Sony Computer Entertainment will conduct system maintenance for PlayStation Home on Thursday, December 18, 2008. At this time PlayStation Home will be updated from ver. 1.03 to 1.04. The system maintenance is scheduled to start at 12 midnight (PST), and the service is expected to resume in approximately 6 hours but may change depending on the circumstances. PlayStation Home will be unavailable during the maintenance window.
The reason for this maintenance is to ease the difficulty some people are having accessing PlayStation Home due to the high demand for the service.
Additionally, as part of version 1.04, the voice chat feature within PlayStation Home will be temporarily suspended. As soon as we are ready to resume the voice chat feature, we will inform you via PlayStation.com and PlayStation.Blog. In the meantime, we encourage users to make use of the Wireless Keypad for PLAYSTATION 3 or any USB or Bluetooth-enabled keyboard for text chat and also the “phone friend” features to communicate within PlayStation Home.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you and kindly ask for your understanding.
For those that hate voice chat-there was already an option to disable it. Just shut it off. Your problem is solved.
But you’d know that if you read this thread, people have mentioned it already.
OK, Take out the”voice chat” and replace it with “video streaming” and “picture frames… I could live with that.
Dear Sony (Part 1, sorry, 1250 char limit),
First you guys took away user generated content sharing through Picture Frames and TVs “temporarily” as has been posted all over the web, which was for a vast majority of us the big deal breaking feature of Home. You guys have been extremely tight-lipped about whether that feature will ever make its return into Home. The fact that you imposed that Media Molecule can’t release the Image Import Tool on LittleBigPlanet seems to be another major indicator that this feature is never coming back to Home.
Now you guys want to take away Mic chat “temporarily”, without even an explanation as to why.
I just have to ask, what’s next? Will you take away our ability to do the “Body Pop” and other Emotes, maybe even text chat, leaving us with simple hand gestures to communicate with our friends?
(cont’d)
(Part 2)
I am honestly both angry and heart-broken over some of the recent decisions with Home. The day I first got my PS3 back in April last year, the first thing I saw on PSN was the trailer for Home, and was simply amazed that for the first time in console history I would have the ability to put my graphics design works on the walls of my own private space in a social network, and share and collaborate with people, just as you had advertised. It got me so excited enough about Sony’s direction that it led to other purchases of mine. In the last year I’ve bought a 46″ 1080P Bravia, an 8GB Mem Stick for my PSP, a Sony Vaio AR Series Notebook (the one with 4GB Ram, an Nvidia 8600M, and a Blu-Ray… it set me back a bit), and untold hundreds I’ve spent in the PSN Store, and I also bought my fiancee a Sony Cybershot H50 for Christmas.
(cont’d)
as for voice chat it will be back and when it come back it will be better for all am tried of people who cant be a little grown up when they comment on the mic . do some of you realize there kids in home and by the way some of the kids or no better when it come to them too. @ 44 sony drop the ball ? really ? and 360 dont ? come on man they have issue over there to have you ever try playing gear 2 ? come back to me when you play that and lets see if you still think sony only have problem because both systems do. the voice chat isn’t a problem more of a improvement sony want everone to enjoy home not just a few think big picture sometimes .
(Part 3)
Frankly right now, I feel like you’ve just slapped me in the face as a loyal Sony customer, and I feel very tempted to go back to MMORPGs I used to play on the PC that have more social networking features than Home now as you continue to take them away. I understand that Home is a Beta, but I’ve also seen a lot of changes that were quite alarming or at least were disappointing (such as the more subtle things like typography changes that took away some of the stylish look of Home), and I have no confidence right now in whether to continue using the product or not in a large part due to the lack of forthcoming information.
(cont’d)
(Part 4)
From this point on, I’ve made up my mind. I won’t buy a stick of furniture or a stitch of clothing from Home’s Mall until I start seeing some change back in the positive direction, I will be effectively boycotting the microtransactional purchases in Home until I hear some good word about user generated content and mic support, which I would have otherwise bought without hesitation (and my prior purchases on just about every game on PSN prove that). It’s simply a matter of principle now. I think at the very respectable least, we need some closure on whether or not these features are actually coming back, so that we’re not getting false hopes on what the product will actually be able to do.
