Virtual Reality: Sony PlayStation 3 - Home™

Those who believe that over-hyped gaming platforms like SecondLife are the future for virtual communities or gaming should have a look at Sony’s PS3 Home™ trailer.

“…Home™ is a real-time 3D, networked community that serves as a meeting place for PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) users from around the world, where they can interact, communicate, join online games, shop, share content and even build their own personal spaces. Home™ will be available as a free download from the PLAYSTATION®Store and will launch directly from the PS3™ system’s Home Menu…”

Click on the image for the jump (multimedia).

Home™ will be available this fall as a free download from the PLAYSTATION®Store. Features include:

• Making your own personalized 3D character or avatar. These realistic human characters are highly customizable with different body types, skin tones, ages, clothing and accessories, creating a unique personality for each user.
• Exploring the 3D community that is Home – a sleek, modern indoor space featuring spacious common areas, retail shops, game lobbies and extensible, customizable personal apartments.
• Communicating with others through text, audio and video chat, along with sophisticated emotional animations for each character.
• Being assigned an apartment in Home where others can be invited to join you as you show off your own style in an area you can personalize yourself with furniture, art and other items. You can even show your video, pictures and music content stored on your PS3 hard drive.
• “Hall of Fame,” where you can display new 3D trophies that will be unlocked through in-game milestones in PS3 games.

Home™ is part of Sony’s “Game 3.0” vision introduced during a keynote by Phil Harrison, President, Worldwide Studios, Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) at the GDC 2007 this week. Another example of the Game 3.0 vision also introduced at the GDC 2007 is a community-based world called “LittleBigPlanet”. LittleBigPlanet starts with players learning about the powers of their chosen characters to interact physically with the environment.

More information:
Sony press release
Gaming Bits with additional screen shots.
Home Beta trial web site.