Now that Home Beta has unleashed itself all over a small population of the world, critics of the service are starting to surface. One of them is Shane Kim, Mircosoft Game Studios' head. After speaking with people from big social networking sites like Second Life and even YouTube, Kim was surprised to find out how much software development it took to run these environments and has doubts that Sony can deliver on their original Home promises:

I doubt [Sony's] ability to implement it and execute it in a really rich and compelling way. PlayStation Network is not Xbox Live, it's not even close. To think about layering [Home] on top of that—wow. The hardest part is not even creating the system, it's regulating the behavior and all of that too. Boy, that's a massive investment in infrastructure. I actually believe that most gamers will always find more value in what we have on Xbox Live and now Games for Windows Live and how we're building that out, which really started all about gaming features and now has added more like instant messaging, Video Marketplace, etcetera. That's what I think is a much better approach, and that's what our approach is going to be.

Kim makes some valid points, albeit sandwiched inbetween cheerleading his own company. All three consoles have their own glitches when it comes to their online components, but it does seem that PS3 has bitten off a bigger chunk to chew on than the other two. Let's hope for everyone who is enjoying Home Beta that Sony can keep up with their list of things to do. Kim Phu

Kim Unconvinced by PlayStation Home [Shack News via Next-Gen]