Sincerely,
A very upset gamer named BitRunner
REMOVING VOICE CHAT!? Is that a ****ing JOKE!?
Why the hell is that being “suspended?”
Truth to tell, I’m all for the voice chat being suspended. After all of the crap I’ve seen on the TEXT chat, I can only imagine how horrible the voice chat was. Maybe this will teach the idiots in Home to start acting with some class instead of acting like boorish little idiots trying to sniff at any female av’s skirt and acting like digital gangstas.
As for Home itself? Not gonna lie, I’m finding it really..REALLY boring. Lines to play bowling or pool or even the arcade games are way too long, and you have to buy pretty much anything to do anything fun. Sorry, Sony..I paid 655 dollars for your system that really doesn’t have near as good of games as the 360 has. I’m not going to be nickel and dimed by you guys for a hat, or a bag of potato chips.
1 voice chat is down so they can improve it way to many people out there who cant be grown up about there comment to someone do you realize there children in home and by the way some of them are bad with there comment to. @ 44 sony dropping the ball and 360 dont you really believe that? ever try playing gear 2 ? please both systems have problem dont just make this one sided you have to realize sony want everone to enjoy home not just a few start thing about the big picture .
at least, all of you have a Home to go to. i dont :( because apparently, sony does not support all their export. i live in Malta (a small island in the mediterranean) and we cannot access Home or the Store!!
what does other countries have better than us?!?!?
This is racism from sony!!
No voice chat? Why!? I used it when I was with friends :(
Will the “call a friend” option work with several people? Like 3
@58: Sounds like a personal problem. My friends and I have a blast with Home. Without voice chat though, I see no need to go there. How the hell am I supposed to understand things like this: “****o! I was looking for a r***r at the store, and saw some gold t*******, and I thought it’d be cool if they **** *he rest of my items!”
If I wanted to type incoherent nonsense, I could do it from the XMB without having to worry about a damn idiotic filter!
Home is useless to me now. 1st: I want an explanation of why voice chat was suspended. 2nd: I want a ballpark timeframe for that feature to be returned.
@ 60 you know you can create a u s account then you can download home or you can talk to sony on the issue at hand or find out why your countries does not suppose home there are so many ways you can fix your issue beside saying that .
NO VOICE CHAT! That stinks.
Sorry about being negative but that is a very negative thing. I hope that voice chat soon returns to Home as well as game launching.
To All that’s Complaining about Mic’s Being a Issue go back to your Xbox you Xbox Fan boys
IT’s NOT GOING TO BE TAKEN OUT!!!!!
WOULD RUIN THE WHOLE EXPERIENCE OF HOME IF THEY TOOK OUT THE MICS IN PUBLIC SPACES.. IF THAT HAPPENED WE WOULD NEVER MAKE NEW FRIENDS.
MIC’S ARE NOT A ISSUE.. ITS THE ONES THAT LIKE TO PLAY THERE MUSIC THATS THE ISSUE!
I HAVE NO ISSUES WITH MIC’S BEING A PROBLEM
TO RESOLVE THE ISSUE HERE IS THE SOLUTION
((((((((((((( JUST MUTE THEM! )))))))))))))
——————————-
GO UPDATE YOUR HOME
TO 1.04 right now!!!!!!!!!!!!!
——————————-
Thank you for the heads up. Much appreciated.
And, for those of us who use voice chat, it will be down only temporarily. For those who don’t care for it, you can disable it. Use your options.
No problem. Having a blast being on Home. Thanks, SCEA. Keep up the great work!
Adding a beta tag to this version of home was a smart move..but I would like to know when a more “complete” (that is a version worth the experience) will be released.
And please don’t make comparisons with gmail beta. When it was launched was incomplete but the core service was there from day one.
@63, i have a us account. but that doesnt transfer your friends list and your trophies. and you cant meet new people from my country
Great news, won’t miss:
* Idiots who blast their crappy music
* Idiots trying to provoke people with racial slurs
* Idiots and their retarded pick up lines
The new content and Spaces look fantastic Sony. Can’t wait for the next US content update.
Home has turned out better than our wildest dreams. Greatest online gaming service ever.
Ya know, I have to agree with the first post, I’m sure they knew they would be doing this more than 2 hours in advance, a heads up would be nice.
