Sony opens up on Home

By Tim Surette, GameSpotPosted Mar 12, 2007 2:58 pm PT

In a note to developers, Sony confirms 15,000-user beta in April, 50,000-user beta in August; company trying to make Home under 500MB.

Home, sweet Home. That was the reaction from PlayStation 3 owners to Sony's keynote address at GDC 2007, where Phil Harrison unveiled the 3D online community for the PS3.

However, the sampling demonstrated that day didn't include all the hard facts that future Home owners wanted to know. In a document floated out by Sony to developers, some of those missing questions were answered.

First and foremost, the Home closed beta is scheduled to kick off in April with 15,000 users. This first stage of the beta will run through August, at which point it will enter the open beta phase and open up to approximately 50,000 users. The free service, which Sony is trying to get under 500MB in size, is scheduled to go live in October.

The Central Lounge, which is a starting point for virtual meet-and-greets, will have a cap of 64 concurrent users. Like online chat rooms, there will be several active Central Lounges on the network to accommodate users.

Though currently PS3-only, Sony is hoping to expand Home to be accessed by the PlayStation Portable and mobile phones, but admits it will be limited access. Sony did not say what features will be accessible or when other devices could connect to Home.

Currently, meeting someone in Home and then playing a multiplayer game with them requires both parties to exit Home and enter the game manually, but Sony says that eventually, everything will be seamless. Likewise, Home will eventually become accessible directly through a game that is being played.

At the present time, Home is not a persistent world. Gamers can not visit their friends' apartments unless their friends are logged in. "We are working on the persistent aspect of Home, and expect to implement it in the long term," says the note.

Among the other tidbits of information: users will be able to make money through online user-to-user auctions, there will be no child avatars, and lobbies will likely be localized and divided by region.

To see the entire document, download the file (.pdf format).

323 Comments

  • zellwwf

    Posted Feb 2, 2008 5:00 am PT

    Rosscero My Friend. u said that (and some hardcore gamers play more than 2 hours) these are not hardcore gamers... i barely consider my self as a gamer at all... though i play it over 4+ consecutive hours . play my "ps3" and yeah. on vacations i play it till the night that more that 12 hours a day! and my playstation 3 never failed me... cuz the ps3 rocks.. not like ur xbox

  • omerg1993

    Posted Jan 21, 2008 9:41 am PT

    looks good but not an x360 killer (btw ps3 vs x360 winner= your choice leave me out)

  • porchmonkey1

    Posted Jan 20, 2008 6:17 pm PT

    The Ps3 Needs to get in game XMB soon

  • fuzzy_hippo

    Posted Jan 19, 2008 7:48 am PT

    I own a ps3 and don't understand why people are saying that this game is going to dominate over the 360. Sure it will help sony with onling games making it easier to find people to play with but as far as 2008 will go i think that home will have a realativally low impact. I do still think that the 360 will not do as a good as the ps3 this year because of big, stunning games like little big planet and killzone 2 ( I am going to buy both). The 360 got lucky last year now the ps3 is going to take the top!

  • whantwhant

    Posted Dec 19, 2007 12:27 pm PT

    is it true there only going to let 50.000 people in the open beta trials

  • aceball69

    Posted Dec 3, 2007 1:13 pm PT

    This sounds like an awesome feature! Just another reason to get a PS3...

  • dmf_pokerman

    Posted Dec 1, 2007 10:47 am PT

    This is sweet. I cannot wait to get a PS3. The games and now the "Home." I can be at home and at Home at the same time. lol

  • jnvwv

    Posted Sep 29, 2007 3:58 pm PT

    Yes, it is free. You can purchase a bigger house, and more furniture, but Sony Home is basically free, unless you want more prestige.

  • jimmyhat999

    Posted Sep 22, 2007 8:22 pm PT

    Probably a stupid question but i havent really read up on it cause i dont have a PS3, is this completely free then cause by the looks of things i seriously doubt it and if it is then the free part is gunna be very limited unless you pay for somthin like a premiium package type thing.

  • Simba_Dude

    Posted Sep 6, 2007 8:39 pm PT

    I will probably use this for some basic use and meeting up with friends for some games. Other then that I don't want to waste countless hours bragging "look at what I added to my pad guys!" more like spend an hour set everything up in the house and start chatting with my friends. It would be nifty to see a couple of the bigger names out there try to get some firmware additions added to home so you can chat via text to people on your MSN, Yahoo, etc

  • Panman_Dan

    Posted Aug 28, 2007 9:33 pm PT

    What was that Xbox? Huh? I can't hear you! Haha, Xbox Live better go hide, Home makes Live look like a pushpop.

