Virtual World News pointed me at some interesting news about Sony Home. At the Edinburgh Interactive Festival, the director of the Sony Home group announced that “In the longer term, users will be able to share other content that they have created: photos and videos themselves and user-generated content tools such as their own t-shirt designs. We’ll also be giving out tools to allow scripting, java minigames and so on.” Now recently boh the new (but unreleased) platform Twinity and Doppelganger announced that their platforms would be much more controlled than lets say Second Life. Users can publish own content in their private environments and create items and objects, but certainly public environments will be controlled.

As Virtual World News alsready pointed out, I am very curious how Sony will deal with a certain amount of freedom on a platform that is run by one trusted brand. It also seems that users then could make money with it, or as Sony states: ”
Ultimately users will be able to purchase real world items from within home to be delivered to their doorstep. Home is a evolving platform, we don’t know where home will be long term. In the longer term, once an engaged audience is there, there are revenue opportunities for all, including end users.”

Another thing that i thought was interesting is that Home will be open for 3rd parties, it seems: “Home offers the opportunity to non-game brands. The connected PS audience traditionally has been quite difficult to get access to and is a demographic that is highly coveted. A virtual online experience is something brands have already experienced, but PS home doesn’t contain the same kind of risk as the wilder west online experience. Longer term, web and mobile delivery will be incorporated into the home environment.”

In that sense Sony Home will be a branded environment offering both users and other brands a space where they can interact, publish, advertise and make money. It seems that Sony Home, contrary to what I though before, will be more than just a new selling channel for Sony products and will most likely become a strong competitor for Second Life and other VW’s

Bookmark / E-mail