I doubt its because people are useing volgar language that sony is disabling public voice chat.
More likely it’s the music industry threatend to sue sony for the people that are publicly streaming their copyrighted music.
Well, in the User Agreement it does state that the service may go down without warningfor occassional updates and maintenance. That is warning enough for me.
I do appreciate the fact that they are maintaining, and will continue to maintain, Home for us for a very long time. I am here for life.
It certainly would be nice if people would actually read and comprehend the blog:
“The reason for this maintenance is to ease the difficulty some people are having accessing PlayStation Home due to the high demand for the service.”
Yea, gotta agree with the first post on this, that the entire HOME COMMUNITY NOTICE that comes up when you start the service might’ve been a good place to give a heads up on this. You guys seem pretty disorganized, why are we hearing from the PS Blog what we should be hearing from Home itself?
Home:
A)Has no useful features. Gamelaunching is limited to Warhawk, and basic game launching should be part of the XMB anyways (people will not boot into Home JUST for this, they’ll just boot into the game instead).
B)Has very little content. The Theater shows one trailer, forever.
C)You Removed Media sharing in private spaces, the BEST advertised feature. Being able to watch some videos with my friends, despite being miles away, would be awesome.
You basically showed us a product we wanted to use because it was so communal and involved so much sharing. You then delivered a product that has a distinct lack of choice, and removed any ability for us to interact that would make Home superior to AIM or MSN.
I’ve defended Home to ridiculous extents, now I realize that, that may have made me look ignorant. I hate to say it, but I, myself, am becoming very disappointed with Home as a whole . . .
Oh yeah, umm, work on the typed word censors, nearly every words comes up with asterisks placed randomly throughout it, just enough to make it to where you can’t even tell what someone is trying to say when nothing they said needs censored in the first place.
This is a beta. There will be more options to do in the future.
And, a a man who used to shoot pool six nights a week, I rather enjoy playing it with others in Home.
Congratulations Sony, with the new 1.4 update, you’ve officially created the most pointless piece of software available! A glorified chat room that has been stripped of voice support so that we must now either buy your stupid overpriced keypad or use the terrible on-screen keyboard! Fantastic. I’m glad Home is living up to all the hype.
Correction:
This is a beta. There will be more options to do in the future.
And, as a man who used to shoot pool six nights a week, I rather enjoy playing it with others in Home.
Is voice chat cut because of bugs, or till you get your censor engine in? I really hate the fact that there are so many text censored, i mean even words that are not bad get the ******* treatment. It really is making me not want to use the service if it is going to be censored like this. Keep the kids out. Don’t make us adults, who have 400 + dollars for the system suffer.
To heck with the key pad, i don’t like it, i’ll stick with my USB keybaord.
If there continues to be a lack of content, and strict censorship i will boycott this product.
BTW, here is my positive Home beta review.
http://www.velvetacidchrist.com/2008/12/13/playstation-home-open-beta/
People do MOAN alot on the internet :-/
If it makes HOME better then cool :) Thanks SONY.
And, once again: Some people did not read or comprehend the User Agreement or the “heads up” posted at the beginning of this discussion.
AFireInside: “we must now either buy your stupid overpriced keypad or use the terrible on-screen keyboard! Fantastic. I’m glad Home is living up to all the hype.”
LOL! The stupid troll doesn’t know that any standard usb keyboard works perfectly with the PS3 and Home…
Way to go retard!
At all complaining about “Why” the voice chat is leaving, you can blame all the idiots who use their mics to harass, curse and abuse others.
I am guessing once Sony figures a way to censor the voice chat, then it will resume service. Am glad Sony took notice and it is trying to remedy the chaotic situation currently going on with the Voice Chat system. Thank You Sony!
“as part of version 1.04, the voice chat feature within PlayStation Home will be temporarily suspended”
This is seriously disappointing to those of us who greatly enjoyed using comfortable chat in Playstation Home using the high-quality microphone array of PSEye. I hope the “temporarily” part of the above statement means days or weeks, not months.
By the way, our theater is terrible, but Europe and Japan have amazing theaters. Europe has 2 floors with 10 theaters, and Japan has multiple theaters with futuristic seats.
