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'Far as I see it, you people been given the shortest end of the stick ever been offered a human soul in this crap-heel 'Verse. But you took that end, and you... Well, you took it. And that's - Well, I guess that's somethin'.

Its a

General Information:
 
Published by: Sony Computer Entertainment
 
Developed by: SCE Studios London
 
Number of Players: Unlimited

Price: Free (Option to purchase premium content)

Media: Download from the PLAYSTATION®Store
        
Release Date:

• Global - Spring 2008

Platform: PLAYSTATION®3

Website:

• Home™ Beta
• Home Development Q&A (PDF)
• SCE DevNet

Other Useful Links:

• Home F.A.Q. by Viralblue
• The One and Only "I got the Home Beta and I'm located in ___" Thread

Screenshots:









Media:

• IGN Home Main Page
• IGN Home Images
• IGN Home Videos
• GameSpot Home Main Page
• GameSpot Home Images
• GameSpot Home Videos
  

Articles:

SCEI Announces Ground-Breaking, Next-Generation 3D Online-User Community For PLAYSTATION®3 - "Home" (SCEI)

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) today announced the unveiling of a first-of-its-kind 3D online user community service for the PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) computer entertainment system.  The service, known as “Home,” will enable users to create their own avatar and explore a real-time virtual community, as if they are playing a detailed 3D game for PS3.   The service will become available globally beginning in fall 2007.

Home will be demonstrated at the Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, California on March 7 as a key element of SCEI Worldwide Studios’ President Phil Harrison’s keynote presentation titled “Game 3.0: Developing and Creating for the 3rd Age of Videogames.”

Home is a real-time online 3D, networked community available on the PLAYSTATION®Network.  It allows PS3 users to interact, communicate, join online games, shop, share private content and even build and show off their own personal spaces to others in real time.  Home will be available as a free download from the PLAYSTATION®Store and will launch directly from XMB™ (XrossMediaBar) on PS3.

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 achievements, as well as real time score rankings in PS3 games.

“This is a significant step forward in the area of user community services and emergent entertainment experiences,” said Izumi Kawanishi, Corporate Executive and CTO Software, SCEI.   “While the 3D graphics demonstrate the power of PS3 and the PLAYSTATION Network, the most impressive feature in Home is the variety of ways in which multiple consumers, as well as our third-party partners, can experience the next generation of communication by interacting and sharing among each other.  I feel strongly that this unique blend of community, user-generated content, collaboration and commerce will expand the future of computer entertainment.”

Home will go into a closed beta test this spring with a full launch targeted for later this year.  By having a broad range of business partners participate in Home, along with an expansive catalog of upcoming game software titles for PS3, SCEI will continue to enhance the new world of entertainment and vigorously promote PS3 as the next generation computer entertainment platform.

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GDC 2007: Home Explored (IGN)

Phil Harrison likes to speak in public. Sure, he may not admit it -- but every time I see the man, he's standing on top of a stage or blocking a television set with his elongated frame, microphone in hand.

Want proof?

At this very moment (10:30am Pacific Standard Time) the SCE Worldwide honcho is presenting his "Game 3.0" keynote speech as the opener to the 2007 Game Developer's Conference. There are hundreds of industry folk in attendance, and Big Phil is no doubt grabbing their attention with his company's PS3 initiatives for 2007. He's like a sunrise, that one.

Of course, Phil had to prepare for today's big moment in some way or another, and prepare he did on the top floor of a rather trendy club in San Francisco's Embarcadero yesterday evening. As a special favor to the 80+ press members in attendance, Harrison practiced for this morning's presentation by unveiling everything he's elaborating on right now. The creative new project known as "LittleBigPlanet", the company's philosophy behind the current game generation, and 32-player online-only Warhawk were the major topics. But none of them, not even LittleBigPlanet, took up as much time as "Home" -- Sony's forthcoming PS3 community service.

You've no doubt heard of Home thanks to a pre-conference leak out of popular gaming blog Kotaku, and as it turns out, a lot of the early rumors were true. Users do get their own Mii-like avatar to represent themselves in Home's Virtual space, and there is an achievement-type system that awards players with trophies for accomplishing specific tasks ( unofficially known as "milestones" ).

Described as "the first of its kind," Home is an avatar-based virtual neighborhood built on the shoulders of every PS3 owner who participates. Offered as a free download from the PlayStation Store, the new networked feature installs a unique icon to your XMB and then launches just like a game does. Once connected, users are able to join online games, go shopping, talk with other people, and mess around with various media types for as long as they see fit. And to be honest, it's actually pretty cool.

Virtual PSP

"Your Virtual PSP gives you access to all the navigation, features and options of Home."

Our first taste of Home was a brief look at the 3D world that represents it. Bright and colorful, the environments look similar to a bare bones Grand Theft Auto title, only the surroundings were serene and centered on a garden and water motif. But before we could study the architecture any further, Phil keyed up the "Virtual PSP" component and we were on our way.

Used as a quick navigational tool, the Virtual PSP allows users to hop between bookmarked spaces in their Home universe. Over the course of the entire 30-minute presentation, the PSP was only ever used to transition to new areas, so how much functionality this digital portable actually offers is still a mystery.

Character Customization

"Each person can customize their clothes and facial characteristics, with millions of potential combinations."

Next on Phil's agenda was showing off how to customize avatars, and while they're essentially the same thing as a Mii (re: Nintendo's Wii), they're far more advanced. Not only do character models look legitimately "next-gen," they're also highly modifiable. Heads, torsos, legs, feet, and accessories (plus gender swaps) serve as base edit types, while an indeterminate number of options can be selected from there. Harrison also confirmed that items and clothing will be both free and premium depending on the piece, and that playing certain games unlocks even more bonuses. Phil even mentioned that face customization would get better with time.

The Central Lounge

"The Central Lounge is the large social meeting space and is your initial starting point in Home. Communication is key in Home, and there are many simple ways to get to know people. Emotes are animations that get your point across fast. You can access short phrases using Quick Write, or if you have something big to say you can type with a Virtual or USB keyboard, or talk with a Bluetooth headset."

Once an avatar has been chosen, it can then move about the world freely and its first stop will likely be "The Central Lounge." Here, patrons will be able to see other people moving about and conversing with one another, and Sony has truly thought of everything when it comes to communicating (Quick Write options, USB keyboard support, and Bluetooth voice chat seem to integrate seamlessly). Clients can also use emotes to convey moods or just be ridiculous with motions like disco dancing, shoulder shrugs, pointing, waving, and plenty more.

One of the more interesting aspects of Home is actually made for businesses as opposed to users. That is, every wall can be used for dynamic content -- or more specifically -- advertising. Posters, HD-quality imbedded video, and eventually even websites can be slapped on the walls like a coat of paint. "Free through advertising' is obviously the model being used here (it's pretty non-invasive too).

