wraggster
August 26th, 2011, 23:03
Sony's Jack Buser believes the redesign of PlayStation Home will kick-start the growth of free-to-play business models on consoles.
In an interview with IndustryGamers (http://www.industrygamers.com/news/ps3-home-boss-free-to-play-is-the-future/), the PlayStation Home director explained that many of the games planned for therevamped service (http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-08-23-sony-to-reposition-home-as-social-game-hub) will use the sort of monetisation methods commonly found on the web and social networks.
"Many of the games are free-to-play or freemium," he said. "You can beat the whole game if you want and never spend a dime, but we will sell weapon upgrades, armour upgrades, enhancements, etc., as a series of micro-transactions."
The advantage of Home is that it can also leverage the power of the PlayStation 3 hardware to offer more complex and immersive games than those normally associated with free-to-play.
"It's using the most cutting edge and creative business models that so many sessions at GDC are all about, while also giving a gameplay experience that's very much PlayStation - high definition, 3D, online multiplayer, action packed."
So far, Microsoft and Nintendo have failed to show enthusiasm for bringing free-to-play games to their consoles, and Buser sees Home as an opportunity for Sony to break new ground.
"I believe it's going to be viewed as a turning point in the industry where we finally started to see these business models from the web actually take hold on consoles," he said.
"It's a huge differentiator for the PlayStation 3. You could not build these types of games on other consoles because they don't have a platform like Home."
Home also offers a solution to the rising cost of development on console platforms. Buser claims that a team of 6 to 10 people can build a "full-on game that looks like a console game" using Lua programming language in around 6 months.
"And it's monetizing immediately," he adds.
"I'm a big games historian and read lots of books on game history. If you fast forward 10 years, it is my personal belief that games will look a lot more like what's going on in PlayStation Home than what they typically look like today."
Home currently has 23 million registered users. The redesign will launch this autumn.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-08-25-home-will-trigger-free-to-play-on-consoles
In an interview with IndustryGamers (http://www.industrygamers.com/news/ps3-home-boss-free-to-play-is-the-future/), the PlayStation Home director explained that many of the games planned for therevamped service (http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-08-23-sony-to-reposition-home-as-social-game-hub) will use the sort of monetisation methods commonly found on the web and social networks.
"Many of the games are free-to-play or freemium," he said. "You can beat the whole game if you want and never spend a dime, but we will sell weapon upgrades, armour upgrades, enhancements, etc., as a series of micro-transactions."
The advantage of Home is that it can also leverage the power of the PlayStation 3 hardware to offer more complex and immersive games than those normally associated with free-to-play.
"It's using the most cutting edge and creative business models that so many sessions at GDC are all about, while also giving a gameplay experience that's very much PlayStation - high definition, 3D, online multiplayer, action packed."
So far, Microsoft and Nintendo have failed to show enthusiasm for bringing free-to-play games to their consoles, and Buser sees Home as an opportunity for Sony to break new ground.
"I believe it's going to be viewed as a turning point in the industry where we finally started to see these business models from the web actually take hold on consoles," he said.
"It's a huge differentiator for the PlayStation 3. You could not build these types of games on other consoles because they don't have a platform like Home."
Home also offers a solution to the rising cost of development on console platforms. Buser claims that a team of 6 to 10 people can build a "full-on game that looks like a console game" using Lua programming language in around 6 months.
"And it's monetizing immediately," he adds.
"I'm a big games historian and read lots of books on game history. If you fast forward 10 years, it is my personal belief that games will look a lot more like what's going on in PlayStation Home than what they typically look like today."
Home currently has 23 million registered users. The redesign will launch this autumn.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-08-25-home-will-trigger-free-to-play-on-consoles