We recently had the opportunity to chat with one of Home's best developers... LOOT! read what they have in store for us "soon" and more. You'll like what you read! Don't forget to give us your feedback via the comments at the end of the article. YPSH : LOOT is a developer that is part of Sony Pictures Entertainment. Tell us how and when LOOT got started. LOOT : We were originally formed as a group within Sony PicturesEntertainment in 2008. Since January 2010 we’ve been part of SONY DADC New Media Services division focusing on providing new and exciting B2B and B2C digital entertainment experiences to audiences everywhere. YPSH : About how many people are employed by LOOT? LOOT : We are currently a power-house team of nine and growing! YPSH : Was LOOT created especially for the Playstation Home platform? LOOT : Yes, indeed! We saw the great potential of HOME and wanted to be a part of it! YPSH : With the release of the Living Room Stage Set in 2009, users with video capture equipment could use it to make their own productions. How was that received? Was it a success? LOOT : Extremely well. HOME is now a place to meet, socialize, play and create with your friends. Now that the LOOT Active Camera can record, we’re seeing so many creative projects produced by users. We love watching so much creativity cultivate within Home and will continue to promote this capability. We can’t wait to see what the HOME community will create next! YPSH : LOOT's first efforts were only for the North American region of Home. It's been over a year now since LOOT's Ghostbusters Firehouse was released in the EU region. Does LOOT plan more releases in the EU and Japan regions?? LOOT : Absolutely. We work closely with the wonderful people at SCEE and SCEI to bring our LOOT content to Europe and Japan. Next year, our LOOTerific goods will be hitting ASIA. YPSH : As long as we are on the topic of the stage sets LOOT has created, we should mention the third such set, Modular Stage Set 3. LOOT also released 4 bundles of props to use with the sets (the "air", "talk show", "spacecraft" and "buildings" bundles). LOOT also released a portable stage light and a portable camera for use in any personal space in Home. Do you have any plans to further expand on the existing stage sets or create new ones? LOOT : Since the release of the updated Active Camera (which now records) we have also released the Office Bundle for personal decorative use and to support the HOME filmmakers (machinimators) story telling capabilities. Home users can expect more stages, props and set dressings from us in the future. YPSH : The additional props for Stage Set 3 require a steady hand for exact placement of the various pieces (particularly the Loot Air bundle). Is this a technical limitation or is it something that might be improved on with newer versions of Home? LOOT : We designed the set pieces to ‘line-up’, if you will. Based on memory limits and how furniture is treated technically, the line-up method of matching the markers on the floor with each other proved to be the most intuitive solution. YPSH : The Hollywood Hills House personal space carries on LOOT's Hollywood connection. The addition of the EOD screens was a first for Home. It got great reviews. Then LOOT released the Amateratsu Yacht, now upgraded to the Sunset Yacht with the addition of user controllable time of day. Another first and a popular feature. Will we be seeing more spaces like these from LOOT? LOOT : Home can expect more customizable spaces from us in the future. The Home experience is a unique one, so users want their avatar and space to be unique as well. We kept this in mind when we designed The Space Apartment (Plugged-in). Not only does this personal space have 8 different EOD screens placed throughout, but users will be able to upload pictures from Flickr to their 15 in-space photo screens! We even added a tweet ticker which allows you to display 5 Twitter feeds.YPSH : You have been updating the EOD's with new content. Then you added NASA TV for the Space Shuttle launch. That idea, again, received great reviews. Home has been experimenting with live streaming video. How is that experiment going and do you see improvements coming that would help to decrease lag and eliminate freezing issues? LOOT: With the addition of Crackle, we’re bringing full length movies and television shows to the HOME community via the LOOT™ EOD (Entertainment on Demand). But we’re not stopping there. The EOD will also offer users access to great Ustream and RadioIO content! The "Social Content Experience" concept is one of our key drivers for our going forward Home efforts. YPSH : The Sunset Yacht is an amazing space with its great graphics (the jumping whale) and the time of day feature. Not to mention the EOD. I'm assuming these great features add to the production time. Are these features difficult to program? LOOT : Anything worth doing right takes time. We are known for creating ambiance in our spaces and even though it presents more challenges, the finished product is truly exceptional. Expanding the EOD experience is one element that will add to that unique user experience we strive to create. YPSH : Last year, LOOT gave us the Save the Ta-Tas clothes that donated a portion of the sales to breast cancer research. Two questions... was it successful and if so, are there more plans to support a good cause like that again? LOOT : Yes. We feel our efforts to help raise awareness for a good cause was a success. If you’ve already purchased the original releases in HOME, you can still show your support by going to savethetatas.com and purchase a real-life save the tatas T-shirt to match your avatar YPSH : LOOT introduced the "Space Station" to Home recently. Will we see the doors open into future expansion of that space? Will LOOT be involved in any future projects that involve public spaces in PS Home? LOOT : Those doors will open soon....so stay tuned. We’ve got some really cool things in store for our Space Station. It will be big, bigger than anyone is expecting. YPSH : What do you like most about it PS Home? LOOT : The social aspect of Home has always been its most attractive quality, which is why we continue to focus our efforts on expanding the social experiences. We want to further blur the lines between Home’s social experiences and those found in the real world. YPSH : What new features would you like to see added or improved? LOOT : The capabilities of HOME are endless and we are continually looking for new social features and experiences to add to the environment. YPSH : If you were consulted as to the design of the next gen Playstation, what