Bidaux: Home won't sell PS3s

NCsoft's director of product development believes Home's fortunes are dependent on PlayStation 3's installed base, and not the other way around.

Thomas Bidaux told GamesIndustry.biz that Home is "very interesting", but he believes it will "remain quite limited" unless it offers something significant beyond customisation of avatars.

He is also unconvinced that it will encourage take-up of the console. "One of the limitations is linked to the PlayStation 3 - so the success of Home is 100 per cent tied to the PS3's penetration into the market," he said.

"I don't think you can say you will sell more PS3s because of Home, but if the PS3 had the right penetration in the market, then yes - Home will be very interesting."

Bidaux also made the point that Sony's history of keeping a console on the market for a significant length of time, and its strength as a hardware company, were critical to

NCsoft's decision to partner with the company on a range of games.

"[Y]ou don't want to roll out an MMO and make it obsolete because of a new platform a year after that," he pointed out. "You want to have your MMO for many, many, many years - as many as possible."

"So the PlayStation 3 is a good platform for us, and we assume it's going to be around for quite a long time. Early adopters, and the early days - we don't really worry too much at that point."

Bidaux also acknowledged that both Sony and Microsoft's hardware strategies are "valid" and "interesting" in their own ways, and agreed that people probably get a bit carried away trying to compare them.

The full exclusive GamesIndustry.biz interview is available now.