They’re doing ”really new stuff” with it and the industry is yet to ‘wrap its head’ around it. The ”proof is in the pudding” with the Home figures they have.
”Home is new. We’re doing a lot of really new stuff that I think the industry is still wrapping its head around,” Buser told Gamasutra. ”We’re seeing a lot of innovation in the space, and some of us have hit success.”
”And I think it takes some time as the industry as a whole, whether that be consumers or whether that be the media, to start to shift their focus to these new types of platforms and see how people are actually spending their time with the console and with gaming in general. I think we are part of that evolution, part of that conversation.”
”…The proof is in the pudding,” Buser continued. ”With numbers like we have, it goes without saying that Home has been a huge success for our company, something that we have been very proud of.” E3 2010 saw very big numbers for PS Home.
That was thanks to their own virtual E3 2010 booth space they created which also showed off live broadcasts of Sony’s press conference at the event. Home supports a full micro-transaction economy but those numbers have always been shrouded in secrecy.
”We haven’t talked too much about the platform itself, but what we have said is that every mature virtual item we have ever created has been profitable,” said Buser.
”We’ve released over 5,000 virtual items on the platform, and we know that once those items reach maturity, they are profitable. So you see us creating a tremendous amount of virtual items, because it is such a high margin business for us to be in.”
Have you partaken of the virtual social world that is PlayStation Home? Do you enjoy its strip mall feel as you deck out your own virtual apartment?