Written by Chris Rah Osiris 
The latest statement from Kaz Hirai has caused quite a stir. Some people are questioning why he would make such a statement. On the Home forum on the official Playstation Forum, people are saying that this is indicative of another delay. Is there really a need to panic? Did Kaz subtly announce that we are in for another delay? I for one would say no. Let me tell you why.
There is one thing that everyone needs to take a moment to realize. Kaz said that the Open Beta would still be coming this autumn. This statement is key because of a comparison that Sony has been making for a while. Home’s release will be akin to the release of Gmail. Last I checked, no one is freaking out because the official Gmail release date has not been announced. Gmail is still in Beta. I am reminded of this every time I log in to check my messages. I am sure some of you will say that Gmail is at least out and has not been delayed twice already. I cannot fault you for thinking that. But I will certainly say that it is too early to say that the sky is falling.
Home will certainly be coming this fall. There have been murmurs that Home’s Expanded Beta and Open Beta were to be announced at E3, but were not due to disagreements about the exact dates for each. This does not sound like the type of discussion a company has for a product that is going to be delayed. Some of you will want to know who said this and where this info came from. I will simply say that the people that are working on Home would know more about it than some average joe.
Another important thing to think about is that there are games that are being released that will take advantage of Home this Fall. Bioshock is one of the first third-party titles that will take advantage of Home. I doubt that 2K would take the time to implement features for a service that will not be released prior to or in close proximity to the release of the game. Other titles will be taking advantage of Home as well. Resistance 2, another Fall title, is another title that will be taking advantage of Home. Considering developers complaints of increasing development costs for games, why would a developer spend resources to develop things for Home if it was not coming soon?
Kaz’s statement can and will likely be blown out of proportion for a while. Nothing is going to stop this until Sony finally announces some concrete dates for Home. Hopefully Leipzig, PAX, or TGS will answer these questions. I personally am hoping for something sooner. Once we all get our hands on the Open Beta, we are in store for a lot of fun. Yes, there will be a party at my place.
Thanks for reading.
Chris Rah Osiris, signing out.
