[GDC] Sony Announces PS3 Home, A Free 3D Onli...

[GDC] Sony Announces PS3 Home, A Free 3D Online World

I couldn't decide between calling this a "3D online community", or "service" or whatever, so I finally settled for what it really looks like: an entire world, where PlayStation 3 users will be able to meet, talk, dance, show off their avatars, their virtual homes and game trophies, share private content, check a movie, join for a game of LittleBigPlanet for instance, or whatever user-centric features Sony will implement in the future. The sheer number of options they revealed is already staggering, and all of these will come together in one big 3D online environment simply called "Home".

The PS3 Home was basically the main announcement made by Sony's Phil Harrison during his keynote at the Game Developers Conference this week, before introducing LittleBigPlanet, Media Molecule's new PS3 game. Best of all, Home will be available as a free download from the PlayStation Store, and will launch directly from the PlayStation 3's XMB (XrossMediaBar). So Second Life, eat your heart out! And just like in Second Life, you can bet that regular users won't be the only ones showing off, as companies will also promote their stuff or hold virtual conferences in public places.

To get a better idea about Home, we now have a trailer and plenty of screenshots ready for a closer inspection. And here's a bit more about it from Sony's press release:

"With an avatar uniquely customized according to each user's preference, users can explore the 3D community that is Home - a sleek, modern environment featuring spacious common areas; custom spaces dedicated to specific games; and personal apartments. Each user is assigned an apartment in Home where they can invite others to join them as they show off their own style in an area they can personalize themselves with furniture, art and other items - even a different view from their windows. They can also show their personal video, pictures and other digital media content found on their PS3 hard drives in their apartments. Very rich interactive communication with others is achieved through built in text, audio and video chat, along with sophisticated emotional animations for each character.

Sharing continues in the "Hall of Fame," where users can display new 3D trophies that will be unlocked through in-game milestones for the games they own as well viewing the trophies of other users across the PlayStation Network and for other games they've yet to purchase."

All of a sudden, Sony seems to be rapidly gaining ground (and even winning?) the next-gen online battle, with a unique - and free - 3D online service that Microsoft might have a hard time countering. They'd better move fast, though, because Home will already go into a closed beta test this spring, with a full launch targeted for autumn 2007.

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)