Also, Europe has outdoor chess and checker tables, and Japan has a cafe lounge.
I’m sure they’re testing these different versions to see which gets the best feedback. Hopefully we’ll get some of these nice features in the near future.
One more thing – I find it pretty obnoxious that people are complaining about Home at all. This is FREE software with FREE service, so no one has gotten ripped off by any means. If you don’t want to use it… don’t.
Keep in mind, Microsoft makes their users pay for basic online service, and we’re getting Playstation Network and Home without paying a dime.
Sorry Sony but Home is a big Joke right now. Cant login since a week and now is voice chat gone? lol
Sony take a look to M$:
The day before Home launched I got a (clearly unrelated) briefing from Xbox product manager Aaron Greenberg and I brought up this topic. I asked: When/how/how-often will we see cheap clothing options for our Xbox 360 Avatars available for paid download?
“I don’t think there’s where you’re going to see a tremendous amount of revenue,” Greenberg said, phrasing his expression of Microsoft’s disinterest in selling Avatar clothing in way that argues there’s no profit in such a technique. Recently, Microsoft gave away the first batch of new Avatar clothing for free. They don’t think they’re leaving money on the table.
The kind of Avatar upgrading that Microsoft is interested in will involve gamers unlocking items for their Avatars through the games they are playing. The tools for this are now in the hands of developers. So when will we experience the first results? “As soon as developers get it done,” Greenberg said.
Hopefully you guys can get voice chat back soon because I love talking to my friends in Home. It was really buggy so hopefully once you guys put it back out it will be working perfectly. Any time frame that we could be expecting this feature back?
At all complaining about “Why” the voice chat is leaving, you can blame all the idiots who use their mics to harass, curse and abuse others.
I am guessing once Sony figures a way to censor the voice chat, then it will resume service. Am glad Sony took notice and it is trying to remedy the chaotic situation currently going on with the Voice Chat system. Thank You Sony!
At least ohine calls still work. I hate text chat. It just takes so long to talk to each other that way.
heisert: “Cant login since a week and now is voice chat gone? lol”
Go back to your RRoD box and its 50 dollar a year laggy online play and retarded Nintendo Mii ripoffs.
My god does Home terrify the idiotic Xbots out there enough for them to sit around in PS3 forums every day.
“will involve gamers unlocking items for their Avatars through the games they are playing”
Finally the clowns at Microsoft have gotten a clue. When they ripped off Sony/Insomniacs Skill Points and renamed them achievements they were too stupid to understand that those points were meant to reward the player with items and unlocks and not some idiotic and pointless ‘gamerscore’.
Update seems much needed as it has been hard to log in, usually taking several tries. A few notes.. how about adding cosmic bowling and perhaps a few more lanes. I notice it tends to get a bit crowded. Air hockey would be quite simple to throw in. And rather than having to actually purchase new clothes, how about earning them as a reward for beating certain games. Kind of like how it works on icebreakers. People are right about the mic issues. To many people talking unwanted smack in crowded areas. Keep in mind, many kids under 18 access home. Hope you guys read this and consider a few of these ideas. They just may attract more users.
no voice chat is the way to go. keep the phone friend option, lose the voice chat.
and give us worthwhile updates
Thanks for the update!
add anything new ?
GTA Space please!!
voice chat has to stay in! was a witness to harrasment via typed message. I was bowling with a chick, and we were speaking via voice chat. Some dude started sending very nasty messagees through the cross media bar. He also sent me some. Getting rid of voice chat will not eliminate the issue. It will however force as poor gamers to choose between our next new game and a keyboard.
“Due to high demand”…that’s laughable! HOME is such a waste of resources. Why can’t they just make an awesome 2D interface HOME?
Removing voice chat? Haha this thing turned out to be a big joke! Easily the most anticipated feature of the year (Home) just turned into the biggest flop! I really tried my best defending Home and Sony intentions to the doubters, but enough is enough..this thing will easily go down as one of the biggest gimmicks in gaming history! Sony hit it rich (both financially and reputation wise) with BluRay, so I guess they don’t give a damn if their the laughing stock of the gaming world!
My rant is over, I’m done woth this. Home was nothing but a damn stillbirth!
Well, I never got 5027 errors before. Now I do…