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Microsoft to Make Own ‘Home’ Service?

Microsoft to Make Own ‘Home’ Service?

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When Sony first announced their upcoming Home service, quite a few people believed that they were stealing ideas from both Microsoft and Nintendo, including the use of customizable avatars and achievement points.  However, some hints from Microsoft E&D GM Daniel Schiappa have created the impression that Microsoft may be planning their own version of Home.

At his recent appearance during the Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo in San Jose , Schiappa stated that “by next year, you’ll probably know more about why I’m up here.”

The Virtual Worlds Conference is a trade show for the “emerging virtual worlds industry”, which would include “games” like Second Life and possibly PlayStation Home.  Since Microsoft doesn’t currently have a virtual world game, their presence there does lead gamers to suspect they might be planning their own Home.

Earlier this year, Schiappa had the following to say about the upcoming service from Sony.  “I think they’ve definitely taken some concepts that we originated like achievements, but I think they’re pushing in a different direction and we’ve sort of fundamentally got two different approaches going on here…It’s a cool world but it’s like a little game by itself. Our approach is the other way around; it’s that games are the center and that’s the star of the show, that’s what people buy the console for.”

Coupled with Schiappa’s statements from earlier this year, we may get an idea of the direction Microsoft is going. According to Schiappa though, we won’t know for certain until next year.

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