Hmmm, well I think a lot of the problems with HOME have to do with the fact that it seems like a giant cash grab for people to buy clothes and such for virtual avatars and the like. I haven't messed around with it because I don't see any functional differance between what they released and say "Habbo Hotel".
The various mini-games they are talking about here don't really impress me much, plus I'm wondering what their gimmick is going to be in making money off of them, after all that is what Home is all about.
But then again I've never been a hugely social gamer (outside of MMORPGs) so maybe I just don't get the appeal.
To be entirely honest I've been thinking for a while that if I was going to try and move a console nowadays, I'd probably develop a free MMORPG despite the massive cost and have it installed in every unit as a gimmick to sell the console, and also to act as a "HOME" type platform. The point mostly being that people buy game consoles to play games, not to sit around chatting with a virtual avatar. Social communities crop up around MMORPGs, and it gives people something to do except yak back and forth while hoping they can eventually move up in the queue to perhaps play one of a few half hearted minigames. From what little I've read it seems to me like "Home" probably cost Sony as much as many MMORPGs cost to begin with anyway.
