Kotaku outlines differences between PlayStation Home and Second Life
by Alexis Kassan 
Jan 3rd 2009 at 3:00PM
Filed under: Business models, Second Life, Consoles, Virtual worlds, PlayStation Home
There has been plenty of speculation on PlayStation Home and how it compares and contrasts with Second Life as a virtual world. Heck, the creative director spoke about it months ago stating that Second Life players would probably not find much of interest in PS Home. Well, Kotaku has stepped in to explore just that subject.
For those not wanting to get too down and dirty with the full tale, Second Life has much more personal customization. Everything from outfits to dance moves to land masses can be user-generated and added to the world. On the other hand, PlayStation Home allows for minimal add-ons, focusing on creating rich, stable environments - even if that means sacrificing little things like avatar diversity. But with much more content promised, PS Home may well become a better contender for virtual world time.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Saffia Widdershins said on 4:39PM 1-03-2009
But why - when it needs a whole new platform? Many people who use Second Life for business do so because they can run it on their PCs or (not quite so seamlessly) on their Macs. Home demands that people buy an extra piece of kit. Would the average office see it worth investing in a Playstation to run a business meeting? Would colleges?
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Erbo Evans said on 6:32PM 1-03-2009
And with that, you have hit the nail on the head. The installed base of PS3s is FAR less than that of PCs (and Macs) capable of running the SL client...so, by definition, PSHome cannot grow more popular than SL. (Of course, not all people capable of running SL do so...but I'm guessing that not everyone with a PS3 will be interested in using PSHome either.)
Tateru Nino said on 10:08PM 1-03-2009
Home is intended to be essentially a matchmaking service - an online gaming lobby, with some additional features. There's no sign that Sony's intending to compete in the virtual world space at all.
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Abriael said on 7:57AM 1-04-2009
what i find pretty funny is the attitude Kotaku readers have towards Second Life (and the consequent stubborness by Fahey in continuing to write about it despite the response). Funny in a pretty sad kind of way, of course. It's indeed sad to see dedicated gamers bashing another community that badly, like they weren't themselves target of a very similar kind of bashing by non-gamers.
In the end it shows that a good percentage of gamers are indeed no different and no more open-minded than other human beings, feeling the instinctive need to showofff their ignorance by spouting nonsensical attacks on what they don't really know nor understand.
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Loki said on 8:40AM 1-04-2009
I'd hate home, i can understand if alot of people in SL dont actually care for the building of places, prefer to shop around for their perfect shoes. For me though i cant live without the freedom to explore new ideas, to build the unbuilt, to share old traditions from my home town that no one else in the world has ever heard of. I like that ability to share ideas, combine ideas and truely bring forth to communities something new or unheard of. Im sure the inhouse home content creators will be nice and make pretty things, but im not ready to give up the one thing i hold most important in SL, the freedom to create.
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Yo Brewster said on 5:44PM 1-04-2009
I'm with Loki here, the only reason why I like Second Life is because of it's endless possibilities which is something I haven't found anywhere else. I would get bored out of my mind in a Home platform.
Does Home have a chance? Sure but not on a PS3 platform simply because the consoles are way to expensive. It's clear that Home didn't boost sales at all for Sony since their console sales at the end of the year were just as low as they've been since the launch of this console. To me the PS3 truly seems to be the wrong console for a virtual world, a WII on the other hand (affordable, focusses on wider audience) would be more suitable. Come on Nintendo, wake up and start created a world full of MII's!
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Eric Rice said on 4:34PM 1-05-2009
Home should be compared to Kaneva, not Second Life for better 1:1 comparisons.
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Toneless Tomba said on 6:45PM 1-05-2009
I actually just got a PS3 and I logged in to see what it was like. Um.... A big sausage fest with the few girls hiding in the corners. It's pretty though. It kind of reminds me of There. I will warn you that my impression is based on logging in only one time for 15 minutes. I could be way off.
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