Friday, May 4, 2007

Play The Sims On Your PS3! Oh, It's Just The Beta For Playstation Home


You were excited for a second there, weren't you? Well, allow me to throw some cold water on you. Reports are coming in from around the interwebs that the beta testers for the upcoming Playstation Home service are now able to download the software from the Playstation Store via their PS3. Early reports stated that the software could not yet be installed, but later stories surfaced that the service is now active.

Playstation Home was announced earlier in the year at GDC by Sony, as their main online presence for the PS3. The service resembles The Sims or Second Life, in that you navigate a humanoid avatar around a 3D world and interact with other users. There are public spaces, but each user also has their own private "apartment" in which they can entertain friends and store their game trophies (the PS3 version of achievement points).

Just how useful the service will be remains to be seen. No one really knows what level of integration PS Home will have with games, and whether or not the service can act as a lobby for online multiplayer battles. I'm guessing that type of functionality won't be present at first, but it should serve as a way to interact with your clan after a match.

As more users enter the beta, updates should come fast and furious. That's what's good about the internet - we'll probably have the juicy details before Sony does. But if you didn't sign up for the beta, it's too late now. You'll just have to wait until the service officially launches this fall to get your virtual groove on PS3 style. Back to World of Warcraft for you.

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