RSSSony to finally open its PS3 online universe tomorrow
By Tim Conneally | Published December 10, 2008, 9:40 AM
Today, Sony announced that its PlayStation 3 virtual world Home will be officially opened tomorrow, two years after it was initially announced. The free online service is the first console-based metaverse.
Creating a whole world for PlayStation 3 users is no small undertaking. First unveiled nearly two years ago, Sony's Home attempts to combine the online metaverse concept with the entertainment of console-based network gaming. Users create 3D avatars and home spaces where they can customize content, socialize, or play games.
After several delays, and the passing of E3 with no major announcements, the final rounds of the service's beta tests began in October. Home becomes available to all PS3 users as a free download from the PlayStation Store tomorrow, but will remain in beta, according to Sony.
The ultimate point behind creating the first virtual world for a console wasn't to compete with existing services like Second Life, or even to attract new users, according to SCEJ Vice President Junji Shoda. Like Microsoft's New Xbox Experience, Home is part of the gradual move toward a perpetually connected gaming environment for consoles.
Home opens on Thursday in Japan, Europe, and North America, and will be offered in eight languages with region-exclusive content and partners. In North America, for example, the service will launch with game-themed environments for Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, and Far Cry 2 spaces where users can gather and share information about those games. With partners Activision, Disney Eidos, Electronic Arts, Lucas Arts, THQ, and Ubisoft, spaces for the Warhawk, Resistance, Guitar Hero and SOCOM series will be available. In Europe, video content from Hexus TV and Eurogamer will be available. Like other metaverses, not all content in Home will be free.
Of course one can compare "Home" with "Second Life", so let's see:
Second Life is Open Source, runs on 3 platforms (Linux, Windows and MacOS), can use mp3-streams, youtube videos or websites and all 3D-content can be created by the user.
Home is proprietary, runs on 1 platform only, shows commercials and movie trailers and users can't create anything.
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|I may have to lay off of Resistance 2 and LittleBigPlanet for a while to get into this.
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|Aside from the fact that it is included with a PS3 purchase, it sounds like this is aimed to compete with second life and other online worlds like that.
I don't play those, so its unlikely I'll get much from this. In fact, I don't really even play my PS3 - Games are for my 360, Blu-ray is for my PS3.
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|Can't wait till screen shots are released. This sounds interesting.
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|(Yawn)
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|I have been beta testing this for weeks!
Its great fun, dancing w/ people or going bowling.. u will find when ur bored this is WAYYY better than myspace n stuff.
cant wait for the stores and game launching to begin!
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|Why not just do all that fun stuff in real life?
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|...because daddy has him tied in the closet!
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|Have you seriously considered what you are suggesting????
So you are actually proposing that these socially dysfunctional,crippled and damaged folks actually go out into the real world and interact with people as people instead of as dysfunctional peripheral devices?
I suspect that we should be thankful for these alternative virtual realms so as the rest of us can avoid exactly what you are suggesting be released to further pollute an already far too dysfunctional society.
Keep them at home in ther mother's attic or basement!
;-))
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|Spot on!
lets keep the fanbois to their electronic realm. The rest of us can enjoy the busy pubs; restaurants and relationships.
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|That's the same stupid argument we hear about Rock Band/GH. It's not real. It's a game.
Why don't you just carjack someone and beat prostitutes with bats in real life!!!
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