How many of you have seen Xam’d: Lost Memories, the anime series available only through the PlayStation Store? I’m betting not too many as it’s a bit pricey, made worse by the fact that the 26 episode series is only available for rent, rather than purchase. It would seem that few Japanese people have seen it either, so this past week, Sony threw up the first full episode  in Home JP’s theater, free and for all to see.

If full length features are possible, the Home Theater may not be such a bad place after all, in the future anyways.

Home JP’s citizens seemed just as eager to see this marvel in action, as I have never seen the huge, cavernous, Home JP theater room so full of people. The video took about five minutes to download and start playing, and was split up into two halves with another download for the second half in between. Afterwards, we were asked to go downstairs and take a survey on the experience.

The questions ranged from the basic demographic stuff to more interesting topics that may suggest future directions Home things like this could take, such as “Would you like to have movie start times so that everyone in the theater sees the videos at the same pace?” and “Would you like to see more of these events in the future?”

I’ve got to point out once again how much more closely Home JP’s virtual world approximates the real world by showing you the actual interactive object that initiated the survey.

It looks just like a promotional cardboard display you’d see in a real theater here, trailer running LCD screen and all. (see top)

Finally, upon completing the survey, I was awarded with a new “glove” item, the big arm in the picture I posted last week. It’s quite cool, and goes nicely with all of the other swag I’ve accumulated in Home JP.

What about Home US?

Imagine how many more people would actually voice their opinions on Home if surveys were actually in the virtual world rather than outside on a website many people don’t normally go to. Plus, in-Home surveys that give out freebies? How could people not want to participate?

It has occurred to me that Home is very much still a work in progress, with many features that have yet to be utilized and thus tested with the public. So with time being the ultimate scarce resource, it only makes sense that each region of Home should test different features alone, allowing for a wider array of concurrent testing within a finite amount of time.

So, hang tight. These types of things will undoubtedly arrive here someday too.

GDC was this past week, and I spent so much time looking over what we’d be looking forward to in the world of gaming. Here are some highlights for me:

• XNA Game Studio updated to 3.1 – adding with it support for Avatars and Avatar animation in Community Games. My current game doesn’t have any need for that stuff, but maybe next time…
• OnLive – perhaps the future of gaming, where no one needs to own a machine powerful enough to run the latest games. All we need is something that can “talk” to powerful game machines out there in the interwebs, sending it controller inputs and receiving streaming video of the actual game in progress. OnLive is that something, cloud computing for video games. Will it work? Who knows? I sometimes have problems streaming Youtube, so I don’t know how I’m going to stream real-time compressed game video.
• Leaked gameplay footage of God of War III and Uncharted 2 – They’re grainy and small, but from what you can see, the animations and such, these are going to be incredible.
• Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 trailer shown – I’ve said it before, I say it again: Ninja Gaiden Sigma was a better game than Ninja Gaiden. It wasn’t just graphics that improved. Interface and level designs were also improved. So I think that even if you look past the fact that Sigma 2 has more playable characters, more weapons, more levels, and online co-op play over the 360’s Ninja Gaiden 2, Sigma 2 is going to be the better game.
• Fat Princess reemerged! – It’s a great looking game and 32 player matches sound really fun. Look for more on this one.
• Pub Fund – Apparently, Sony’s offering incentives to develop games exclusively for PSN. The Pub Fund will match every dollar a studio puts into making a game with guaranteed royalties. Sounds like an awesome deal. Burn Zombie Burn, which just came out, is the first game to take advantage of the program.
• Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time – Not really GDC related, but you know that Sony timed this announcement for this week, a new Ratchet & Clank game is coming out this Fall. First trailer was shown and it looks like the story will be pretty interesting.

Good times, and in case you missed them, here’s what I went on about this week:

Introducing Adventures in Home JP

I Xi [See] the Future of PlayStation Home

Automated Trophy Cards

I’m ramping up, so expect more next  week!

While PlayStation Home, the virtual PlayStation community, is accessible throughout the three major regions, the content in these regions varies wildly. Home EU is a bit of mystery to me, as I don’t ever go there. Home US is decent in terms of amount of content, but if I were to pick a favorite, I’d have to go with Home JP for pure style and well used functionality.

Beyond just the “ad’s that get the job done” style that many things in Home US take, the Home JP development team has really embraced the idea of a virtual world, and it is reflected in the presentation. Ads in Home US are clearly ads, and while the same is true of ads in Home JP, ads there blend into the environments in such a way that they are visible but unobtrusive.

How is this accomplished? Besides just the ad designs themselves, the ad content in Home JP isn’t constantly pulling users out of the virtual world. Here’s an example: ads in Home US have been for the wireless chat pad and new games available at retail and through the PlayStation Store. None of those things can be purchases within Home, so there’s this conflict of imagery. The 3D environment sends the message of immersion, “Be here, be in this world” where as all of the advertisements say, “Go. Get out of this world and buy our stuff.”

That’s my theory, anyways. That’s why when I see a Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty poster, I say, “Ad,” but when I see a poster depicting an avatar in new clothes from the Threads store that looks like something you’d see in a real mall, I say, “Cool.”

These things might just be a matter of the different dev teams for the different regions having different skill sets and backgrounds. I’ve often thought that perhaps the Home US team simply doesn’t have the direction that Home JP has so of course they’re going to be different. Who knows?

What this does give us is the opportunity to look at the differences between the two regions. Check back soon to see what this big arm is about as we “Pretend to Be Japanese.”