Games Space

"The Games Space is where you can meet and relax with your friends with free casual games such as bowling, pool and retro arcade games."

If hanging out and talking to strangers or reading ads isn't your thing, the main lobby comes stocked with a couple of neat little mini-games. "HomePool" and "HomeBowling" were the examples shown off in the demo, but Phil also revealed a mini-arcade where you could play new downloadable titles that would be updated frequently. What's particularly cool about this setup is that you never leave the world when playing since you're free to look around your surroundings and zoom in and out of the arcade screen at any time.

Apartment Space

"Your Apartment Space is your private apartment where you can invite your friends and family. Your free, initial apartment can be decorated and upgraded to the height of luxury with furniture, accessories, pictures and videos from your own collection."

If there's one area where people will spend most of their time, it's definitely going to be "Home Space." Here, users can design their own apartment and modify their living quarters into a quaint little hideaway or a lavish two-story pimp pad. Plus, just like the outside areas are customizable for a paying businesses, your own home can likewise be customized by you.

Pictures, movies, and even websites can be imported from your hard drive or removable memory stick and put onto virtual television sets or picture frames in a matter of seconds. Wallpapers can be customized as well (some selections are even game-themed), and any furniture you buy is entirely physics-based (so there aren't any arbitrary slot restrictions in how many items you can have). Phil showed this off by dropping his virtual Bravia down the stairs a couple of times and made a joke about it being just as sturdy in the game as it is in real life. As an added bit of fun, Harrison even proved that his digital Bravia television set was outputting proximity-based audio, and when he walked too far away from it the sound reacted accordingly.

Sony is hopeful that friends and (more importantly) clans will use these apartments to get together and talk about strategies or setup gaming sessions. Users will be able hang out and listen to MP3s or audio CDs via virtual stereos if they choose, or can launch a group multiplayer game without having to leave their space. Eventually, players will even be able to add personal pool tables and arcade units of their own should they not want to venture out into the Lobbies. It's definitely a cool feature (we just wonder how effective it will be in pulling people in and keeping them there).

Hall of Fame

"The Hall of Fame is the space where your game accomplishments are stored as 3D Trophies and video for public and private display."

As Phil left his apartment, he moved on to my favorite space of the entire presentation -- The Hall of Fame. Sony's answer to the Xbox 360's achievement system, the HOF gives users the ability to view trophies they've earned from playing games in a real 3D way (some trophies even have audio or video aspects to them). What's more, is that patrons can even modify trophy cabinets and pick which trophies they want to show to friends.

Star Wars Episode III fans should also be happy to learn that you can view trophies for games that you haven't even earned yet in another room. Why would they be happy? Because those unearned trophies look like they're sitting in the floating soapboxes from the senate scenes of the last Lucas flick (it's a vast high-tech warehouse). Also of note: among the games scattered throughout the Hall of Fame, titles that have already been released, like Resistance and MotorStorm, had accessible trophies as well. Whether or not that means that you'll get these accomplishments retroactively or through a patch that comes later is unknown.

Sports Lobby

"Both game and non-game brands can strengthen their user communities in Home by custom building their own spaces."

Harrison's next stop was one that we didn't get to see much of, as it was more of a philosophy than it was a currently-existing room. Known as the "Sports Lobby" in this demo, it was an area was where fans of a particular type could congregate for specific games, franchises, characters, or even publishers. The example we saw, while not officially EA, looked a lot like an Electronic Arts room -- with a dedicated sports theme and plenty of mini-games (including a three-point basketball challenge). Obviously, the types of things that companies could do here are limitless, and Harrison plans to have non-gaming content have their own rooms one day as well.

Home Theatre

"The Home Theatre is a shared viewing area for the latest trailers, films and user-created content."

Our last stop was a convincing recreation of a local cinema known appropriately as "The Home Theatre." It's pretty straightforward, though pretty flexible too. Here you can watch DVD or Blu-ray movies you already own, view movies off your hard drive or memory stick, or simply stream content from the PlayStation Store and view it in a room with others while you do so. In the demo, Phil showed a bit of the Casino Royale trailer, a smidgen of Resident Evil Extinction, and then just walked the halls to show off some more navigational stuff.

Leaving the theatre concluded the Home demo, but not the information about it. We learned that it will appear in beta form sometime next month (April), with a finished version available for everyone ready to go this fall. Personally, I can't wait to see more of it. I can't recall having seen application with this much potential for any videogame system prior -- and after all the questions and criticisms that Sony has been hit with since November, it's good to see that it still has tricks up its sleeves, and finally explained what that "Home" button on your Sixaxis controller really does.

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GDC 07: PS3 phoning Home this fall (GameSpot)

Imagine a three-dimensional avatar-based socializing sim like Second Life. Now cross it with the online gaming and matchmaking features of Xbox Live. Leaven with dynamic streaming in-game advertising a la Massive, throw in some Pogo.com-esque casual gaming, and add a dash of Sneak King-like merchandising. Heat, stir, let cool, serve, and--voila--you've got Home, the new online service for the PlayStation 3.

Following a flurry of rumors, Sony officially opened Home's doors at a secretive, invite-only event on Tuesday evening at a nightclub near the base of the Bay Bridge. Following the requisite signing of nondisclosure agreements and plying of attendees with high-end nibbles and libations, Sony Worldwide Studios president Phil Harrison took the stage to give a preview of the keynote speech he would deliver the following morning at the 2007 Game Developers Conference.

Using a PowerPoint-like slide show via the PS3's cross-media bar, Harrison outlined the concept behind Home, which he called "Game 3.0." As the executive himself freely admitted, the concept is a riff on Web 2.0, the term applied to the new, more interactive and customer-focused services and sites like Pandora, YouTube, and Flickr.

All the aforementioned sites embrace the concept of what Harrison calls "emergence entertainment," allowing users to upload their own content. When it launches this fall, Home will offer similar functionality to PlayStation 3 users. However, instead of a stripped-down interface, the service will feature a detailed three-dimensional environment with graphics and physics on par with many next-gen games.

Harrison first showed off Home's slick look by showing "the lobby," one of the public forums where PlayStation 3 users can meet and greet each other. Looking like a sleek building out of pre-Cylon-nuclear-holocaust Battlestar Galactica, the lobby was filled with avatars sporting hip hairdos and euro-chic wardrobes. The avatars can communicate on several levels: simple emotion animations (waving, dancing) like those in World of Warcraft, text chat via keyboard or predictive text, voice chat, and video chat.

