In 2021 we will be releasing our next IGN Inside Story. PlayStation Home fans refuse to let it endSo, let’s take a look at a few different homemade re-creations of the short-lived but much-loved PlayStation 3 social space.
In this article, we meet Nagato, a content developer working on Destination Home, a non-profit project that seeks to revive PlayStation Home and restore a social hub for future generations to experience.
Restoring PlayStation Home was a very ambitious one. After the original social space was closed, not only was the service lost, but so was its data. Home was not on disc or cartridge and could not be played offline. It lived forever in a now-defunct server entirely. Still, that didn’t stop Nagato and the destination home team from dreaming big.
In 2021, after pulling together cache data, the team built a working version of Home, but it was a pure single-player experience, more like a walking museum than a bustling social hub. In the early days, the idea of having an active public server, the whole point of Home, was just a pipe dream.
But two years later, that dream has come a long way. The Destination Home team creates actionable online experiences and is a few steps closer to realizing the dream of a thriving social hub. I reached out to Mr. Nagato to not only talk about his development journey since we last spoke, but also to test his version of the fan-restored PlayStation Home playable.
“I only remember spamming hello on the controller. I thought this was insane,” says Nagato. “I remember being on his Discord with the dev team, and it was just the emotions that came back.
In October 2022, Destination Home finally launched its first closed beta to our largest supporters and contributors. For the first time in seven years, you can play PlayStation Home online with other fans. Not a complete package, but teeth A milestone for Destination Home.
“What is currently working in closed beta is the ability to have cross-region compatibility,” Nagato shared. “We found a way to put the space in Europe, the US, or Japan into one giant server he said.”
“We have enabled the purchase feature,” he added. “[you’re] You won’t actually be purchasing any store content though, but that’s still a long way off. We’re looking at ways people can buy free clothes and items through his RPCS3 and PS3, but if there’s original clothes or something like that, we’ve entered it. “
Let me be clear on this point. Nagato replaces the word “purchase” with the free acquisition of items from the old purchasing system. Destination Home was and always will be a non-profit project. No microtransactions at all.
“If you have an original PSN account and purchased items on Home, all items are basically alive as long as they are donated to us or archived,” Nagato said. explains. “The clothes on my avatar were purchased in 2012.”
Destination Home stays true to the idea of recreating the entire experience. While this is merely a first toe dip in the central square’s pond, their plans for full recreation are grand.
“We are currently preparing for closed beta 2 and have 13 spaces that have been carefully selected based on feedback from our members,” says Nagato. “We now have hundreds of spaces, ready to use and ready to deploy.”
In 2021, the Destination Home team had a limited data pool. They hunted down all the local and cached files Home fans left on their dusty PS3s with the goal of being able to reverse-engineer the code and restore it.
“At the time, we were using the 1.00 client, and it took many iterations to get the final client working on both the PlayStation 3 emulator and the RPCS3 emulator,” explained Nagato.
“During that time, through various data capture avenues, we have successfully obtained over 300 unique caches,” he added. “After I posted your video on IGN, I was inundated with people coming to Discord, DMing me via Twitter, Reddit and even PSN – they found my PlayStation network! – Data All this combined really pushed the project to the point where it was ready for closed beta 2.
By Nagato’s own admission, IGN’s coverage was helpful. The project received more attention, and along with it, more and more dedicated PlayStation Home fans generously donated their cache data.
“I think there was a really big boom after IGN’s coverage.” this is [been] It’s really useful because I can restore data faster and people want to donate. It really just sent us to the moon.
I saw this love and support firsthand in the comments section. Overwhelming nostalgia and support for her social platform long thought lost. However, not everyone was convinced that PlayStation Home needed to be resurrected, with many viewers pointing to the existence of modern alternatives. Mainly VR chat.
When I mentioned this feeling to Nagato, he immediately began to enthusiastically defend the PlayStation Home.
