PlayStation Home has seen a somewhat frosty reception from gamers since its launch, but according to a recent report from BrandWeek, advertisers are starting to give it the cold shoulder as well. The report notes that Sony sat out this year's Engage Expo, an annual youth entertainment technology conference, and that Home now has only a few non-endemic (i.e. not game-related) advertisers. "From moment one, it felt kind of clunky," said John Rafferty of Publicis' Denuo. "And once you got through that, there wasn't much there." He goes on to say the hefty monetary requirements for a Home ad campaign is "a huge barrier to entry for advertisers."
Rafferty's concerns sound familiar to gamers, who have said many of the same things about Home's appeal. Leigh Alexander of Gamasutra noted that the service was made during a rush to craft virtual worlds, but it's been realized that "users want to do things as quickly and easily as possible even if that means static Web pages." Like many users, it seems advertisers simply don't see the benefit of chatting in a virtual world.
Some still think the service has a chance to come into its own, however. "Sony is a little more conservative in embracing their system as an ad platform. They just have less people," said Daria Raciti of Ignition Factory. "I think they are starting to go down the path of being more competitive with Xbox Live."
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Rafferty's concerns sound familiar to gamers, who have said many of the same things about Home's appeal. Leigh Alexander of Gamasutra noted that the service was made during a rush to craft virtual worlds, but it's been realized that "users want to do things as quickly and easily as possible even if that means static Web pages." Like many users, it seems advertisers simply don't see the benefit of chatting in a virtual world.
Some still think the service has a chance to come into its own, however. "Sony is a little more conservative in embracing their system as an ad platform. They just have less people," said Daria Raciti of Ignition Factory. "I think they are starting to go down the path of being more competitive with Xbox Live."
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