Sony: No Video Sharing in Home Beta

[Shrygue]

via Wired


Remember how you were going to be able to invite other PlayStation 3 owners to your virtual apartment in Home, then watch videos together? That's not happening, at least not in the "open beta."

I got a demo of the latest beta version of PlayStation Home, Sony's upcoming PS3 virtual world, Tuesday. My full impressions are coming soon, but the biggest news to come out of our conversation was that the video-sharing feature has been killed, at least for the first public release of Home this fall.

Video sharing was one of the most talked-about features of Home when it was announced in 2007 -- not only because it would be awesome to go to someone's apartment and watch whatever movie they'd cued up, but because of the legal implications of such a feature that Sony was shrugging off.

While PlayStation Home director Jack Buser said the company was "looking into" adding the feature, he also said that Sony's approach to "user-generated content" was likely to be more of a "Lego-block" structure, in which Sony gives users the parts and lets them create what they want from a predetermined set of tools.

In other words, while Sony isn't saying whether video sharing will ever happen, it doesn't exactly sound like a system that provides for letting users stream videos off their PS3's hard drives.

More news about Home later.

[Mc_Logical]

Wtf? damn, I hope we can still do music... the video feature will be the main thing id like home for, doesn`t take long to get bored of the beta, bowling and pool seems the only good thing (darts) japan beta, so now when the full home is released it will give ppl something else to moan about WHY CAN`T WE DO VIDEOS lol

[Darksaviour69]

I don't want to sound anti-sony, but its very typical tactic they use (as does many other companies), to promise loads of cool features a long time before the launch, but when it comes its clear they over hype/lied e.g ps2 emotion engine, ps3 Killzone 2 & the getaway trailer etc.

[DPyro]

Hey, Sony just has big ambitions

[F9zDark]

Personally, this doesn't surprise me in the slightest. Copyright law is quite clear about exhibition of movies to others who don't own them. The government cannot police this in people's home and probably never will; however allowing a company to facilitate this is on very shaky legal ground.

The other issue with this is, and this comes down to the rights of the users and the law. What about exhibition of illegal content?

Think for a moment the forums. The moderators police the posts, but NOT the private messages. If Sony gives users said privacy with their Home space (they probably wont but do we know for sure? No) then this opens the doorway to people using Home as a potential ring of illegal behavior (for instance, sharing kiddie porn movies).

The only reason I am using said example is because its the only thing I can think of that has no ambiguity in its being illegal (as opposed to the copyright issue of allowing users to watch ripped DVDs or even DVDs in the drive if Sony allows) and Home would soon become quite the haven for said rings.

No doubt Sony has thought of this and if this is the reason why Video sharing isn't allowed yet, then I am content. Last thing Sony needs is Home being known as a gathering pit for illegal behavior, especially that kind of illegal behavior.

If its for developing reasons, then I don't really know what to say...

[Darksaviour69]

Yeah your right F9zDark, but what bugs me is that it's very obvious the legal problem and Sony would have known that. But yet it was one of the features they hyped when they announced Home. Now if they really thought they could have done it (who knows maybe they will), then that's fine. But it seems more likely they knew they could not do it (legally) but announced it because its sounds cool, and planned to drop it later quietly e.g. The Getway

[F9zDark]

Yeah your right F9zDark, but what bugs me is that it's very obvious the legal problem and Sony would have known that. But yet it was one of the features they hyped when they announced Home. Now if they really thought they could have done it (who knows maybe they will), then that's fine. But it seems more likely they knew they could not do it (legally) but announced it because its sounds cool, and planned to drop it later quietly e.g. The Getway

No doubt Sony did know of the legal implications, sure their 6 figure a year salary lawyers would have warned them of such before hand. But if that's the case, I would "like" to believe Sony wouldn't have had the audacity to announce a feature they know they couldn't ever deliver.

Who really knows at this point. Could have been both, legal and developing. At least in regards to movies and TV shows, Sony could swing by that (using the idea that people "show off" their movies to their friends in their real home, so why not a virtual one?). So long as actual sharing of the videos aren't allowed (ie Downloading a movie from a friend) then Sony COULD be ok with that argument.

But they might not be.

However, considering what some have said of the Beta's progression (what's been added in what updates) it seems that development issues could have been why this feature isn't coming either. If I recall correctly, it was only about 3-5 months ago that Sony introduced the Marketplace, which is Home's biggest feature and biggest reason for its existence.

You figure, March(give or take a month) of 07 Sony said Home was going to come out in the Fall of 07. It wasn't until about March of 08 that Sony finally released Home's most major feature (and most profit earning feature); considering the Fall 07 release date, that's being an entire year off (I would assume said feature would surely need to have been finished by the time they made that release date statement to even justify it...)

Like I said, who knows. Was Sony wrong in hyping a feature they won't deliver on until "God knows when"? Yeah.

[Darksaviour69]

yeah i guess we might never know. I think the example of the getaway (did you see the mock screenshots they showed) and the tactics they used to sink the dreamcast has tainted my option a little. I might be possible to "show off" a film under "fair use"....