Home: Only the Least Recognizable Can Join
February 13th, 2009 | Written by Josh Schwartzman | Topic: PlayStation 3
In a recent announcement by kotaku, Sony revealed their list of developers who are allowed to receive dev kits for the Playstation 3′s new Home interactive program. For a program that has been in beta for a long, long time I find this list rather disheartening. Sony seems to want to make Home the next coming of Second Life, but with a lineup lacking solid development support (specifically speaking the lack of North American publishers) I can’t see how this current lineup will be enough to give Home the edge it needs to beat out Microsoft and Xbox Live.
Sure many of the companies are well known, like Capcom, EA, Activision, SEGA, etc which is sure to bring some exclusive goodies and game features to the PS3, but who in the world are these other developers? Is this the list of developers Sony only deems good enough to publish for Home? Or are they the ones that were willing to try it? As of right now, I can’t see American gamers getting too excited over Home just yet, and with the lack of Take-Two, Lucasarts, and Midway, companies that see regular and active communities on Xbox Live, the thought of them being left out of Home’s developmental process seems preposterous.
But while half might be Japanese companies the Western world might not have heard is, perhaps the most company of them all, Square Enix, is nowhere to be seen. It would have been cool to see exclusive Square Enix avatars from previous games or RPG-like clothing and accessories for your virtual apartment, but yet they have not been included into the list. Perhaps the loss of key franchises, such as Star Ocean and Final Fantasy, to the likes of Microsoft sort of ticked them off a bit.
I am one to gripe, but I see immense hope for Home if Sony can get their act together. Scrounging up notable American publishers is a great step, but leaving out some solid notable money-making publishers is a huge step down. While there is no direct proof as to the lack of these publishers, hopefully more companies will eventually join the list of steady growing developers ready to dish out the goods for Home. But as it looks now, not even the years of beta will do the lack of recognizable support for Home justice.
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