After seven years of life (probably a lot longer than anyone expected, really), Sony is shuttering PlayStation Home today.
The service, which was said to be “Game 3.0” by Sony’s Phil Harrison at its inception, failed to catch on despite numerous attempts by Sony to make it cool. Games rarely used the service effectively, if ever, and it quickly became an icon to skip over on the PlayStation 3’s menu, rather than one to navigate to.
Home was designed to be a place to interact with other gamers, chat, dance, and eventually launch full games from. None of it really worked, and even though Sony streamed an E3 event via PlayStation Home, no one really paid much attention.
It was a great concept at first. One where users could buy virtual furniture and clothing for their virtual apartment. It was beautiful and serene in its design, but not as much so in its execution. The interface was laggy and cumbersome, and load times were lengthy enough to dissuade people from using it.
A novel attempt at a new way to game, Home never caught on for any period of time, and while it was certainly interesting during launch back in 2008, it is a surprise and a wonder that it managed to live on for nearly seven years.
Did you use PlayStation Home? Will you miss it? Let us know in the comments below! (We’re not expecting to hear from anyone.)