by Playfuls Staff |
11th March 2007
At GDC, Sony unveiled its own virtual universe, a new
real-time 3D avatar-based community and communication service for the PS3
platform. The new service, called Home, puts users into a real-time, [more] networked
3D community, where they can interact, join online games, communicate, share
content and even build and show off their own personal spaces. Home will be
available this fall as a free download from the PS3 Store.
According to Sony, other
notable 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.
Speaking with ThreeSpeech blog a Sony representative
explained in detail what is Home and especially and Sony hope to achieve with
its latest invention. “Home is a much more rich, user friendly experience than
Second Life, allowing for ease of entry and use, as well as being
fully-functional with the technology and capabilities of PS3,” said Sony
representative.
Obviously, there were some questions about hoe Home is
different from Xbox Live, the Microsoft’s service for Xbox 360. “Home is a
first of its kind 3D community that allows for open interaction between
consumers, SCE and third party partners. It is a truly interactive, global
community of users. Xbox Live is a static, 2D, text-heavy environment that
can’t match the rich community features found in Home. Xbox Live community
interaction is much more passive and limited to the members on that friend’s
list.”, Sony representative responded.
Although, at the first look, Home can be defined as a Second
Life for PS3, the Sony representative claimed that “Home is a much more rich,
user friendly experience than Second Life, allowing for ease of entry and use,
as well as being fully-functional with the technology and capabilities of PS3.”
In the meantime Sony unveiled the Home official site, where in the near future
users will be able to register to take part in a closed Beta Trial of Home.
