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Sony to launch Home tomorrow

Published on 10th December 2008 by Joe Martin

Sony has been working on the online world of Home for a number of years but is now finally ready for launch.

Sony has announced that it will finally be launch the online virtual world for the PlayStation 3, dubbed Home, tomorrow. After years of development and planning Sony has decided to announce and release the game in just over 24 hours.

Well, kind of anyway. The non-game will be free, fully-featured and available to all PlayStation 3 users, but Sony is insisting that this will be an open beta and not a full release.

Home will be an open, online world for PlayStation 3 users to explore much like an MMO game - though there are no quests, battles or objectives. Players will be able to customise their own avatars, display trophies they earn in PlayStation 3 games for other players to see and play mini-games with other players.

Players will also be able to explore and admire themed environments made by Sony, the first of which will be a Far Cry 2 region.

“PlayStation Home is truly a promising network community service on the PlayStation platform, made possible with the powerful combination of PS3's overwhelming computational power and PlayStation Network that covers many countries around the globe,” said Sony's Kazuo Hirai.

“We are committed to providing PS3 users with exciting gaming experiences with PlayStation Home and together with our partners and users, expand the new world of interactive entertainment as we move forward.”

Are you excited by the idea of fiddling with Home, or do you fail to see what all the fuss is about? Let us know your thoughts in the forums.

16 Comments

Discuss in the forums Reply

markwalker84 10th December 2008, 10:54

Meh...

That is all

kenco_uk 10th December 2008, 10:59

I want to see what all the fuss is about. I'm surprised they went with Far Cry 2 and not LBP.

Mister_X 10th December 2008, 11:06

Hmmm polishing a turd comes to mind

liratheal 10th December 2008, 11:07

Been fiddling with the beta.

It's just a 3d chatroom/Sims.. thing.

There are even emos. Pick the most active area, and sit in the corner furthest from the group of people, and remain active enough to not get the 'be right back' tag under the username. Hilarious to see.

The apartment customisation is piss weak at best. About the only customisation that doesn't suck man danglies is the character - and even that's just a batch of sliders pretty much, the clothing choices are so limited you see many, many clones walking around. Also kinda funny to see people arguing about who had the clothes first.

Unfortunately, there's nothing there to keep me going back. So far, it sucks. There is absolutely no point. There's a nice crappy bowling alley with some arcade games, but owning a PS3, I would expect people want to play more than the kind of game that are bundled free with an OS :/

JonDixon 10th December 2008, 11:40

I downloaded on the closed beta.

Was having a play, when the wife walked in and took a look, asked what it was then said thats like 'Barbie World' for grown ups.

Nuff said really, havent touched it since!

War-Rasta 10th December 2008, 13:28

I don't won a PS3 so I won't be trying this out, but according to what I've read it doesn't sound too interesting. According to what liratheal described this sounds like any mall anywhere in the world so there's nothing new there for me, but i guess it could have an appeal to the younger audiences.

Flibblebot 10th December 2008, 14:14

It's a Second Life clone, nothing more, nothing less.

Before long, we'll be seeing stories in the tabloids about people in Home meeting, falling love, getting married, hiring hookers and getting divorced.

Really, there's nothing to see here. Move along, please.

M4RTIN 10th December 2008, 14:26

sounds a bit sad to me, like second life. i know there's people who look down on video games in general, but ones where you have to create a whole other life because your first one is so crap are really just so very wrong

Skiddywinks 10th December 2008, 14:37

Thank God you all feel the way I do!

I said similar things on the overclock3d forums and it seemed everyone there loved it and used it to bash the 360 :/

tranc3 10th December 2008, 17:37

I like it, well mabey if its like the "sims online" i will.

devdevil85 10th December 2008, 18:35

Do I have to remind everyone that it's still a beta? This isn't the final product; it's going to be constantly updated with content (hopefully) and as long as they add more customization to the apartments/lofts/etc., virtual 3D trophy rooms and game rooms for all popular and/or Sony-made titles then I think it's a win/step-forward.

I also want them to take advantage of virtual E3's, TGS's and GDC's. Now that would be sweet. While 360/Wii owners are watching for the latest news, PS3 owners could be experiencing it as if they were actually there. Now whether Sony allows PS3 owners to see other competitions booths, I really doubt it, but it's possible....

Don't get me wrong though, Sony still has a LOT to do. From what I saw, the application was pretty weak, but I was on an older build of the beta. Also, I don't see the appeal of me using it other than showing off trophies, seeing new stuff, checking out game rooms or attending virtual E3's....

The lack of customization (considering as long as it's taken to get out) needs to addressed and there needs to be places to visit and more things to do. Sony needs to add more content....constantly from now on, or else Home will get lost at the waistside.

Nexxo 10th December 2008, 19:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flibblebot
It's a Second Life clone, nothing more, nothing less.

Before long, we'll be seeing stories in the tabloids about people in Home meeting, falling love, getting married, hiring hookers and getting divorced.

Really, there's nothing to see here. Move along, please.

Kind of ironic that they should call it "Second Life" when it is visited most by people who don't have a first one...

Sony "Home". For those who have no reason to ever leave theirs.

johnmustrule 11th December 2008, 03:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nexxo
Kind of ironic that they should call it "Second Life" when it is visited most by people who don't have a first one...

Sony "Home". For those who have no reason to ever leave theirs.

says the man with 13,500 posts.. cheesecake!

Anyways, I see both bit-tech and my other internet social venues as a nice exstension of my social life. You know.. when you want to talk to people but not really be near them.. or go on an eleven page Macintosh rant, whatever you fancy.

Though, I do know atleast one person who lives on their computer. :/

"Kind of ironic that they should call it "Second Life" when it is visited most by people who don't have a first one..." I was like "Oh snap!"

http://www.joystiq.com/media/2008/01/oh-snap-chart-.jpg

ssj12 11th December 2008, 04:09

this article is partically wrong, Red Bull's area will be launching in a few days. Also there is an awesome flight game in their area.
There are more than 12 companies that will support the game. I suggest a redo on this article.

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2008/12/10/playstation-home-open-beta-launches-tomorrow/

Pricester 11th December 2008, 08:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by ssj12
this article is partically wrong, Red Bull's area will be launching in a few days. Also there is an awesome flight game in their area.
There are more than 12 companies that will support the game. I suggest a redo on this article.

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2008/12/10/playstation-home-open-beta-launches-tomorrow/

Sadly, a lot of the features are only available to the US region... no redo needed since Bit-Tech is predominantly UK targeted...

devdevil85 11th December 2008, 15:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pricester
Quote:
Originally Posted by ssj12
this article is partically wrong, Red Bull's area will be launching in a few days. Also there is an awesome flight game in their area.
There are more than 12 companies that will support the game. I suggest a redo on this article.

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2008/12/10/playstation-home-open-beta-launches-tomorrow/

Sadly, a lot of the features are only available to the US region... no redo needed since Bit-Tech is predominantly UK targeted...

You do know that Home is being developed by SCEE, right? This means that most features/content should be available to Europeans rather than Americans (you would think)....