Sony Computer Entertainment announced today that they will cease publishing PlayStation Home updates in all Asian countries and regions within seven months.
According to the platform holder’s timetable, PlayStation Home users in Japan will no longer receive any new content after September 2013, with the rest of Asia following suit in March 2014. At this time, the announcement does not have any impact on the North American and European versions of Home. Both SCEA and SCEE have pledged to “continue to fully support their vibrant PlayStation Home communities with full weekly publishes, new public spaces, virtual items, and platform features.”
Released as a public beta form back in December 2008, PlayStation Home never quite lived up to its pre-launch hype, but it did manage to attract a fair number of visitors over the last five years. Personally, I only tried it out a couple of times, and became disillusioned after watching another user dance in a corner by himself for five minutes. At that point, I could not figure out which one of us was more pathetic, so I quickly left Home and never felt the need to return.
It remains to be seen just how long Sony will keep PlayStation Home going, but today’s announcement makes it clear that things are starting to wind-down. We will keep an eye out for any further updates and let you know as soon as Sony announces anything.
