Playstation Home lands on PS3 – Everything you need to know
At last after months, if not years, of waiting, Playstation Home is set to land on the PS3 on December 11, 2008. With all 17 million or so PS3 users able to download and start using the long-awaited, oft-delayed service, expect mayhem from the start.
Home could either be the best thing to ever happen to a games console or a steaming pile of dog mess. I don’t think for a moment that everyone will like it, and a good proportion of PS3 owners will likely never even sample it. But for those excited about the launch, here’s what you should know before diving in.
The Basics
Playstation Home has been in development since 2005, with programmers actively working on it for around 18 months. Home is a community-based virtual world with similarities to Second Life. It’s exclusive to Playstation 3 owners, and accessible via the Playstation Network. It’s free to use, and always will be. Even with a full public release, Home is still in beta, and could be for the duration of its lifetime.
How To Get Home
Any PS3 owner hooked up to the Internet will be able to download Home from December 11, 2008. The Home icon will appear on the PS3 XMB (XrossMediaBar) automatically, and a free download is then available.
Features
First and foremost, Home is your presence on the PSN. To that end, you get to design an avatar of yourself, although you can turn yourself into a freak who bears no resemblance to the real you if that’s your thing. The virtual you will then get an apartment (HomeSpace) to reside in. This is a private apartment which can be decorated and furnished to your own unique design sensibilities.
Home is made up of various virtual areas. There is a central plaza that acts as a kind of hub, with areas such as a movie theater, arcades, and shopping malls running off it. There will also be areas dedicated to particular games such as Far Cry, Warhawk, and Motorstorm. Fans of these titles will be able to share tips and access game content. New game-specific areas are promised to be added on a regular basis.
Other things to do include shooting some pool, watching game videos in the theater, bowling with mates, window shopping for new accessories at the mall, and a lot more besides. But the most obvious thing to do is chat to online friends before launching into a game.
Home is set to make starting online games much easier, possibly even competing with Xbox Live on that score. Go and stand by someone in one of the virtual areas and you can launch a group game, assuming you all own a copy of the game being played.
Conclusions
Home has been a long time coming, and could disappoint a lot of people just the very nature of high expectations. I think there’ll be a lot of excitement early on as people discover new things to do and see, which will then wane after a few weeks. The big test then will be how often Home is updated and expanded by Sony. If the demand is there, Home could be huge, but its success is far from assured at this present time.
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29 Responses to “Playstation Home lands on PS3 – Everything you need to know”
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December 10th, 2008
Sounds good. I’ll have the give it a go. Damnit. Thursday is my bar night…..
December 10th, 2008
Mer and Royzy have been discussing a certain tactic involving a certin someone who has PSN and frequently visits Blorge…. more details after the release of Home… XD
December 10th, 2008
Bourne, what are you guys planning to do to everyone’s favorite fanboy…? >.>
-Arvis
December 10th, 2008
LOL, we hadn’t thought about Ivan actually… thats a good idea, anyhow we should all rendez-vous somewhere in home at someone’s apartment. Parrack and Ferro would be welcome if we knew their ID’s.
December 10th, 2008
SMEAR POO ON HIS WALLS!!!!
December 10th, 2008
Bourne,
My Summer House is pretty nice if I can say so myself… It’s all set up for meetings.
Harry,
I will immediately begin petitioning Sony to add the Poo Smear feature to Home.
-Arvis
December 10th, 2008
make it just like “real” home
December 10th, 2008
Here is the question. How are people suppose to chat when probably most people don’t have a mic?
December 10th, 2008
AYE!!
You better not ransack my summer home… and what the hell… I dont even have youre PSNs… WHY DO YOU HATE ME SO!!!
we should just go around and “do the running man” to anyone with a female avatar… thats what I do all the time…
December 10th, 2008
Can I make my avatar a monkey, then when they add the poo I could throw poo and smear it on the walls. That would make Home entertaining if I could throw my monkey poo at other peoples avatars!
December 10th, 2008
I better stay away from Wylie’s avatar.
I don’t want monkey poo on me.
I think that may be the first and hopefully the last time I’ve ever had to write that.
December 10th, 2008
I will petition sony for Ivan’s moustache to be added to home.
CAD – I wish less people had mics, because its annoying overhearing some yokel when bowling (can’t figure out if its possible to mute once you’ve started bowling). Of course text chat is available via ingame virtual keyboard, that crazy ass ps3 keypad thing, or preset phrases and emotions.
Nice troll anywhoos. *gives medal*
December 11th, 2008
hahaha nobody’s added DWH.
December 11th, 2008
Well here is CAD and his usual posse of m8’s regurgitating the same diatribe of useless information : The headset/ mic questions rears it’s ugly head again……
Will you get over it …really. Do PC owners get a free headset with their set up when they buy it….NO – so in your mentality, there would be hardly any one of PC users using a mic/headset because they didn’t get it free when they bought it. Its not as if the headset costs a crap load of money. If the player really wants a headset they will get one, even a kid on weekly pocket money (allowance) could afford one in the first week.
If your going to have a go at something, how bout finding something with a bit of credibility, so it doesn’t make you look like a goose
December 11th, 2008
So has anyone used it yet? Can you trash people’s places or what?
I’m just afraid of Ivan inviting people into his gingerbread house.
December 11th, 2008
11th of December must be for NA, because it hasn’t appeared on mine yet ?? Damn those backward Yanks….lol
December 11th, 2008
11th of December in the US is the 12th here, we’re a day ahead of them, it normally takes the 16-24 hours to catch up with us! hahaha
December 11th, 2008
they rarely update the psn until about 7pm est.
December 11th, 2008
Harry dont be sad we’ll save you some cake…
December 11th, 2008
haha poo smearing. Haven’t heard that phrase since someone kept doing it to the cubicle doors in the school toilets (they had a compulsive disorder). The Poo Smear command is top of my wish list.
Harry, I heard on the grapevine you can drop furniture down stairs and such. So hopefully we can make an fu*king mess of someones (not mine) apartment.
We should make a Blorge gang and do a group ‘running man’ around lonesome female avatars. I sense a banning.
December 11th, 2008
all this talk and none of it about online gaming…
wow..that psn sure is something… lol..
December 11th, 2008
Kev… that’s because the PSN already offers flawless online gamming. Home is in addition to that. And guess what? It’s all at no charge.
December 11th, 2008
Royzy,
Well if you get into Ivan’s house and do that, can I please request some screenshots? That would be funny.
When Chris (Arvis) buys me a PS3 i’ll join in on the rampage.
December 12th, 2008
There is a ms 360 “poo smearing” room. Great fun mind you …… lol
December 12th, 2008
Not interested unless you can smear poo in Ivan’s room.
December 12th, 2008
Nah just joking Harry, but if there is a Ivan poo smearing room, there is little chance of getting in on the action, as there will be a too bigger line up …. lol
December 12th, 2008
Royzy got pwned at bowling, I look liked a turd with my pedo avatar and Spideydog owned us both at bowling even though he was drunk! Good times.
December 12th, 2008
The lack of a poo smearing option really is a shame. Maybe we should start a petition… they always work
December 12th, 2008
Good times, Good times. My apparent ownage will be short lived I suspect, as Bourne and Royzy were bowling virgins. A little more practice by them both will see me having my ass handed to me on a platter …. lol
Look forward to see yas again on there (a few more of ya) Home is good and has massive potential. They need to start adding the other locations and such for a more complete experience.
Dave, maybe a gamer-blorge poll might be in order … lol
If anyone is interested my psn is simply: Spideydog.