Phil Elliott
07:00 (BST)
15/07/2008
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Gosen: Don't hold your breath over PlayStation Home
David Gosen has told GamesIndustry.biz that we "shouldn't hold our breath" when it comes to the impact that PlayStation Home will have, and played down the significance of Microsoft's announcement on the redesign of Xbox Live as a spoiler for Sony's virtual platform.
Talking in an interview following the software giant's E3 press conference, Gosen explained that the inspiration for the character customisation also isn't a direct response to the success of Miis on Nintendo's Wii platform.
"Avatars go back to this concept of a social experience on a social network - [we have] 12 million members [on Xbox Live] globally, and we have a very actively engaged member-base," he said.
"So we've got a really active community already, and what we need to do is create an identity for those people. Personalisation isn't really new - we know people want to personalise their experience. Now, the avatars we've got are Xbox avatars, and they have arms, necks and legs, which other people's avatars maybe don't.
"But that's just the start point. They're appearing in the game, and what you'll see us do more and more is make sure that avatars are truly integral to everything we do. It just goes back to true personalisation and creating a social network that really works and is really relevant to all people."
And asked whether or not it was important to get the avatars out there before gamers started using Home in greater numbers, Gosen was sceptical.
"Well I think what Sony does with Home is up to them, and my advice is that we shouldn't hold our breath, because that could be quite a dangerous thing to do," he said.
The full GamesIndustry.biz interview with Chris Lewis and David Gosen is available now.
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