Binge Gamer Dot Net

You guys… you Sony fanboys… it sucks to be you. Sony has announced that they will be extending the closed beta through the summer, essentially pushing the launch of the open beta back until sometime in the fall.

So why the delay? Well, Kaz Hirai explains that Sony wants to “refine the service to ensure a more focused gaming entertainment experience”, which seems to be the point of having a BETA in the first place. From the press release:

“We understand that we are asking PS3 and prospective PS3 users to wait a bit longer, but we have come to the conclusion that we need more time to refine the service to ensure a more focused gaming entertainment experience than what it is today,” said Kazuo Hirai, President and Group CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. “Our overarching objective is to provide users with new gaming experiences that are available only on PLAYSTATION Home. Spending more time on the development and on the Closed Beta testing reaffirms our commitment to bringing a quality service, maintaining the PlayStation® tradition.”

Honestly, the whole idea of having an open beta is a no-win situation. If you launch an open beta and it’s an actual beta (aka it has problems), people are going to say that it was plagued with bugs and it gives you bad press. On the other hand, if you polish the game to the point where you’re practically playing a release copy, you get bad press because it didn’t have enough improvement.

Regardless, Home’s open beta will be available sometime this fall.