Besides the lobby, Home will offer a host of other public spaces with a variety of activities. To demonstrate, Harrison had a coworker jaw with a colleague in Europe, then saunter through a fully rendered entertainment complex with bowling lanes, pool tables, and realistic old-school arcade machines like those in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The machines will offer visitors casual games, with a Choplifter-esque mockup being used for illustration purposes.

Another public space Harrison visited was a movie theater, with posters of and trailers for real-world films. Visitors to the virtual cinema can watch the previews playing on monitors in the lobby or enter actual theaters, potentially to watch full-length films streamed on screens.

Harrison also showed how a Home user could watch video in his virtual abode. Each Home user will receive a basic apartment free of charge and can invite their friends over to their abodes to socialize in a more intimate setting. Harrison said Home apartments can also be used as smaller-scale lobbies for close-knit gaming groups, and even touted them as potential clan headquarters. Users will also be able to host virtual parties in apartments where they can DJ using music files streaming from their PS3 hard drives.

Home apartments can be customized with both abstract patterns and game themes; heart wallpaper and Resistance: Fall of Man-branded posters were offered up to the briefing audience as examples. Said virtual abodes can also be filled with designer furniture that can be moved, thrown, or otherwise dislodged with realistic physics. Users can also put picture frames on the wall, to which they can upload any image from their PS3 hard drive. To show the ease of this process, Harrison snapped a shot of the crowd and uploaded it into a frame on the apartment wall within seconds.

Home users can also deck out their apartment with a variety of electronics--all Sony-branded, of course. Not only will said electronics look like their real-world counterparts, they will also function like them. To illustrate this fact, Harrison selected a 42-inch Bravia LCD TV and hung it on the wall. He then selected the trailer for Casino Royale and began to stream it to the television. As a comic afterthought, the demonstration avatar then threw the television down his apartment's stairs. The set didn't break, but it bounced realistically, and the trailer's video continued to play without any skipping.

Throughout his presentation, Harrison made a point of saying that the Home function would be a free download which would be accessible from the PS3's XMB. However, the executive left no question that Sony has come up with plenty of revenue streams for Home. The most basic of these are things PS3 users will pay for: Harrison said there will be high-end--and possibly branded--items of clothing which users can purchase for their avatars. He also showed a "luxury" apartment which will have several floors and a lakeside view--and heavily hinted it would not be gratis.

But while premium content is a no-brainer, Harrison also showed off other, more ingenious ways Sony will glean coin from Home. First of these is in-game advertising. All public spaces and lobbies in Home will have large, dynamically generated virtual video monitors, banners, and billboards hawking various products.

Harrison also showed off a mockup of a whole constellation of public home areas that can be branded to a third-party publisher--or any other company willing to pay the price. He showed off a concept Home area that resembled a cross between a carnival and the EA Sports booth at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. There, visiting avatars could hit balls at a golf-game-branded driving range, sink three-pointers at hoop stations slathered in basketball game logos, or take out their virtual frustrations on boxing-game-themed foam dummies. Presumably all these features will be made available to publishers--for a price.

Lastly, all Home's menus will be accessed via a virtual PlayStation Portable. The demonstrations Harrison used were very reminiscent of the PDA in Doom 3, with avatars pulling reproductions of the handhelds out of their pockets, sustaining the illusion of a virtual world. However, the population of said realm won't be known until later this year. Currently in a limited closed beta, Home will enter a wider beta in April, with launch set for this fall in the US and Europe. 

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GDC 07: PS3 gamers to get "trophies" (GameSpot)

There's little doubt that the Xbox 360's Gamerscore system can entice console polygamists to spend the night with the platform at the expense of its rivals. After all, when faced with the prospect of playing a game that looks the same and costs the same, why not choose the option that will up what Epic Games' Cliff Bleszinski calls "nerd cred"?

Soon, though, Sony loyalists will literally receive trophies for their own in-game accomplishments.

At a press event last night in San Francisco, Sony Worldwide studios president Phil Harrison unveiled Home, a new online service for the PlayStation 3. Besides avatar-based social networking, Home will sport three-dimensional meeting places, movie theaters, and minigame halls replete with pool and bowling. The service will also give gamers virtual apartments that PS3 owners can decorate with furniture, wallpaper, and Sony-branded electronics.

Home apartments will also come with a "trophy room" in which PS3 gamers can showcase their "gaming accomplishments." Each chamber of honor will have virtual display cases in which users can select fully 3D trophies that will be awarded when a certain milestone in a PS3 game is reached. The awards shown off by Harrison included statuettes for the PlayStation Store games LocoRoco 2 and Super Rub-a-Dub, as well as a Hellghast villain from the forthcoming PS3 Killzone preserved like a heavily armored pheasant under glass.

The virtual trophy rooms will be part of a PlayStation Network-wide service Harrison calls "The Hall of Fame." Users will be able to access a vast hall reminiscent of the Star Wars prequels' senate chambers that will allow them to browse trophies from games they have not yet played. They will be able to see their friends' trophies by paying a visit to said colleagues' Home apartments.

Harrison did not mention whether or not all PS3 games, like 360 games, will be required to award trophies. The Hall of Fame feature will launch alongside Home in the US and Europe this fall.

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GDC07: Sony Unveils Home (Kotaku)

As you read this Phil Harrison is standing in front of a packed auditorium at the Game Developers Conference unveiling what I think is a pretty damn cool new, free application for the Playstation 3.

Playstation Home is essentially a living world inside your console. It's probably a flawed analogy but think of it as Second Life meets the PS3.

The free service, which will go into beta this April and hit consoles this fall, will become a new menu item in the cross media bar.

When you select it you will be dropped into a virtual world peopled by life-like avatars. From what we saw during a press screening, customization of these avatars is incredibly flexible, allowing you to create something that looks as much like you as you would want.

Home starts you out in a central lobby. You use a virtual PSP in this world to access features, but can also just walk around. The main lobby we saw included dynamic advertising on billboards, games you could just walk up to and play, like bowling or pool and even a mini arcade that featured some cool little arcade titles.

You can communicate with others in the lobby by talking, typing, using motions or pre-written phrases.

After walking around inside this home lobby for a bit, Harrison jumped his avatar to his private apartment.

The apartment, and there are lots of different types, look very realistic and can be customized with real-world furniture, wallpaper, picture frames that show images from your harddrive, even televisions that stream your own original video content.

The idea, it seems, is that your apartment will become the nexus of your Playstation 3 experience. It is where you can listen to music, look at pictures, watch video, invite your friends over to talk and even go into multiplayer games together to play as a group.

"This could become your clan heaquarters," Harrison said. "From within home you can launch multiplayer games directly. You can then come back into home afterward and talk about it."

Next Harrison showed a more sophisticated apartment. This one had several levels, an outdoor deck and a much nicer design.