  • Weapon_XE

    Posted Aug 17, 2007 12:16 pm PT

    ps3 is the way. everything you buy for the 360 ( xbox live, wireless adapter, hd drive) already pushes you up to or past the price of a COMPLETE ps3 console BUILT-IN with blue ray ,( which is outselling hd and blockbuster has switched to just blu ray) free online community and gaming, and is wireless, bluetooth,ect. If i had to choose... i choose the non-defective system with the variety in games not just FPS games.

  • bihboy69

    Posted Aug 13, 2007 11:03 pm PT

    cant wait

    i wonder what date in august it will start?
    anybody know?

  • Homeless_Hero

    Posted Aug 11, 2007 7:21 am PT

    this is a great idea and i dont get how people think that xbox live is better than this when the truth is it cant even come close to this.

  • teewii

    Posted Aug 5, 2007 4:39 pm PT

    how do i make money so i can get a nice house and furniture? if that costs real money, im not getting this... but it is a great consept.. hope they dont make it just to get some extra money... great consept though. anyway there are so many great games coming for ps3 this year (and next year of course) so xbox is going down!

  • the_crosbie

    Posted Aug 2, 2007 8:50 am PT

    looks and sounds amazing

  • No-Go-Zone

    Posted Jul 30, 2007 12:55 am PT

    im not really aiming this at anyone but ive heard things liek well wheres them awesome system sellers, why hasnt it got really good online n stuff... well actually it dose have good online it will get those games also many sequils from system sellers on ps2... to be honest ive played on halo... and all they did was get a decent story line make a cool character some good vehicles good grafics good guns just all round goodness and the least amount of things wrong they could have and thats what grabbed games and kept them hooked... they didnt say oh this is rubbish it ruins the game im sick of it ill go play viva pinyata.... and because this is sonys real fist time makeing online (not just the odd game here and there on ps2 sony gamers are thinking this is great becauese this is their 1st time even though its not perfect.. 360 gamers will expect the no lag no glitches kinda stuff which theyve got on 360 already (with the 60$ a year) whatever you say about ps3 now wont be said when home is done...

  • No-Go-Zone

    Posted Jul 30, 2007 12:43 am PT

    Home is something that will replace the bodge msging system (nothing liek msn etc) where its like an email, and you can only send pictures with it. So when home comes around ite will be Joy! So you dont have to have people on ur fr list to meet them ( if you met one of the guys from OPM say; you could get an private intervew about the magazine and ask about some up -and- coming stuff ) And no this isnt actually a GAME its a place where you can meet freinds (while , like in britain, its poouring it down wiv rain sleet whatever) and still go beat them at pool, or watch a film or get all your clan together on a game on go Whoop another clans Arse... i cant see it as a reason for buying a ps3 coz u dont buy a pc for (just) msn you buy it for everything else. this will just make me wanna meet up with my m8s more... do up my pad and then sit back and relax while watching the latest game trailers. I want to know more about the connectivity to phones n psp (psp is probs exactly liek the home on the ps3, while the phone is just the talking part... i guess) but i love this idea coz the best i can do on my pc is Habbo hotel...

  • fizzyfunk

    Posted Jul 28, 2007 3:29 am PT

    This looks and sounds like a great idea imo! Still, i'm sure the 360 owners will still swear live is better lol only the real gaming fans can admit to liking something great on another platform... so i'm sure a huge percent of 360 owners will still say it's nowhere near as good as live. I'm glad they've done this as the ps3 online system is rather dull right now but this is going to change it big time!... can't wait for more news on the psp connectivity too

  • dave1590

    Posted Jul 27, 2007 3:42 am PT

    gtafighter - This isn't exactly a "Game" It's more like an interactive chatroom. Can't say this appeals to me too much, as I'm not buying a PS3 until the end of this year anyway, but this isn't influencing my decision. I hated second life,and seeing as this game resembles it quite alot, can't say it looks exciting. And I don't think microsoft will go downhill when this "game" comes out, as microsoft already have an established online community, and this is Sony trying to launch theres. I'll certainly watch with some intrest to see how this developes, as if Sony could beuil a succesful online community around this game, then MP support in future games could be greatly improved.

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