Remember when we talked about how Second Life was too sophisticated and that a more useful virtual world would act a little dumber like Grand Theft Auto – well, it looks like Sony was listening because they’ve launched a virtual work for their PS3 consoles called Playstation Home.
Kokatu blog has the scoop:
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…You can communicate with others in the lobby by talking, typing, using motions or pre-written phrases.
[A users'] 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.”
…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.
Related PSFK Articles
Will We See A Dumbed Down Virtual World Beat Second Life?
[kudos to JC for the tip]
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now this is the first thing thats interested me on the PS3. I find Second Life to be tedious and it looks terrible. I dunno if i’d wanna spend 600 bucks to “play” this, and if you could do user generated content that would be fresh.
March 7th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
Two words:
Killer. App.
http://gamevideos.com/video/id/9849
March 7th, 2007 at 2:53 pm
Considering that I read Sony has been working on this for two years, I’m not sure they referenced your Fall ‘06 post; but who knows.
As to the announcement, I posted my thoughts ( http://blog.rebang.com/?p=1205 ) which are making more rounds than I anticipated, but more importantly I’ve spent some time surfing through the comments on a number of well-traffic’d blogs and I’m hearing quite a bit of the same thing: the players want more games – not a virtual space to hang out in while waiting for them. The “killer apps” those players/consumers care about are videogames like XBox 360’s “Gears of War”.
I think it’s a worthwhile effort and appreciate it for what it is, but I don’t believe it’ll make much difference to Sony’s bottom line at this point. And who knows, MS might be launching something similar for XBox Live.
March 8th, 2007 at 8:43 pm