Home will also have other public spaces, like the Home Cinema, a sort of virtual movie theater complete with a large front lobby and separate screening rooms.

It's also possible for companies or publishers to create their own spaces. For instance Electronic Arts could create a space that shows off their current and upcoming games in a virtual world that looks more like a mall than a store.

I think this is going to be one of those features that people didn't realize that wanted until they get it. But I think I'll really have to experience it first hand to decide just how well it works.

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GDC 2007: Phil Harrison, Sony, Unveil 'Home' (1UP)

Last week's reports on Sony's potential 'Home' service either generated even more hype for Phil Harrison's Game Developer Conference keynote or stole the thunder from Sony's big unveiling. Maybe it did both, and considering what Sony showed with 'Home' -- that may not be a bad thing.

Home is officially being branded as a "3D user community for PlayStation 3" by Sony, but it's also being called an "innovative user community title," effectively blurring the line between "service" and "game." The two-pronged approach to marketing this product may show some confusion as to what home is. That's a question Sony won't be able to answer until this Fall, when PlayStation 3 owners will get their hands on the final free download (the experience enters beta next month).

So, what is 'Home?'It's difficult-to-describe nature places it firmly where Sony wants it -- as the videogame successor to web 2.0 technology. Taking cues from existing MMO, Second Life 'Home' is an extremely customizable user interface that combines form and function into a single elegant package that may ultimately serve as an interface-based foil to Microsoft's Xbox Live.

Right now in 'Home,' players have an avatar that they create and customize via an EA Gameface-type interface. In 'Home''s world, there are public and private spaces. The public spaces are dotted with advertisements (fully customizable, Harrison points out) and those ads may feature game footage running in HD, or movie trailers, or static image advertisements. Additionally in the public space, players may find an arcade game where they can play a new title -- eventually being able to purchase these titles -- or play a game of Pool or go Bowling with their newfound electronic friends.

In 'Home' you'll communicate with those friends via typing on your USB keyboard, a series of selectable short phrases, and via voice chat. It wasn't discussed as to whether or not the voice chat was proximity-based or a private one on one chat.

Home's private space is an apartment that players will be able to customize and expand with the furniture Sony provides (or furniture and knick-knacks that players purchase via the PlayStation Network Store). Harrison indicated that simply purchasing some PlayStation 3 games would unlock some items for your home. Maybe a Motorstorm wallpaper or a Resistance recliner? The first version of the private space we saw was a single room studio-style apartment -- the upgraded 'Best' version that Harrison showed was a multi-level mansion with a huge patio.

Another key function the private spaces offer is the ability to go from game to game with your friends. Want to play Motorstorm with your friends? Invite them to your home and you can start the game with your friends from your apartment. It's, quite literally, the visual representation of the Halo 2 couch-system. Where your buddies will be able to play with you and return to your 'Home' throughout the night.

If a real-time 3D version of your 'crib' isn't enough to impress your friends, Sony's finally making due on the long-rumored "entitlements," though under a completely different branding -- Trophies. The 'Hall of Fame' is another private area of 'Home.' In the 'Hall of Fame' players will track and display their '3D Trophies' from various games. By choosing what to display when players come into your 'Hall of Fame,' your friends will see what you've accomplished in various titles. However, these aren't just trophies like what you'd find at the local trophy trolley. They can be assets from in-game, maybe a writhing Hellghast from Killzone 2 or a shark eating one of the ducks from Super Rub-a-Dub.

Additionally, if players want to see the trophies from other games, there's a Star Wars-prequel Senate-style menu that will eventually be filled with a sea of trophies.

Inevitably, some of those trophies will come from a game Sony unveiled at the keynote -- LittleBigPlanet. The game is equal parts game, creation tool and toy and it's all tied together by the community. That community will be responsible, along side developers for creating the content that will populate the "plots" (each user's space is called a plot) in LittleBigPlanet. For a complete look at what LittleBigPlanet is, check out our first look at the game and no doubt keep your eyes on our GDC homepage where editors will have something to say about one of the most unique ideas we've seen. 

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PLAYSTATION® Home Impressions by PSPPlaya2005

PLAYSTATION®3 Home as you know will be coming out this fall and will make a huge impact on the PLAYSTATION®3. Home will allow you to go online, talk to other people, and even go shopping. I my opinion, this is a great feature Sony is releasing for us PLAYSTATION®3 owners. If this doesn't get people to a PLAYSTATION®3, I don't know what will.

Character Customization is just one of the many features that will be available when you download Home from the PS Store. You will be able to customize facial features, clothes, and accessories which will be cool. The more I read, the more this reminds me of a next-gen Sims game. I love how you wil be able to walk around in your own customized character talking to people, shopping, and playing games, and many other features that are yet to come - our  very own fairy tale virtual world. What more could we ask for?

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GDC 2007: Sony's Phil Harrison Interviewed (1UP)

1UP: I'd talked with someone and he said he'd seen Home a long time ago -- last summer, actually. Why have you been sitting on this for so long?

Harrison: Well we've been working on it for a long time. We've been working on it for PlayStation 3 for a couple of years and it actually started life on the PlayStation 2. I think it's something that we wanted to demonstrate at the right time to the right audience, and GDC is the right place to share the vision for Home because it's as much about the game developers as it is about the users. So I think starting at GDC was perfect timing. And I'm really pleased with the reaction that we've had so far because people clearly understand the vision and we can build from there. I think if we tried to launch Home or share the information about Home in the middle of all of the the chaos that surrounds a hardware launch, that would have just been another complex message. But I'm really happy that we chose this event.

1UP: But it would have been a way to perhaps combat some of the negativity out there on the message boards. Because whether or not you agree with this, a lot of people looked at this as a reaction to the successful Nintendo Mii characters and what's gone on with Xbox Live.

Harrison: I have no comment to make because obviously it's not a reaction -- I mean, how could we possibly react so quickly to something that we only would have seen last year? We like what Nintendo's doing -- there's some cool stuff -- but we're taking a much different approach.

1UP: If you flip over an Xbox 360 game box you see that it's Live enabled. Every game has to be Live enabled. Are you guys going to be encouraging developers to make sure that every game supports Home? Or is Home its own separate thing where regardless of the game I put in I'll be able to launch games -- I'll be able to launch a Motorstorm with my friends -- in my private space.

Phil: That's exactly the objective. Irrespective of what game you buy or what games you play, Home becomes a launchpad -- a springboard to take you into those multiplayer games. Developers don't have to worry about how to integrate Home into their games. It's really something which is very powerful because game developers can reuse the content that they are actually putting into the games themselves to construct their Home spaces. So if a game is using -- let's say it's a game that has a real world street environment -- you could take elements of that street environment. You could then build in Home a kind of mini version of that set to create community and to create the immersive experience inside Home before the game comes out.

