Over the last few days, several Home articles have popped up discussing the success of Home. According to TheSixthAxis …

Apparently there are over one hundred games now on the service, with fifty virtual spaces and fourteen million client downloads. That’s a pretty big service to provide for free. But hold on, it’s not actually free is it? The service exists, partially, to sell us virtual items (they’ve created over five thousand of them) in micro-transactions. Mr. Buser says “it’s one of the highest-margin businesses in the games industry”. So that’s why Sony representatives keep telling us how great it is!

May the Good Lord help me if I ever decide that I need some “paid for” virtual items for my Home space. If Sony can keep the Home momentum going, you have to admit that it is like printing money. What a great concept. Hire a staff to create “virtual” content that does not require any sort of distribution channel over and beyond the R&D costs associated with the development of the Home environment. Then watch folks fall all over themselves to get the latest, greatest virtual wares as a sort of status symbol in the virtual environment.

I have never logged into Home. I think I will today or tomorrow just to see what all the fuss is about. I am not sure what I expect other than giving Sony one more number to their tally. Maybe as a Plus subscriber, Sony will throw some extra bonus virtual content so I can scream “Look at me, I am a sucker too!”