Home team admit virtual world was announced too early

But now hopeful for the future

12 January 2009 13:00 GMT / By Verity Burns

The development team behind Sony's PlayStation Home have said that they think the virtual world was announced too early.

Game director Peter Edward has said that developers targeted to make third-party content for Home had their initial excitement replaced by wariness when it became clear there was still a lot of work to be done on the virtual world following its announcement in early 2007.

"Initially, there was real excitement from people, because we were showing something really different and that had a lot of potential", said Edward.

"And then there's the realisation that, well, we probably announced it too early - GDC 07 was a long time ago. I think there was sort of recognition amongst developers of 'Oh, this is interesting, but there's still a lot of work to be done'".

We all know that Home was subject to many delays, with estimated release dates getting pushed back on a few occasions.

Sony eventually had to succumb to public pressure in December by launching its open beta to all users without much of the third party content it had planned, in place.

Edward remains positive, however, saying that despite teething problems, Home will now continue to grow and grow.

"The feedback we've been getting is that, in the early days, it was a bit thin on the ground in terms of support and tools, but now it's mature and everybody's starting to produce some really interesting stuff", Edward added.

Full tags

Gaming, PS3, PlayStation Home, Sony