would be on the top of your list of most wanted new features? LOOT : Great question. We are gamers, and gamers know what they want out of their gaming. We believe it is important to learn from the past and improve. We believe a high quality consumer experience should always be the focus during design process, whether for content, or for the system it lives on. YPSH : I guess it is safe to assume that LOOT will be producing more content in the future that ties in with new movies from Sony Pictures. Will we be seeing more of those efforts from LOOT? LOOT : You betcha! We are still very close with our partners at SPE. YPSH : Lastly, we already talked about what features you might like to see added to Home. However, lets peer into the future a bit. New versions of Home, new hardware for the Playstation, etc.. What do you see possible in the future for Home that can't be done today? LOOT : We can’t give away all our secrets YPSH : Speaking for the users of Home, I congratulate LOOT on its innovate products and we can't wait to see the new Space Station and whatever LOOT has it store for the future! LOOT : Thanks, YPSH! We’re grateful to all our friends and fans out there. We hope you enjoy what we have coming for Home and beyond. Today, LOOT sent this update along : "Enjoy technology of the future with LOOT's Space Apartment, a three-story apartment with expansive views of Earth, outer space and the LOOT™ Space Station. Watch jellyfish swim in the multi-level aquarium located in the center of the apartment. Relax in the aquatic meditation environment pool located on the bottom level. This wonderful personal space is also equipped with highly advanced technology powered by its unique Space Apartment's Remote Access (S.A.R.A.) system. With S.A.R.A you can: - View up to 5 different Twitter feeds on a news ticker; - Search for photos on Flickr and display them on any or all of the 15 photo screens available throughout the space. Each photo screen even lets you set-up your own slideshows. - Choose out of 8 screen locations to view EOD content. LOOT EOD screens let you watch free full length movies and TV shows from Crackle, listen to live music radio from RadioIO and watch live events powered by Ustream and NASA TV. - Also, with S.A.R.A, you can control your Space Apartment's retractable ceiling, automated blinds and dynamic lighting options. Thanks to S.A.R.A you're in complete control. Welcome to the home of the future!" Also from LOOT:"We’re aiming to have Ustream and RadioIO live in BETA this weekend in the Space Apartment. Soon Ustream and RadioIO will be available free to all users in the Loot EOD Theater (Public Space.) Both will be accessible from the EOD What’s New screen." Stay tuned to YPSH for more on the new LOOT Space Station Apartment!
Great article Karen! Twitter and flickr in my space?! 450 personal photos on 15 screens?! 8 EODs? Jelly fish pool?! AND IM IN SPACE! lol.. Can it get much better than that?!
WOW! Awesome interview....more to look forward to with that personal space for sure--I'm a NASA junkie so this one is a must-have for me! Nice job as always Karen and BIG kudos to LOOT for the cutting-edge content.
Another great interview, good work. XD Loot are certain making it difficult for me to control my spending to one region. That new apartment look awesome.
This is one of the best interviews ever. I cant wait til this Space Station comes out. I especialy like the idea of slideshow picture frames if I'm understanding correctly. It would be great to show our visitors pics we have taken from Playstation Home and other games such as ModNation Racers if they choose to view in a slideshow. The S.A.R.A. system sounds cool. It would be awesome if we could share the videos we make with the LOOT Active Camera on our E.O.D screens as well. Thanks to LOOT and YPSH !!!... Thanks for reading I believe with Playstation Home anything is possible
I got to see this space in Home, as many others did, and I was amazed by how huge a step it really is all at once for Home. This is the kind of innovation, technology and potential that I think a lot of people have been waiting for them to tap into. Karen added my new Twitter acct. when I was there and sure enough, there it appeared....a "Welcome to Twitter" message from her on the ticker scrolling in the space a minute later. Cool stuff! The roof and window controls, the SARA transport, the BIG screen for watching movies, the ability to add slide shows from flickr, the jellyfish tank, Earth looming just outside--all really really awesome stuff to see integrated into Home. If LOOT can do THIS, then the sky is truly the limit for what can be done in Home with committed developers on board. Big time kudos to LOOT for their efforts and thanks to YPSH and Karen for the interview and the opportunity to see the space. :clapping:
I've spent the last couple of hours in my Hollywood Hills apartment, just listening to RadioIO. I'm really digging being able to listen to music I like, in my own apartment. I'm very grateful that Loot is taking such great leaps for us Home users and I commend them big time for how they have stepped up to the plate. They're making one of most demanded concepts of a Home, a reality. One thing I REALLY hope they improve on, is how the sound of the EOD system works in apartments. If you go a certain distance from the EOD system, you can't hear the music anymore. Would be nice, if they added ceiling speakers, in every room of the Hollywood Hills apartment, with the ability to choose to have them on or off, in certain areas of the space. That way, if you want music in a certain spot, you can have it without the fear of not being able to hear it, by being out of range from the TV screens. I can't wait to see what Loot tosses our way, next. 2011 has been a pretty decent year for Home, but 2012 is looking to be a brighter future for Home and all of us in the Home community.
Internet radio had got to be better than boom boxes where you can be listening to different tracks out the same boom box even though homes is limited to a few stations, bearing in mind there 1000s of stations out there, its a good start as long as stations get updated and dont get left like the London pub radio
Yeah they need to work on the range for sure. Sitting in front of a TV that is playing music is kind of senseless. The technology itself is awesome though.
I think Loot has done a fab job with the new edits to their personal spaces and I am sure it only gets better! Thanks Loot and thanks Carla for the interview and video of Space Station Personal Space. I wished someone would invite me to see it I am stoked for it.