1UP: But can you somehow integrate those into the games themselves or or are you only pulling assets from games into Home?

Harrison: We're actually discussing this with a few developers at the moment, about taking your avatar -- the character you create within Home -- and actually moving that into games so that you can play with that character. There are some technical challenges -- it's not completely easy to do that because of different file formats and different animation systems -- but it's something we're looking into.

1UP: Is that humanoid avatar that you've demonstrated so far the only avatar option you're going to have or will people for instance at some point be able to be in Home as a helghast or a Loco Roco character. Is something like that a plausible feature for Home?

Harrison: I think that having game characters in the lobby is something that we want to do. But whether it's something that you would want to do in the open public space or whether it's in the more discreet confined area may be the other way of looking at it.

1UP: You talked about being able to launch multiplayer games from your private space. How do you group for something like that, when you have a bunch of people sitting around talking via the proximity chat -- how do you go from there to launching something like MotorStorm?

Phil: There are some technical issues that -- I could bore you with all the technical details -- but we're going to make that really easy for the users, but also just make it easy so that multiplayer game gets set up in the lobby.

1UP: So Home also will function as the de facto lobby for a lot of games, which is a criticism we still see of all online games. So you could finish a game of Motorstorm and you could return to the Home space easily?

Harrison: That's exactly the intention. Some games that perhaps don't have a sophisticated community function could benefit tremendously from what we're doing with Home.

*Rest of the article is not Home related*

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GDC 2007: Harrison's Home (IGN)

Phil Harrison put Microsoft on notice when he introduced Home, Sony's upcoming online community service. Borrowing from Nintendo's Miis and Microsoft's achievements, Sony is offering a virtual world as the new interface for the PS3. Your home is going to be where your heart is, Harrison hopes. Though Harrison toured Home's functionality in his GDC keynote speech, he gave further details to a select group of bloggers at a low-key Sony event.

Currently, 500,000 PS3 owners in North American have registered for the PlayStation Network, about 50% of the current U.S. installed base. After Home launches this fall, Harrison believes the number of registered online users will increase significantly. Though he admits "it's not going to be for everybody," Harrison can't see any reason why 100% of PS3 owners won't mess around with Home in some capacity.

Home is meant to extend the gameplay cycle and keep gamers from trading in games at local retailers. Once a game is in the used bins, publishers and developers stop making money. But with Home, gamers unlock new items for their house and character based partly on the titles they play. One thing that Sony can't yet announce, but is looking into, is the possibility of having your Home avatar appear in the retail versions of games. "We've got so much cool stuff to share with you," Harrison promised, holding back additional functionality in Home that was not shown during his GDC presentation.

Since the big reveal, fans and members of the media have repeatedly compared Home to the PC social experiment Second Life. Harrison called such comparisons "way over-simplifying both" Home and Second Life. While the two do have characters walking around a 3D world, Harrison believes the similarities end there. Second Life is almost exclusively driven by user-created content, while Home is an entertainment-focused environment in which almost everything is provided by Sony or third party supporters.

Another big difference is that Second Life is rampant with cheaters, sexual predators and creepy people like yourself. Home adheres to Sony's parental controls. There are several blockers that can be switched on to keep people safe from abusive gamers. In fact, you can mute anyone in Home or choose not to see their character at all. And since there is not physical interaction between characters (sorry pervs), there's no reason anyone should be able to bug you for longer than it takes to hit a button on the Sixaxis controller. Community moderators are also being hired to roam the halls and make sure gamers play nice with one another.

Beyond abuse, a common concern has been the server size of Home. While no one at Sony is giving exact numbers, there is a hardcap limit of how many can be on a server at a given time. The overflow simply spills into the next server. And yes, there is a plan for intelligent grouping so that friends stay together on the same server.

Everything in Home sounds pretty damn cool, but it's hard to believe Sony can offer all of this and continue its model of having its Network be free of charge. Well, believe in miracles, because you can enjoy Home for free. Granted, selling premium content will be part of Home's business model (as will advertising), you do get quite a bit for free.

Once you download Home this fall, you have free access to all of the public spaces, your own character, some accessories, furniture and your own apartment. Other items, including additional clothing, are unlocked via premium content, offered free as advertising by third parties and earned by playing PS3 games. Pricing is not something Sony is ready to discuss, but Harrison said, "We have given it a lot of thought."

One cool way to upgrade your pad is by customizing the view out your window. Everyone's house has "the perfect view" so that no one is stuck looking down into an alley. However, there will be different options for what is outside your window. You may want to look out over a lake, for example. To make your lake view different than others, Sony plans to offer some extras to place in the background. You could put a boat floating out by the lake or perhaps have a flock of birds fly by in the horizon. So while many people will have the same base view from their apartment window, each can have its own distinct flare.

If none of this sounds appealing, fear not. Just about everything you can do in Home can also be done through the cross media bar. It just won't look as cool.

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Sony opens up on Home (GameSpot)

Home, sweet Home. That was the reaction from PlayStation 3 owners to Sony's keynote address at GDC 2007, where Phil Harrison unveiled the 3D online community for the PS3.

However, the sampling demonstrated that day didn't include all the hard facts that future Home owners wanted to know. In a document floated out by Sony to developers, some of those missing questions were answered.

First and foremost, the Home closed beta is scheduled to kick off in April with 15,000 users. This first stage of the beta will run through August, at which point it will enter the open beta phase and open up to approximately 50,000 users. The free service, which Sony is trying to get under 500MB in size, is scheduled to go live in October.

The Central Lounge, which is a starting point for virtual meet-and-greets, will have a cap of 64 concurrent users. Like online chat rooms, there will be several active Central Lounges on the network to accommodate users.

Though currently PS3-only, Sony is hoping to expand Home to be accessed by the PlayStation Portable and mobile phones, but admits it will be limited access. Sony did not say what features will be accessible or when other devices could connect to Home.

Currently, meeting someone in Home and then playing a multiplayer game with them requires both parties to exit Home and enter the game manually, but Sony says that eventually, everything will be seamless. Likewise, Home will eventually become accessible directly through a game that is being played.

At the present time, Home is not a persistent world. Gamers can not visit their friends' apartments unless their friends are logged in. "We are working on the persistent aspect of Home, and expect to implement it in the long term," says the note.

Among the other tidbits of information: users will be able to make money through online user-to-user auctions, there will be no child avatars, and lobbies will likely be localized and divided by region.

To see the entire document, download the file (.pdf format).

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(Almost) Everything to Know About 'Home' (1UP)

Sony said much about PlayStation Home at the Game Developers Conference last week, but they didn't answer everything. A little digging around has produced an extensive Sony-created FAQ that answers some important questions: the final version will launch in October, you can have up to 50 friends and the final download will be 500MB.

