Home Hammered
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Who’d have thought adding the PlayStation Home icon to every PS3 owner’s XMB would result in such mass connectivity issues during Home’s inaugural weekend?
Well, we kind of did.
Keeping with Sony’s tradition of launching new games/services only for them to fall on their face, it would appear that the Home servers are crippled due to the “overwhelming demand” for the service.
Are they looking into the issues? You bet they are. Check after the jump for some more details.
If you’re unable to “Go Home” at the moment – don’t fret as you’re far from alone. With forums ablaze with people complaining about lack of access, it would appear that Sony either miscalculated the demand for the new social experiment or knowingly launched Home without the appropriate infrastructure to back it up.
Home Managers CydoniaX and Locust_Star have posted a locked thread over at the U.S. community boards promising to keep is all up to date with the ongoing server woes. Unfortunately, so far, they’ve just updated saying that yes – there are server woes and the engineers are still looking into it. Want to rant in an open thread about your C-931 connection error? Go right ahead.
Before the outcries of “But it’s a beta! It’s supposed to he flaky!” we’d like to say: Yes, it’s a beta but, in our opinion, this doesn’t justify the inability of granting people access in the first place. Maybe the launch plan should have been looked at more with the service rolled out in stages as, right of this minute, a lot of people are getting turned off Home simply because it looks like Sony didn’t think through its deployment. We can only hope these issues are restricted to its very early baby steps and Home becomes a more robust product over the coming days.
When we have finally managed to get in to Home we’ve been impressed by its intuitiveness and overall promise. In other words: there’s not a lot there at the moment but we’re confident this will change in time as we see new content, activities and events added to the service. We like Home. We like what Sony are trying to do here. Now they just need to iron out the launch problems before people start associating it with rickety servers not worth their time trying to connect to.
Are you having difficulties accessing Home? Getting tired tapping that “X” button in the vain hope that it will finally connect this time? Let us know in the comments below.
Hi Brodiesan,
On the first day it was openly released it took me just under 6 hours to get in. After I’d logged out i was then unable to log in again until the early hours of last night.
In my view, this is just unacceptable. I did have a rant about it over at another website on their Home release article, but was met by the response of “This is just a Beta, if you can’t understand that then you are no longer allowed to comment on Home”.
I am fully aware that it’s just a beta, but still, Sony obviously knew that many, many people would not be able to use the service once released. I was following the edits to TedtheDog’s post on the official forums, and to have it released at 9pm following a day of technical issues means that they just weren’t ready for it. I also said about them not using the beta invites correctly. Two lots of 100,000 people were invited in the last round to my knowledge…but a step from everyone who was in Home to everyone else in world? I’m no expert, but it could have been handled differently. Why not ease everyone into home. Why not send out a new round of invites every few days. That way the Home service wouldn’t have taken a massive hammering all in one go. And as for it’s status as a beta, it’s been in development for years. It shouldn’t be a beta anymore. It’s as if Sony are sticking the Beta label on it as a cover for if it fails as a service: “You must understand, Home is a beta so naturally there will be problems with it…”. Sort it out, Sony.
I expect that Sony wanted a ‘big release’ fanfare for Home to make it an event, but when they didn’t have the forsight to realise that such an event would cripple their service then they need new people at the helm.
Currently, signing into home is still hit and miss. I find myself spamming ‘connect’ until i eventually make it in. When I do make it in, I forget the fact that Sony have made yet another fuck up and just bask in the brilliant (yet simple) world they have created. I really enjoy spending time in Home, I’ve already had some decent conversations and made some new PSN friends. We even managed to set up a game of CoD4, so i’m not sure that the game launcher will actually ever be of use.
The way Home is now reminds me of how WoW was at it’s beginnings. It was so popular some folks had to wait hours to get into a server. It still doesn’t make it suck any less. I get the distinct feeling that they rushed it out in order to combat the NXE. Although why this thing hasn’t been out sooner is beyond me- there’s hardly anything there right now.
I’ve only managed to get into Home once so far, and me and my buddies had a blast, and I can see this being great for our little clan once they ruddy well sort it out.
For now, I’m giving Home some time to breathe and giving Sony some time to get those ‘technical’ issues sorted. Because there’s not really that much to do is a blessing in disguise I guess, if this thing had been really awesome then Sony HQ might well be on fire round about now.
Still, I can take consolation in the fact that because I’m leaving Home Alone for a little while, someone else out there has an extra 0.000000001% chance of getting in. Which is nice.
