 

[WallRunner]

OK, first impressions were amazing! Hands down, both my wife and I were completely blown away by the unbelievable amount of options in creating your "avatar". Seriously, it's unbelievable how precise you can be in creating the physical features of your avatars. My wife is already having fun making celebrity look-alike avatars, it's that freaking realistic!

Unfortunately, currently the opposite is true regarding clothing options. OK, so there are a few various choices as far as clothing, hats, shoes, accessories, but clearly Sony is hoping to try and recoup what must have cost millions to develop Home through DLC for Home, which I can't fault them for that at all.

They did take out a few things when they updated to v1.00, some clothes, the ability to import video and music, and a few other features as they invited people for load tests, not full-featured Home-ness. From what I heard, they will be adding it back later.

Also, according to some players, you can unlock a TV for use in your apartment or clubhouses by getting very far in "Stage C" (selected from the main "game" menu) in Echochrome.

Echochrome is somewhat weird in the way it works, rewarding you for the longer amount of time you play it, you try to get as many "ghosts" as possible until you run into an "enemy" then the stage ends.

I got the echochrome costume from playing for 2:30 in stage B, collecting 6-7 "ghosts"

From,
Chris.

 

[Touring Mars]

Watching the PSN forums today, and it looks like some open beta invites have already been sent last week, and more to follow today and/or Thursday. I'm not going to hold my breath for an invite, however, but with any luck this means that the full roll-out of Home is not far away...

 

[Scaff]

Watching the PSN forums today, and it looks like some open beta invites have already been sent last week, and more to follow today and/or Thursday. I'm not going to hold my breath for an invite, however, but with any luck this means that the full roll-out of Home is not far away...

Close to 200,000 invites should have gone out on friday, according to the EU Home Community leader the e-mail system Sony uses fell over at the thought of it (well it was a Friday - it obviously wanted to go to the pub) and only got 20,000 out of the door.

The target date for getting this batch out is today (and no more specific than that), keep in mind that another, larger, batch is also due to go out on Thursday.

Still not got mine yet

Scaff

 

[Touring Mars]

I guess it might be an idea to have a Bluetooth headset to fully enjoy something like Home, too?... *quickly adds to Amazon Wishlist*

 

[Scaff]

Update from the official forums.

It would appear that the external email provider used by Sony is addressing the problem with typical haste, and its unlikely that any more invites will go out tonight.

We're working on clearing the email "blockage" but its a pretty slow process so I'll say now that no invites will leave today. More on this subject tomorrow.

For those of you interested, the first batch of invites was targetted at a percentage of people who had downloaded something from the Store. Its nothing to do with number of posts in the forums.
The next batch is largely based around active gamers, ie those who have logged into a SCEE hosted game in the last couple of months.
Again its not everyone, for those who dont get an invite Open Beta will be here before Christmas.

Source - http://community.eu.playstation.com...thread.id=19918&view=by_date_ascending&page=1

Interesting to see more info on the invite requirements and a semi-official before Christmas for the Open Beta.

Regards

Scaff

 

[Touring Mars]

the first batch of invites was targetted at a percentage of people who had downloaded something from the Store

... in other words, people willing to spend money online? 💡 Glad I just bought WipEout HD last weekend then?