by Playfuls Staff |
7th March 2007
Sony, struggling to deal with fierce competition from Nintendo and Microsoft, has announced a customizable, networked community service for the console, in which users will be able to navigate[more] in 3D while being represented by avatars.
It is the first practical step of a new gaming concept Sony calls Game 3.0, together with LittleBigPlanet, a community-based game where users play, create and share what they build.
Sony's 'Home' for PS3 users appears to be a mix of SecondLife and Nintendo's Mii. However, the avatars don't look like cartoon figures. They are very customizable and designed to look like real life humans. Fortunately, you get some free clothes when you start out, so your avatar doesn't have to run around naked. If you want to be more chic, just buy a few clothes online.
Players can communicate via voice, text chat (supported by a USB keyboard or a virtual keyboard) and through canned speech and gesture. The environment looks like a luxury resort.
"Technology innovation is part of the culture at SCE as evidenced by our influence on real-time 3D computer graphics and the optical disc format in the 1990's, to the more recent innovations such as Cell Broadband Engine computing and the use of Blu-ray in PS3," said Sony’s president of Worldwide Studios, Phil Harrison.
"Our vision for the future, Game 3.0, will continue our track record of industry advancement by leveraging the convergence of technologies, from broadband and video chat to supercomputer-speed processors, to make gaming more interactive and dynamic than ever before."
Every PS3 owner using 'Home' will get their own private apartment, which can be customized with almost any media you have stored on your PS3's HDD. You can have HD quality videos play on virtual TVs, MP3s play on virtual stereos, and more. A "Hall of Fame" allows you to display new 3D trophies that will be unlocked through in-game milestones in PS3 games.
Sony has embedded into the game the possibility of displaying custom content on public displays within the virtual world, opening the way to showing advertisements, trailers, and user-created content.
'Home' is designed to stimulate users into buying and playing new PS3 games, which will lead to the unlocking of different items within the virtual world.
The best part about 'Home' is that is a free, persisting virtual world which could be populated soon with millions of PS3 users, who would be able to interact in many ways with their environment and with each other. 'Home' will also compensate for the apparent lack of new games designed exclusively for the Playstation 3.
"Home," a free download, will be available globally beginning in fall 2007, but will start in beta form this April.
"It will take the industry forward," Phil Harrison told Reuters ahead of the launch.
"In Second Life, it's all about user-created content," Harrison said to CNET News.com. "We're providing (a lot of content ourselves). You can only do that with a defined platform... We will deliver what users want in an entertaining way."