Some other tasty tidbits:

Q: Will I be able to attend ticketed (paid-for) special events?

• Yes, in time Home will play host to many types of event. Bespoke events such as exclusive game previews and developer interviews will be organised by Home and its affiliated content providers. Live events such as sports and concerts may also be broadcast within Home.

Q: Is Home a PS3 specific service? Will users be able to access Home through other devices?

• Initially Home will only be accessible via that PLAYSTATION 3, although over time our intention is to enable users to interface certain Home features and services via other networked devices such as PlayStation Portable (PSP) and mobile phones.

Q: Will there be a restriction to the age you'll be able to give your avatar?

• Yes. We will not have avatars which resemble children. The avatars are adult in appearance.

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PS3 Home to launch in October (Eurogamer)

Sony plans to launch its ambitious PlayStation 3 Home environment - announced at GDC last week - this October, and expects the initial free download to weigh in at "under 500MB", with subsequent patches "hopefully" integrated via a streaming solution "that makes them negligible".

A closed beta phase for around 15,000 users will take place between April and August, with an open beta for 50,000 or so operating between August and October.

That's all according to a "third party relations" question-and-answer PDF uncovered on Sony's developer website, which sheds further light on the service unveiled during Phil Harrison's GDC keynote.

Certain Home features are likely to be accessible via PlayStation Portable and mobile phone in some form, Sony says, while users can also expect to visit paid-for special events, and experience increasing levels of integration with the console's more traditional features as development accelerates. For example, it will be possible to track down friends easily from day-one, but you will only be able to seamlessly launch into a game of MotorStorm together once Sony gets round to coding that bit.

Another element that will take time is the environment's persistence. "Currently Home is not a persistent world, so when you leave Home, all of your possessions go with you. For instance, it is not currently possible for other users to visit your apartment while you're not there," Sony says. "We are working on the persistent aspect of Home, and expect to implement it in the long term."

In the meantime, expect Sony to sort out all the lucrative things its partners will be interested in. Advertising will apparently be kept to "palatable" levels, but will be prevalent, while content auctions, downloadable content sales, premium events and all sorts of other initiatives are on the way. "If you consider Home to be a simulacra of the real world then most goods and services found within the real world could theoretically be replicated within Home," the PDF notes.

Indeed, there are plenty of suggestive comments along those lines. "It will be possible to develop small demo-areas within Home that promote new titles, or to re-publish an old IP as mini-game within [a] Home Space," it notes.

"We believe that there will be ample opportunities for businesses and individuals alike to generate significant revenues from the Home platform," the PDF later adds, with user-to-user auctions a likely inclusion. There will be restrictions on sharing, however, with media-sharing off-limits for obvious reasons.

Lots of interesting stuff, then. If you missed out on all the PS3 Home hoopla last week, be sure to check in with our coverage of Sony's announcements.

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Sony Announces New Info on PS3 Home (PS3Center)

Sony has announced new information in regards to its upcoming PlayStation Home online network it has in place for the PlayStation 3 console.

Sony made the revelation that the PS3 Home will be in closed beta from April until August with 15,000 lucky people being able to take place in the testing of the service.  After the closed beta period from August to October the open beta will begin.  This will allow some 50,000 or so users to try it out and stress test the servers and such while Sony irons out the final things.

October will be the big month when PS3 Home releases for the PlayStation 3 console.

Sony revealed new details stating that Home will be accessible on the PlayStation 3 only at first but over time it will expand and work with other networked devices.  This will include mobile phones and the Sony PlayStation Portable.

Sony stated that Home will be developed “continually” meaning that it will be constantly evolving and growing with new additions being added in all the time.  There will be a constant growing variety of items one can use to make their avatars and customize their apartments in the game known as Home Spaces.

On Halloween and Christmas Sony stated that special content will be made available, only for a limited time though.  Could we be seeing Halloween costumes for our avatars in October?  Perhaps a Santa Clause avatar in December?  The possibilities are endless.

One thing which Sony did state though is that Home is not a persistent world.  This means that once you leave Home all of your possessions will go with you.  This means that once your PlayStation 3 shuts off and you are disconnected to the network no friends can visit your Home Space.

Sony stated that they are working on making it a persistent world but to this point it is not a short term thing which will be added in.

This is some great new news in regards to PS3 Home and the service is looking great.  It is a little discouraging to see that it will be very limited in terms of those who can beta test it up until it is open beta in August.  Start crossing those fingers though and maybe you can get in!

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Interview: Sony's Phil Harrison on Home, LittleBigPlanet, Microtransactions, and Less Trickery (Wired Blog)

WN: So, moving on to Home. Obviously you can view all this information in the context of the game itself, but -- it looks like you're running high-definition video, it's processor-intensive, so you need to devote the PS3 to doing this exclusively. Is there a way to get this information within the context of a game -- press the PlayStation button and there's a list of my friends who are online, achievements -- er, trophies that I'm working on… is that going to go along with this?

PH: So, there are certain elements which are going to be unique to the Home experience, they'll stay inside the Home experience because that's the way they're being crafted. But Home sits on top of the PlayStation Network platform. So as new features are added to PlayStation Network, they will not only be available inside Home, they can also be exposed inside other games as well.

WN: So what features will not be exclusive to Home?

PH: We'll come back to you on that. The roadmap for the platform is very well-defined internally but we haven't shared that specifically.

WN: This represents a change in position for Sony, because when I talked to Jack Tretton before the PS3 launch, he said that Sony had no, they had no interest in pursuing at that point a pan-platform system that ranked achievements in games. So why the change in attitude towards this idea?

DK: I can preface that. What he said was that we had no intention of mimicking Xbox achievements. We recognize that gamers see that as important, but we weren't going to simply replicate that exact system on the PS3.

WN: Well, the idea, I think the quote was "pan-platform": that individual games could do it, like Resistance did that, and I think what he really said was if I'm playing SOCOM, I don't care what happens in Madden.

DK: What he was getting at was the total score, so I've got this great score of 1200, but I've only gotten it playing sports games and I'm gonna play a shooter with you.

PH: And I think he's spot-on. The beauty of trophies, and the fact that they're expressed in 3D in your own hall of fame is a great way of individualizing the experience and allowing your friends to see it as well. And I think that what we're doing here with Home, what we've announced today with Home is totally compatible with what Jack has said.

WN: So the idea of displaying 3D trophies, that might be an example of something displayed in Home, but then across the PlayStation Network, that might be expressed differently in other applications?

PH: I’m not sure I follow the question.

WN: Where I could press a button during a game and my list of achievements in that game opens up. It's not just trophies that appear in Home.

