Sony's Free Realms Obliterates Historic Gaming Benchmark

SarcasticGamer: Two weekends ago, I wrote a silly little ditty about the silly little MMORPG that Sony Entertainment released called Free Realms. It was the online gaming addiction equivalent of a kiddie World of Warcraft, only Free Realms would subsist primarily on microtransactions for in-game items, as opposed to a monthly fee.

Free Realms has registered a million accounts in eighteen days.

Pick your jaws up off the floor and follow me into the jump.

[heyheyhey]

Free Realms is pretty fun for a free MMO.. obviously targeted at 10 year olds, but i had fun- i reccommend trying it out

not sure if the article's idea about combining Free Realms and Home is a good idea... but some sort of interaction between the two sounds good

[Chubear]

Actually, I'd say this game is targeted towards a vast majority of the Wii's base. Kids, girls of varying ages, grandparents, etc. I don't see how you can enjoy the Wii offers and not want to experience a game like this though.

[heroicjanitor]

But I might give this a shot, when the ps3 version is released can you use your pc account on it?

[raztad]

This is a very good light-hearted MMO to play with my girlfriend, but Im a linux user and I hate to boot MS crap Vista. Waiting for the PS3 version here. BTW, those numbers say that when you go casual MASSIVE stuff happens.

[sonarus]

I wonder how many of those 1 million are pedophiles trying to get at some kids

[Stinkinmushroom]

lol, i'd say about 7%

[heyheyhey]

@hero

dunno, but i hope so... can anyone confirm this?

[ThanatosDMC]

Pedobear will frequent this game.

[Doppy]

I've always thought PS Home should have had more of an MMO feel rather than a Sims or Second Life. Home is shying away from the later two more with each new Home space added, but again it needs to become a place for gamers to play games. The interaction part is already there they just need to get the games their to make it for gamers.

Home needs a huge arcade space where you can get together and play classics like Street Fighter 2, Mortal Kombat, and more against other gamers. This is the first step (after the E3 space, and possible Lipzig, and TGS spaces) Home needs to take to get more people consistently in Home.

After that Home needs to become more seamless. You should have to load EVERY room you enter. It should be walk up to the mall wait a maximum of 5 - 10 sec. and boom you're in. No wait would be great, but realistically if the arcade space was added there would be MILLIONS on Home and no loading just wouldn't work. So maybe a huge install would be ideal for less loading and downloading every room.

After that Home needs to expand. The Home Xi or whatever it was called, is a good starting place (poorly executed but good idea). Make little quest in Home where you and other gamers can obtain awards and Home prizes like arcade cabinets. Make them MMO like.

Next expand to the casual. Game like Afrika should be part of Home. I've said this a million times Use Google or whoever and recreate rendered versions of major cities around the world and allow gamers to tour these cities. Or purchase items from the different PSN regions in our language from this home app (Now that I said this Home needs to be like an app store except the spaces are the app's and they should be free to download).

After that add a new mode of transportation. Walking can be a little slow sometimes, so a bike, scooter, or those things with the two wheels that mall cops ride on would be nice.

All of these things WILL make Home a better place.

[dragunrising]

I wish Home was more like an MMO. What if trophies were added and their were quests and whatnot...pretty sweet in my opinion. If there was a larger install size, perhaps loading could be cut down as well. I'm sure it will evolve into something, and hopefully more fun.

Edit: I'm pretty sure Free Realms will do very well once released on the PS3. I only wish there was a version for a more mature audience. Also...watch out pedophiles, I will hunt you down! (report to police)

[jams_shop]

Once this hits the PS3 I'm going to try it. I would have try it on my PC but I'm pretty sure it won't be able to run it.

[doctorstrange]

its a very low power game, that runs in your browser, so almost any computer can run it

[ThatCanadianGuy]

My computer can't run it.. *Lowers head in shame*

[gaffyh]

Runs in the browser, downloads like a 50mb file, and then everything else is on the fly. It actually runs better than Home surprisingly.

[jack_burt0n]

as soon as it hits ps3 it will triple that instantly.

[Chubear]

I don't know about that. You really think so? That would be nice but this would be the first MMO on consoles this gen in NA & EU and I'm not sure how the console base will embrace this genre. I think the genre will do just fine initially, especially with the business module most console MMO developers have chosen to go with, but to do similar or way more than on PC? Wow, that would be great but I have my reservations about that.

