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At the Game Developers’ Conference (GDC), Phil Harrison, President of SCEI Worldwide Studios, showed off the PlayStation 3 online user community. The best comparison to the online community titled Home is the popular, ever-growing Second Life.
This free service will allow users to make a customizable avatar and explore a real time online community. Each user will have an apartment in Home in which their avatar will live with downloadable decorations. Uploaded PS3 hard drive content like videos and pictures can be displayed in one’s apartment. Once you have finished glamorizing your crib, you can invite other users to come up and check out your place.
Communication between users can be done via text, audio, or video chats. A “Hall of Fame” allows users to showcase the 3D trophies they’ve earned by unlocking in-game milestones (think Xbox 360 Achievements, except with a shiny trophy).
“This is a significant step forward in the area of user community services and emergent entertainment experiences,” Izumi Kawanishi, Corporate Executive at SCEI. “While the 3D graphics demonstrate the power of the PS3 and the PlayStation Network, the most impressive feature in Home is the variety of ways in which multiple consumers, as well as our third-party partners, can experience the next generation of communication by interacting and sharing among each other. I feel strongly that this unique blend of community, user-generated content, collaboration, and commerce will expand the future of computer entertainment.”
Home will have a closed beta this spring. The launch is planned for Fall 2007.
The image featured at the top of this post is ©Square Enix.