PH: We don’t use the word "achievements…" [laughter]

WN: I'm sorry. You're very on-message. That's good.

PH: Let me show you something so you can get a sense of this, because we didn't have time to go into details. [boots up Home on PS3 in room] When you come back to the Cross Media Bar, you can see that we have this Home icon. But also, underneath it you can see we have Favorites and Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame icon lets you jump straight into Hall of Fame, you don't have to go into Home to get there. And this is where what you just described will be exposed.

Inside Favorites, you'll create bookmarks, shortcuts to the spaces you want to visit most often with your buddies. So it could be that you like hanging out in the SOCOM barracks room, something like that. You just bookmark it, and that will appear as a long list of thumbnails in that area. Next time you log into PS3 you can dive straight in there. Your personal apartment will appear there as well.

WN: And speaking of that, one of the things I wanted to ask was how do you get one of those big houses?

PH: What we wanted to show today was the sense of progression: this is the basic one, this is a more advanced one -- not necessarily the most advanced one, because it'll continue to grow from there. But users will be able to upgrade by purchasing new items, by being gifted new items from games that they purchase, and from buying items that we provide into the network ourselves as the kind of benefactor of everybody in the world. So to get the best, biggest apartment users will most likely have to buy it through microtransactions. I'm not going to get to you on your next question, which is how much is that going to be?

WN: How much is that going to be?

(silence)

WN: That's interesting because as we've seen with other platforms, there's a really fine line that needs to be walked between giving people extra content and making them feel like they're being ripped off forwards and backwards. How do you balance out, what's the value proposition to somebody, why do I want to buy a bigger house? What's that really going to do for me?

PH: We believe that users want to express themselves by physical objects that they own within the universe. Home allows people to expand and customize their space so they can invite their friends round, they can hang out with their friends in their space, they can have premium items in their space like pool tables or arcade machines, and that allows people to say, you know what, I'm going to hang out at Chris' place because he's got some cool art on the walls, or a cool patio, or he's just got the new Mount Fuji view. I think there are really compelling reasons to invest your money in fully tricking out your space.

Now, it's hard for me to answer your question fully without telling you how much. Because it's difficult for you to get a sense. We think pricing should be from this much [makes a tiny hand gesture] to this much [opens hands wide] and everything in between.

WN: You're talking about personalizing this as much as possible. Are users going to be able to create their own content? Can I make a shirt for my character, draw it?

PH: Come back in May, and we'll show you some stuff in that area. We wanted to show Home today, and announce it in a way that everybody could get the basic message. But you can clearly see -- I can tell that you get it -- how this could expand over time. Most of the answers to your questions that I could probably give are, "Yes, that's on the list." The list is incredibly long. And it's our job to prioritize it.

Note: Sections not related to PLAYSTATION®3 Home were left out of this article when copied over.

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'Home' Beta Kicks Off Today, More Openings Soon (1UP)

Not many have found themselves lucky enough to join the public beta of Home, Sony's online PlayStation 3 service meant to encourage community and put Sony in touch with its users. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, the division heading the development of Home, announced today the Home beta has officially started.

SCEE also promised additional spots would be coming for the large number of users who didn't receive an invite. Those openings should start rolling out this summer, they said. 

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E3 2007: Home Boots Directly to Gaming (IGN)

As part of Sony's E3 2007 conference, the company announced at last that HOME will allow users to boot into any game on your PlayStation 3 (on disc or on HDD) and play multiplayer games with others. HOME is Sony's online virtual world, where users create a 3D avatar and interact with other Sony gamers to chat, trade media, and play games.

In demonstration, it was not clear if the users that you meet in your realm of HOME are also the gamers you will end up playing with, but the demo did show that HOME will boot games directly to the multiplayer mode. Skipping all of the legal notices and title screens, the game started right up and, within seconds, players were jumping into the game and playing online. According to Sony, this should be a standard feature in online-enabled PS3 games.

We'll be testing out HOME's many features as soon, so check back for more info.

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E3 2007: Hands-on with Sony's Home (1UP)

What's the game about: For starters, Home isn't a game; it's an online multiplayer social environment, a sort of toned-down version of Second Life that doesn't look terrible. Home is half a response to Xbox Live's innovations -- the introduction of trophies instead of Achievements -- and half a completely new idea to online console functionality. Sony promises gamers can jump into multiplayer games via Home, participate in conversations, and completely customize their avatar. Think MySpace for gamers.

What's new for E3: Some PS3 owners have been checking out the closed Home beta on PlayStation Network for a few months, but the press has been locked out as Sony tweaks Home. At E3, the company unveiled an all-new hub for Home that would be added for current beta testers. The press conference included Sony Worldwide Studios President Phil Harrison demonstrating basic Home functionality on cell phones, including taking pictures via cell phone and having them show up instantaneously as wallpaper within Home.

What we like: The amount of body customization is absolutely insane. It has basic sliders to change weight, height, and facial structure, and the "advanced" mode allows players to use each analog stick separately to produce subtler changes. Sony wasn't lying about seamlessly incorporating the environment, either, with arcade minigames (where are the PlayStation Network titles?) surrounding a nearby bowling arcade or chess in the middle of a park. All players need to do is walk up to them. Interacting with other players is a snap, accomplished by pulling up a chat dialog with Start or tapping L1/R1 for actions like clapping and dancing like "hip-hop" or "rock."

What we dislike: Given Home relies on your friends being part of the service, in addition to the random strangers to populate the environment, the E3 demonstration was pretty boring. Sony ensured some employees were online so someone was there, but the entire point of Home was lost at E3. The best part was warping to the character's house and creating an obnoxious-looking MySpace goth chick with Backstreet Boys-esque pink wallpaper. Plus, you couldn't even properly run in the E3 demo. Instead, you're required to hold a direction for several seconds before the character moves from a slow waltz to barely jogging. Ultimately, it sounds like Sony needs some more time.

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PlayStation Home - The Deep Throat Report (IGN)

In Sony's move to bolster the success of its online presence with the PlayStation 3, it decided not to simply copy Xbox Live's Achievement Point or GamerCard system, but rather take the online space in a new direction with PlayStation Home. The concept is simple: You log in, create a character and roam about the world, interacting with other users and various entertainment outlets (movie screens, arcade games, etc.)

While the concept is simple, the implementation is anything but that, and so a short while back Sony opened up PlayStation Home to a select group of beta testers. The number of testers is small, keeping the flow of inside information to a minimum.

Though we don't have direct access to it ourselves outside of controlled event showings, one lucky insider (who shall remain anonymous for fear of losing his or her access to the beta), gave us just that.

What areas do you have access to within the beta, and how large are they? i.e. is the movie theater sizable or only a few rooms?

There are 4 areas, all of which were shown at GDC.