“There is an element of nostalgia in the house,” says Nagato. “People remember Home based on their event, like the FIFA Arena where the 2010 world football event was held. I was like, ‘Oh, I remember when E3 came out when I was in middle school and I won this award. What I did was play Dance Dance Revolution and try to beat all the developers. We have a big nostalgia factor. “
“The virtual world is now moving further into the realm of NFTs, or cryptocurrencies, which is unsuitable for people who are not interested in technology and cryptocurrencies,” he added. “So for me, when a lot of social worlds bring in that element, when Home becomes something like ‘here’, it obfuscates and minimizes the player base. If you’re a small Big Planet, we’ve got something for you. If you like MotorStorm, enjoy it. If you’re like Nagato and want to play Dance Dance Revolution all day long, this is for you. “
I was filled with a similar level of nostalgia, so perhaps naively, I understood Nagato’s point. I always felt that PlayStation Home had integrity. Whether that’s true or not, I’ve always had the impression that this place was made purely for PlayStation game fans. The modern Metaverse feels cynical from the get-go, seemingly using your love for the franchise to manipulate you into spending more money. When I say these words, the logic part of my brain definitely tells me there was some sort of intention from Sony, but at least for what it presents, the PlayStation Home has always been it. It felt a little healthier, cleaner, and better. Perhaps many of the audience watching through his rosy PlayStation Home nostalgia goggles tend to agree with this.
“I see a lot of people leaving nice comments about how Home has changed their lives.” Nagato shared. “I know people who literally met in the Home and now have children. [Home] Friends here and there. To be honest, seeing the community’s respect for the project as a whole motivates me to do it. ”
“Companies like Facebook are probably throwing billions of dollars at certain projects to mimic what Home did,” he continues. “For me, Sony was too far ahead at the time, and so was the Vita.
With a successful closed beta and a second beta on the horizon, it feels like it’s only a matter of time before PlayStation Home is once again accessible worldwide. So I had to ask. Do they see the end of this restoration project?
“I would say no,” he says firmly. “For a project like this, of course, you need a 100% snapshot of how Home worked. Will it come? I think so, but overall it’s just one of those things where the ball is always rolling.”
In any online project, especially one developed by fans in their spare time, there’s always an elephant in the room that hasn’t been discussed yet. safety.
“For me, I don’t want my project [to feel unsafe]Mr. Nagato says. “I know many fan projects have gone through that experience, but I want everyone to enjoy Home in their own way.” [remember] that. I do not want anyone to experience any form of bullying. This takes the fun out of the game, but let’s be honest, people play games for only one reason: to have fun. “
Nagato reassured me that the team is working hard to ensure moderation at Destination Home. But after working so hard on a restoration project, is it tempting to extend the platform or develop your own content for it?
“Yeah, there’s no The Last of Us mini-game. It’s not Gran Turismo,” jokes Nagato. “That’s not what real Home means. If you come out [originally] That’s our model and that’s why we introduced it. [us adding content] Unless it improves quality of life. If Home had any real game-breaking bugs or glitches, they’d be fixed, but that’s about it. ”
When I last saw Nagato, I asked him what his ultimate goal was. What moment makes him stop, look back, and be proud of what they’ve accomplished? bottom. After that, given that they had achieved so much more, it felt like it was time to reach a new end goal.
“That’s the day when we actually let non-developers play our games and they take screenshots and post them on Twitter and we literally see the euphoria come back. , I say,” explains Nagato.
“We were already doing it on a small scale. There were maybe 10 people in this lobby,” he added. “But when you see a lot of guys going sodium, [and seeing] There are 44 players there. [Seeing people in] Konami, [playing] Dance Dance Revolution, and I’m trying to beat everyone in the game. I see people wearing original clothes. It’s the day to let people enjoy it. ”
If you want to join Destination Home, be sure to join our Discord server. If you liked this article, check out our other insider stories about the gaming community.include Weird and Awesome Fans Still Play Fallout 76 and the A fan of Final Fantasy VII who is eager for Aerith’s revival.
Dale Driver is IGN’s video executive producer and PlayStation Home fan/apologist. Follow him on Twitter and be thoroughly bored. @_daledriver.