Even though this isn't my kind of game (not the genre but the game environment itself) I'm still going to get the game. Hell it's free and I'll likely show sort of support for it, to promote the genre on consoles, and buy an item or two even though I don't' think I'll be playing this game past the initial tasting of the game.

[jack_burt0n]

"Hell it's free and I'll likely show sort of support for it, to promote the genre on consoles, and buy an item or two even though I don't' think I'll be playing this game past the initial tasting of the game."

lol u agreed with me in the end, you would be surprised how many people will do the same thing, I am still surprised how many girls are on home one's I have verified with voice chat, and they love microtransactions remember home paid for itself (dev) within a month and the selection of stuff to buy was abysmal but with left over change in my wallet i bought a shirt anyway, it works if they promote it on psn most will try it.

[sinncross]

I'll give it a go if it is free, I mean why not?

I wonder if they'll include trophies in this lol.

Though I think the idea of integration between Home and Free Realms is not such a bad idea... or maybe borrow certain concepts into Home.

Who knows, but Xi as of this moment is quite fun.

[forcefullpower]

Just goes to prove that you Hardcore gamers don't seem to understand that there are people out there that play these sort of things.

Hardcore Gamers = Close Minded (World revolves around them) people

These sorts of products are what will hurt the Wii not the 360.

[mastiffchild]

Dude, by lumping all hadcore gamers together you're being pretty closed minded yourself aren't you? While I get your point(I agree with your assertion about the Wii and that often people don't see what's in front of them)I can't say that your taste in games automatically makes you blind.

[forcefullpower]

to be honest your right it's not all hardcore gamers more like fan boys.

[user858621]

Played it its quite fun, and doesn't require money like most MMO. And the minigames are really fun!!!

[gdguide]

It's doing a lot of things right. It's no Fable 2, but it's taken some of the ideas in that game and made them better. (Just some). For example:

You can choose your pet. A cat, dog... What kind of cat or dog do you want? You can train them to do tricks. How? By mimicking motions.

Another thing that just makes sense is the mini games. In Fable 2, you have that generic golf swing meter for everything in mini games. But in free realms, if you need to make a soup, you have a mini game to organize and find the ingredients (Like in Bejeweled). Then you have to actually physically cut and move the ingredients, but some of the ingredients move, so it becomes almost like a "hit the gopher that pops up" kind of concept.

I dunno. They've made the mini games some how make sense, and at the same time made them fun and comparable to a lot of online games say at Yahoo Games. And you get timed and get more points depending on how fast you do these things. Peter M could learn a thing or two about mini games from this game. They just make way more sense and are more logical.

[Chubear]

Fable isn't an MMO

[Redempteur]

as much as he loves free realm ..

as much as he didn't understood what home is .

Maybe if be talked more about free realms and less about Home i would have enjoyed the article ..

what is in free realms ? how is the customisation , how does it play ? does it have many areas ?
after reading this i don't even have these simple answers

[Parapraxis]

Here ya go:
http://www.gametrailers.com...

[Stinkinmushroom]

should try this

[user858621]

Freerealms, DC Universe Online and the Agency :D Sony is fully prepared for MMOS!!!!

[devilhunterx]

The Agency is the only MMORPG I am waiting for.

[tiamat5]

I can't make it work. Every time I say play now, it just shows me a silhouette of my character. Any way when it comes out on the PS3 maybe it will work better. But with this, the Agency and DC online heading our way plus load of DLC, Sony is really upping the antsy with their online capabilities.Microsoft and Nintendo (especially Nintendo)better watch their backs. The King of Games may have just come back to claim the throne one more.

[XxBarretxX]

pretty fun casual mmo that i'd put money into possibly when it reaches ps3

[AuToFiRE]

*looks at date* yep its real..

[Miraak82]

been playing it for a few days now, Its really fun, there's a boombox near the start that plays "eye of the tiger, I was like holy shlt. and there's demolition derby races, and alot of fun mini games , and u can change jobs and costumes on the fly. its great because it really easy to learn everything and everything pretty much has a spoken word tutorial . it doesn't just throw u in expects u to figure everything out on ur own

[LiquifiedArt]

Problem is how do you intergrate advertising and 3rd party promotions into a "Free Realms?"

Home is ok, but things need to change. Make it FUN! Make it Seamless! Make it more of a "Gamers World" and less of a "Hub of Spaces!"