PSM: For the character creation, is it robust enough that you expect people will be able to make really accurate likenesses of themselves?
Phil:They guy that we talked to in Home [during the GDC presentation], Adrian, that's what he looks like.
I mean, that's what he looks like. He spent a little bit of time to customize his character. It's funny, whenever I see it, I smile,
because I know that's him online. You can really recreate yourself with surprising fidelity.
PSM: Is there the potential that games that aren't associated with Home can still somehow import the avatars or work with Home?
Phil: You know, it's a really interesting question. There are certain technical challenges in exporting an avatar from one application
to another. You have to comply with the same animation engine or the same visual rendering engine, but if those challenges can be
overcome, then yes, it's possible to take a character out of Home, into a game, and then back into Home again.
PSM: So it's just kind of possible... We'll see in the future?
Phil: Yeah. We've built Home on some really - I don't mean the word "basic" in the wrong sense - but really basic technology,
which is very accessible. There's nothing very "vodoo" about the way we've built Home. It's built on a lot of very sensible
underlying technology, which should allow it to be easily used by a lot of developers.
PSM: Will Home be worldwide? Will you run across people from other countries?
Phil: Yes, although there will be certain lobbies that are specific to languages.
PSM: Can basic phrases be translated on the fly?
Phil: Quick-Write is the same sentences for everybody, irrespective of their culture or the language they speak.
PSM: Can friends drop by your apartment when you're offline or do you have to be -
Phil: You have to be online. You have to be switched on. Would you really want your friends coming around your house
when you're not there, either? In the real outside world?
PSM: No, that's actually why I asked the question. I want to be able to lock the doors somehow.
Phil: Right. Whether you're online and available, online and not available... you can control whether you invite your friends over to your space, whether you want them to stay or go.
PSM: Do you anticipate that most of the features shown during GDC will be available when it goes live in fall, or is some of that more forward thinking?
Phil: The vast majority of that is targeted for this year. There will be a couple of things which we will not be ready to go live with for technical reasons, but the point of the beta trial is to work those issues out.
PSM: Will users be able to create content, like their own shirts or furniture or props?
Phil: Eventually, yes. Two ways we're going to do that: one is we're going to create some tools that users can actually get into those spaces to make objects, as well as outside content creators. So, again, a company might want to make a premium item, so it might be a - let me think of an example of one of those - a God of War coffee table. You can imagine the God ofWar
team creating an assess, which you can then download into your personal space.
PSM: Will it be possible for users to sell the items they make?
Phil: We're interested in the game object arena, and Sony Online Entertainment has some very advanced technology in that space,so we're very interested in exploring that.
PSM: Any chance you can have different locations for your apartment - I mean, can I get a new view?
Phil: Yeah, totally. You'll be able to buy a new view.... I can't tell you all the ideas we've got.
PSM: Sounds like everybody involved has an idea list that's going to take at least a few years to get through.
Phil: Yeah. It's a very nice problem to have. Every time we meet with a third party partner and explain what we're doing, we go away with pages and pages of notes of things that they would love to do. It's great when you have something that resonates so strongly. You understand exactly what that would mean, to be able to have the snow, or summer season, or autumn season right outside your apartment.
PSM: Will it be possible to see full screen video?
Phil: Possibly yes, but we need to keep in mind that the best way of watching full screen HD will be directly from Blu-ray disc or from the cross media bar. We're not trying to recreat that experience inside Home; it's more like an opportunity to sample content rather than sit and watch a three-hour movie.
PSM: How much of your apartment or your Home is actually stored on your hard drive versus how much is constantly streaming? For example, does your apartment exist on a server or on your PS3?
Phil: Your apartment exists on your PS3 and is streamed to other users.
PSM: Will games be required to support trophies, or is that entirely up to the publishers?
Phil: We are looking forward to consulting with the publishers and developers, stating here. We've already had some detailed conversations with a few third parties, but by no means everybody. We think it's important that the developers and the publishers are in control of that, so that they can build the kind of loyalty or the kind of reward that they want for their game.
We've made no statement about it being required, so there have been a couple of rumors floating around that we've already said that, and that's absolutely not the case. If it never was required, it seems like such a low maintenance thing to add to game that I would expect most people to do it, just because it helps sell the game. Right now, developers have to create a little 2D icon for the game save that appears on the cross media bar of the PS3, or they have to create the screen that you see when you select the game from the game icon. So, we'd want to make it as simple and as low intensity as that, to create a little 3D icon, perhaps using an asset that's already being used in game, like a character or an object that they find in the game.
PSM: Are the trophies only accessible through Home, or will there be a shortcut?
Phil: The Home icon has the subcatagories of Favorites and Hall of Fame. Now, Favorites is where, as you navigate the World Map or the network spaces, you find the God of War space or the EA space, or you have found spaces where you can create a shortcut... like bookmarks. You can press a button inside Home that will generate a bookmark, and it actually renders a screenshot from where you were standing at the time and puts it into the Favorites list. So yo uthen have a simple set of shortcuts that you can go to without going through the central lobby again.
PSM: Do you imagine that Home will eventually replace the online interface that exists now or the PlayStation Sore that exists now?
Phil: They serve different purposes. I think that for some users, the cross media bar is going to be the only interface that they will use for the machine. Dive in, look at a photo, come out, look at a video - I think this is something that many users will find a very efficient way of interfacing with the machine. Home offers a richer experience, which obviously requires a greater investment of time and commitment on the part of the user. We think that will serve well the needs of a different kind of user, but the two should coexist on the same platform.
PSM: Will you be able to potentially use Eye-Toy to help modify your avatar?
Phil: No... well, yes and no. We use a very complex technology, which allows us to manipulate the geometry of the face in a low memory footprint, so that it's easy to share what you've done to your face with everyone around the space. There will be Eye-Toy integration in other areas of Home.
PSM: We saw some of the actions that your avatar can do, such as wave. Will there be an intentionally low number of those, or will they grow over time?
Phil: Um, no reason why they can't grow. We can download additional emotions and emotes. We also have the Sixaxis interface for the emotes so you wave at people, you bow, things like that.
PSM: Will there ever be a friends list that spans every game, or is it still kind of kept independant of software?
Phil:The Home uses the PlayStation Network Friends list. So exactly the same friends list that you have on the cross media bar list is inside Home.
PSM: So wherever you're at in Home, whatever you're doing, you can continue an unbroken conversation with someone?
Phil: Absolutely, yeah.
PSM: Is there a max capacity for the amount of people that can be in your room?
Phil: There is, but I don't actually know what it is. I know that 64 is the limit for the general lobby. It's less for the apartment.
PSM: What do you think? I want to hear your reactions.
Phil: Oh, well, I really think Home is going to be huge.
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