I have been in the open beta 3 times
well, i was allowed in a few weeks before this release, i have only used it once due to the fact that i hate the Sims and it seems to be just like that. not my style and unless they change something i dont feel like it adds anything for me for my gaming. I am sure ill check it out every now and again to walk around asking for the bathroom, and still wishing i had a gun and could run and hide.
I got into the closed beta 2 days before the open beta release, and then got all the items free
@magnuw
Lucky sod
@LiquescentShadow
I feel your pain. I feel everyone’s pain. I think it’s fairly certain that Sony will fix the connectivity issues we’re all experiencing but it does still leave a bad taste in your mouth.
It never should have happened and hiding behind the beta defence is not acceptable in my book.
Like Redlac I’m going Home Alone for a while until it gets sorted out. I just have too much to play to sit there constantly trying to get in.
I’ll give Home another chance next year some time.
I do not care for the wait, I got in today also, after I had tried 10 times, i clicked the PS button, and looked on some trophy stats ++ It is free, we do not need to buy anything, and it is the 2nd day with open beta…
@Brodiesan
I honestly count myself lucky (well, sort of) to have made it into home. There are so many people out there who still have yet to try it due to connectivity issues. I should hope that Sony have as many people as they can spare working on the problem, lest they look like an absolute failure when people are still unable to log in in a week or two.
Also, for me Home doesn’t really do much once you get over the initial “Wow, this is pretty smart” thing. The next time i’m going to go in will be when the new spaces are released, or if the Diesel store opens and has a free item or something.
Something else I heard has also pissed me off a bit. Apparently North American Home users already have access to the additional spaces that were advertised (Far Cry 2, Uncharted etc) whilst we Europeans are left without the content. PS Store, Home…Europeans just seem forgotten about when it comes to product and service releases.
And, like you, I have too many other things that i could be doing with my PS3 in the run up to new year. Seems I will be going Home Alone as well.
@Magnuw
It’s only a beta in the sense that it’s got a beta label stuck on it. Home is now past version 1.00, and so technically should be a full release. The beta tag is there to make excuses easier to make.
@LiquescentShadow: Yes, America has the FC2 and Uncharted. I use Home because all my games is not working because this fail code: 80022D11
@Magnuw
I’m sorry to hear you’re having PS3 issues. I just did a bit of googling:
http://www.ps3news.com/PlayStation3/sony-please-fix-the-80022d11-error-ps3-games-are-unplayable/
I’d suggest maybe dropping Sony an email to explain your problem. They’ll probably email you back to tell you to ring their helpline or something. If Home is the only thing that works then go for it!
Hmph…it’s typical that America has the content first again. Simultaneous release really needs to be put into action by Sony.
@LiquescentShadow: I did that some days ago. Waiting for answer. I have googled, and found out this:
Unfortunately, Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) is not fully aware of the issue you are experiencing. Additionally, at this time we do not have a solution that would help you. It may be necessary, for you to wait until a future firmware update in order to rectify your issue. At this time we do not have any information on when the next firmware update will be available
@Magnuw
I guess all you can do is wait for the update then. Even though they say they are not fully aware of the issue i think its been around for a while so they probably have a team working on it. Hope it’s soon, sucks that you can’t play anything.
@LiquescentShadow: I can play some games, but I do not get trophies for them. One example is LBP. I cannot play for example Burnout Paradise, so I have to do it on another user without my save data.
@magnuw I think it was Brodiesan who had the same problem for a while.
@Brodiesan – Did you have the same 80022D11 error that magnuw is now dealing with? Can you help him by shedding some light on how you finally resolved the issue?
I think the only way to solve the issue at the moment is to start a new user on your PS3 and start all of your games over again. As soon as you start using your old saves then the problem comes back.
@LiquescentShadow: I will do that, but not delete the old saves, so I can use them when the problem is solved
I have been Home 2 times today, and havent gotten 1 fail message
@Magnuw
Hopefully old game saves will work fine with an update, and if they don’t then a lot of people are going to be pissed.
Well that’s a result, I haven’t tried to get in today. I hovered over the icon for a few seconds before realising i still had some roads to rule in show time mode on Burnout.
I’ve managed to get into Home a few times this weekend without too much trouble, s’pose it’s cos if i try 2-3 times and it doesn’t work, i go do something more exciting and don’t worry bout it too much. As a girly gamer i’ve found that in Home the guys crowd round and ‘bother me’. I have had some even try to virtually feel me up!! Where are their manners?!?