Today marks a sad event in video games history- the closure of PS Home. It happened just over an hour ago, and even though I wasn't a regular visitor I feel a great sense of melancholy.
Many people I know worked on Home and it became such a strong feature of their lives. From the animator who designed the 'running man' dance, to the designer who created Scribble Shooter, to the developer who voiced the elf in the Xmas Event 2013, and to the producer who loved Home like no other, nurturing it, communicating with fans about it, visiting it regularly.
She understood it's potential, just like many others did. A niche who were loyal to the end. A fanbase who had great times there, made friends and lasting loving relationships. They spent a lot of money there too; some are disappointed that they won't be seeing a refund. Such is the nature of digital content I suppose, whilst you might feel you own the item. You don't own the infrastructure that it needs to exist.
I messaged her last night to tell her that I would be thinking of her as she pressed the button to take Home offline. And this morning, I was. At 8am on the dot I thought of her, pressing that button and saying goodbye to a huge part of her life.
We are all sad that the closure of Home wasn't marked in a more commemorative way. This was left to the fans to organise themselves and I'm sure they did a good job of that. It just felt a little like Sony let Home slowly die quietly, rather than hosting a huge 'bon voyage' party and inviting everyone it once knew.
Even with that said, well done to Sony for taking a risk and for believing in it for so long. Just a shame that it couldn't continue.
Congratulations to London Studio for what you achieved. It is unprecedented and will go down in history, whichever way it is written.
Goodbye PSHome, you will be missed.
No comments:
Post a Comment