1. Your apartment. There is only one apartment available right now. I'd say it's about 15ft x 40ft.

2. The Lobby. It's the same area that was first shown at GDC. This area is quite large, about the size of a football field. There are places to sit and chat, and large screens to watch.

3. Movie Theatre. This is the same area shown at GDC. When you walk in there is a large screen playing a Spider-Man 3 trailer. There are 10 theatre rooms which currently show a variety of game and movie trailers.

4. The Game Room. The game room is about half the size of the lobby, which is more than big enough. It's easily the most popular room. There are 6 pool tables, 4 bowling lanes, and 10 arcade machines.

How easy is it to invite friends and transition into games? Are you receiving pop up notices while you're playing games from other home beta users?

This feature has not been implemented yet. None of the new features or areas outlined at E3 have made it into the beta. None. There is no support for in-home parties.

How many options do you have for customizing your avatar within home? Are you relatively restricted or is there a lot of flexibility?

The face creation system is very detailed. It's sorted by things like: eyes, nose, etc. and goes all the way down to things like: Upper face symmetry, lower face symmetry. These facial features are adjusted by a slider that can be moved in both the x and y axis. For example, while adjusting "eye location" the y axis controls the height of your eyes, and the x axis controls their distance from the centre of your face. There are about 20 of these sliders, which give you about 40 different ways to adjust your face alone.

The hair and clothing is still limited in selection. Body shape (which was added in a recent update) only has one adjustment slider.

Is the functionality of wallpaper, music, photos and video playback in your apartment working as of now?

The ability to play back content from your HDD has not been included. You are restricted to pre-set photos for picture frames. The ability to play back video and audio of any type has also not yet been included. TVs or Stereos do not appear in the list of available types of furniture.

Speaking of apartments, how easy is it to move between yours and another player's place? Can you walk there, or do you have to warp over there?

You can walk into your own apartment, but have to be invited and then warp to get into a friends apartment.

Can you go into someone else's apartment when they're not there, or do they have to invite you in?

The only way to get into is for them to invite you while they are in their apartment.

Have you seen some of the arcade games or other features that were touted, like adding or removing objects from your personal space?

Barring certain areas and apartment audio/video playback, everything from GDC is in the home beta right now. This includes arcade games, bowling, pool, furniture placement, character customization, etc. The features that are in home do work well. All the games are fun to play, and promote communication. Placing furniture is relatively painless and there is a good assortment of furniture to choose from. The physics work as promised.

Have you seen the "Trophy room" that we were shown earlier this year? If so, is it as large as was initially shown, and have you seen any titles you've played suddenly generate awards in the trophy room?

There is currently no trophy room.

How's the communication in Home working? Have they implemented the voice chat and keyboard support, or are you stuck with predictive text? Is it supporting Bluetooth yet?

Communication works very well. It supports Bluetooth headsets as well as keyboards. These were both day 1 features. You hold R2 to speak. The audio volume depends on the proximity of your character to the source. This works well in allowing you to have one-on-one conversations while still being able to hear people chatter around you.

Is there anything you can think of that's cool or that sucks that we didn't ask you about the beta?

I'll start with what's uncool. Some features that they've showed us since GDC are still not there, and nothing from E3 is. Sony also had a monthly roadmap of improvements/features/places they were going to implement but have not followed it. Home has had one update since launch. For example the roadmap said that more games were coming, pointing to chess as an example.

Also, for some strange reason, my hair changes color for no reason as I walk in and out of locations.

What's cool? Home works. What I mean by that is it's easy to go in and socialize and have a fun time doing it. People generally have a good time. It has a very open atmosphere, so you can pretty much walk up to anyone and start chatting with them. I've made friends in Home that I play online games such as Resistance or MotorStorm with. The Home beta has left me very excited about the final product, as it should be even more enjoyable when everyone I know has access to it.

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Home Abusers to be Homeless (IGN)

Speaking at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival, Peter Edward, head of the household for Sony's Home service, has revealed details about the company's plans to supervise the content and behavior of its residents. Users who are found to repeatedly cause a nuisance or offend others on the service risk not only being personally kicked out of Home, but their PlayStation 3 could be banned, as well. In these extreme cases, the user would have to purchase a new console in order to return Home.

According to gamesindustry.biz, Sony does not plan to actively police Home in Big Brother fashion. Instead, it will rely on a complaint system that allows users to formally register their grievances about another resident.

"If you really feel like you've been abused or that someone has just shown wholly inappropriate behavior then you are able to complain about it," Edward said. "If you really, really misbehave you can have your console disconnected at a machine level, so you would actually have to move house and buy a new PS3 before you could get online again.

"Clearly that's not something we would want to be doing very often but as a disincentive to mess round too much it's in our power.

"It's a hard line to draw because we don't want to be walking around telling everyone off for saying 'bloody' so we've got to strike a balance there. We're going to be relying on users assessing what's appropriate to them -- if they've been subject to behavior they don't like they can complain about it rather than we walk around as virtual police."

Edwards also said Sony will be placing age-appropriate ads on Home for products such as cigarettes and alcohol.

"Ultimately we know a user's details, we know machine details and we know where they live," said Edward. "It's relatively simple to be confident that somebody is over 18. So it's no problem to have areas that are only open to those aged 18 years and over. We are able to do that quite comprehensively, we have access to the log-in data that they use for the PlayStation Network.

"Undoubtedly there are going to be some things and some brands that we are not going to want to be involved in the environment at any stage. But a large proportion of our demographic is over 18 so we will make a point of catering to that demographic -- we certainly don't want to dumb everything down to the lowest common denominator."

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TGS 2007: Home Launch Delayed (IGN)
We just got word from the Sony press conference that Home, which was originally scheduled to be released at the end of this year, has been rescheduled to release sometime this spring. According to the news at the press conference, this shift comes as a result of Sony's desire to react to feedback from users, and Sony will provide additional details in the future.

Home, Sony's eagerly anticipated social networking service for the PS3, has been in development for quite a while. Hopefully, this delay only means further tweaking for the software, which will then herald in Sony's future plans for online support. Check back with us soon for further updates.

Update: Sony was just asked to elaborate on the Home delay during their press conference Q & A session. Hirai comments that the primary issue responsible for the delay is because Home is a worldwide service, and Sony would like to appeal to as broad of an audience as possible, by offering a wide variety of services. This will be accomplished by responding to the feedback and testing that has been happening recently with the software.

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online 3d community wheres  friends and other can talk and etc.

by the way you titled this thread, i have a feeling you are getting playstation home and folding@home confused...

 

try to google them both.. there is far too much to explain about the both for someone to just type in the answer for you. (maybe somebody will expain, but i am too damn lazy right now)