Content production priority change

Let's be honest, SCEE Home is behind the other regions in the number of Spaces we have to offer. That's not to say we dont have some really good clothing and furniture, we've actually got some excellent partners in the Shopping Centre. And we've also got Red Bull and Xi (the latter still has some way to run and some more surprises to bring you.) And Red Bull have another trick up their sleeve too...

But overall, we're short on Spaces in general. In isolation we dont think this makes SCEE Home a bad place but we fully understand the regional comparisons and why they're made.

In the spirit of openess being requested of us, and that we've committed to, we're going to say what we're going to do about this and in short, we're going to switch our priorities to the production of Spaces for the forseeable future. We will continue to support our partners in the Shopping Centre but our primary focus will be to improve our output and range of Spaces.

The transition from one to the other will take some time but we acknowledge that trying to do both lines (Spaces and Content) at the same time is something we do not have the resources to do currently here in the SCEE team. We have just recruited a new Production Assistant to help tackle this and once this person starts and is up to speed you should start to see improvements.

I should also mention that the SCEE Home team is entirely seperate from that of the Core Home team, the guys who build and develop the engine. They sit in World Wide Studios rather than SCEE. Each region has its own team and the Core Home team delivers the base service and client to the regional teams, who then bring their own content to the service.

Our first task is to get up to date on some of the older content that we've been missing for a while now. For example, Uncharted and  Warhawk and the update to the Resident Evil 5 space. Then bring you some of the more recent spaces like Guitar Hero and then finally ensure we're able to release new Spaces at the same time as the other regions whenever possible, and theres a few of those coming your way.

The SCEE Home Producer is currently investigating 17 spaces in all but I dont believe all would be suitable and therefore not all would be published here. The timeline for this is probably about the next 2 to 4 months and there is likely to be a drop in output before it starts to really pick up and improve.

Communication

The second change to discuss is the way we talk about our new content. As explained in another thread recently, right now we wait until  the very last moment so we know what is going to be published. And it's at this point we write the messages and get them translated and this leads to last minute communication or even, as we've seen recently, the content being released before the communication.

What we're going to try and do in the future is quite a big change in that we're going to aim to communicate what's coming to Home in SCEE one week in advance.

Instead of waiting until the last minute we will be asking the production team to commit to a package to be published, as best they can, about 2 weeks in advance. We then write up the messages about this content and localise it, (which takes 1-4 days depending on text length, but 2 days is the norm) and then publish in the forums, hopefully on the Thursday the week before.

Sometimes things will fall out of the publication package at the last minute, 2 weeks is a long time in content production.

This means we will publish what we intend to bring to you about a week in advance and any last minute changes to this plan will be communicated at the last minute. This may be a better experience for everyone than messaging everything at the last minute when we know for sure whats going to be published. There will be disappointments when content fails at the last minute and you've been looking forward to it for a week, but you'll be much better informed overall.

Best of luck to you and the team with with the content production priority change, 2-4 months seems an awfully short timeframe for what you have planned, let's hope you can achieve it!

The communication plan sounds perfect. Announcing things 1 week in advance and being prepared for the fact they could be removed at the last minute is fine and much better than playing guessing games on what we may or may not be getting at all.

Great to get an insight into what's in the pipeline, and good luck with the improved communication plan. I'm sure others will realise that this action plan did not happen overnight; your candour is appreciated by most.

[Edit: CoolTails, YM no comprendo the Columbo reference...? I meant above in the nicest possible way - most forumers here will appreciate the transparency of the OP. Edit#2: Google has provided the answer...and no, I haven't seen that show! Though, I'm in good company, it seems.]

 

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Now lobbying: Bring Back Home Kudos Kisses.
C'mon, you know you want it. Make yer mum happy. Or not.

 

This is fantastic new Ted.

Look forward to seeing all the new spaces over the next few months.

Waits for 'No Clothes update for 2 weeks - this is outrageous Sony' thread

Thanks Ted seems like we have a road map.

Might I also suggest that whilst we fairly single channel of communication. So those in the loop and outside Sony, should keep quiet and those outisde can wait for surprises until they are announced. Works well enough for club promoters and they are masters of the hype.

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yer__mum wrote:
Great to get an insight into what's in the pipeline, and good luck with the improved communication plan. I'm sure others will realise that this action plan did not happen overnight; your candour is appreciated by most.

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Someone else watches Columbo FTW!!

If not, err,then you should!!

Follow me-http://twitter.com/CoolTails

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TedTheDog wrote:

This means we will publish what we intend to bring to you about a week in advance and any last minute changes to this plan will be communicated at the last minute. This may be a better experience for everyone than messaging everything at the last minute when we know for sure whats going to be published. There will be disappointments when content fails at the last minute and you've been looking forward to it for a week, but you'll be much better informed overall.

 

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More good news.

And I love the honesty at the end: "There will be disappointments when (not if) content fails at the last minute and you've been looking forward to it for a week."

Let's hope people remember this statement.

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As I said before I for one have never been that bothered.

However it's good to see that they intened to change to please those who do care.

Kudos

Sounds good to me

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The SCEE Home Producer is currently investigating 17 spaces in all but I dont believe all would be suitable

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Ted you say this above, but why would they not be suitable for us?

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KBV1 wrote:

Sounds good to me

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The SCEE Home Producer is currently investigating 17 spaces in all but I dont believe all would be suitable

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Ted you say this above, but why would they not be suitable for us?

 

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Mainly the japanese-centric ones mainly due to them being totally weird and far out to anyone who doesn't speak japanese and the associated stories and background that goes with them.

And US-Centric ones,it'd be like us sending a coronation st space to japan and the US.

Follow me-http://twitter.com/CoolTails

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kingofscotland wrote:

This is fantastic new Ted.

 

Look forward to seeing all the new spaces over the next few months.

 

 

Waits for 'No Clothes update for 2 weeks - this is outrageous Sony' thread

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Communication channels opening up at last.

Zapping since '07.

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KBV1 wrote:

Sounds good to me

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The SCEE Home Producer is currently investigating 17 spaces in all but I dont believe all would be suitable

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Ted you say this above, but why would they not be suitable for us?

 

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i think for example the godfather space. ted didn't seem to mention that one. but lets see what the response is? 

 On the whole awesome News!  we understand its difficult but i cannot wait till the day we get the best of both worlds like US. (where we get content and spaces simultaneously and not content or spaces)

“You can please all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot please all the people all the time”

The communication change is the really difficult one to implement as its simply not the way things have worked previously and requires quite a few people to change their processes. 

For example, this weeks Thursday would normally be maintenance downtime only, but there was actually some content planned for it none the less. However, it failed at the last minute and as it was not still complete yesterday it also misses next weeks package too (the 21st).

Ideally I'd have known about next weeks package already and could be writing the messages for approval and translation now but its only starting to come together today. However, thats obviously a huge improvementover the last minute way of doing it and I still hope to talk about next week this week, for the first time.