Second Life is the new Netscape?
Sony lauched ad GDC his revolutionary approach to online gaming systems: Home.
If you wanna have a brief idea of what is all about click the video presentation. The concept is to bring players into a Sony's metaverse where they can be able to live their gaming experience and general online community features like chatting, talking, buying and so on.
At present we don't know if Sony is planning to give all the freedom and creation tools that the SL platform is actually givin but i bet they'll sure keep in mind the Linden model in the evolution of the system.
What's interesting in this new product is that every PS3 sold in the world will be a possible new Avatar in the Home World. No pc skills needed, no installation and no usability issues (SL really sucks in terms of controls and HCI) just plug your PS3 to the net and see what's on the Home World. This is a killer scenario because one of the most important things for every community online is to reach the critical mass. Also the Home world will be accessed from the living room and that's radically different from a desktop experience. Bigger screen, relaxed approach and only a Joypad to master the experience (or a special Wii stile device?). The point is that this product of Sony can became popular as fast as Internet Explorer did at the time it was released in competition with Netscape. Second Life can suffer/die like Netscape did? Of course now is up to Sony to learn why Second Life is so successful and transform metaverse in a Consumer Product. Can Sony do this
Do you remember what they did with the first PlayStation? Killed Sega, reduced Nintendo to a toy for kids and transformed the console market into multibillionar entertainment product.
Same story with online worlds?
I wonder what is Alessandro's, Leandro's and Andrea's opinion about this possible scenario.
Update: Leandro already expressed is position: basically Home seems to him a graphic pimped chat. Is it possible that Sony didn't realize the possibilities behind the metaverse? Cell was designed only to have a nice graphics interface? i hope not!
Update 2: Alessandro is...ehm... "diplomatic"!
Update 3: Andrea point out the fact that a new "media" is born.
more on Technorati: Home Sony Second Life metaverse online game
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