The Facts: PlayStation Home now has 4 million registered users. Those users spend an average of 55 minutes on Home per visit.

The Truth: Registered users are not active users. I'm a registered user of PS Home, but I haven't used the service once since our original tour...for which I spent well over an hour logged in. But with these numbers Sony can still say, that guy, Mark Wilson, he's a great customer! He's a registered user! He spends about an hour online every time he loads Home! I mean, he's only come by this one time. But it was great! He wore shorts! [GameDaily via Kotaku]

According to a translation from Gpara.com:

The Idol Master for SP is in the Home, and "Rewards" are supported, depending on the progress of the game, the Home can be used to obtain the item.

As we understand it, as you advance in Idol Master, you'll unlock clothing (and even whole avatars according to this shot) in PSHome—probably through the virtual Idol Master vending machine seen in our lead photo.

Still, precisely how this unlocking will occur is unclear. It could involve a PSP to PS3 sync, an online server or just a redeemable code. That said, this is certainly a much-needed step in connecting these various PlayStation properties to form a cohesive network. [Gpara via PlayStation Lifestyle]

Using Apache and DNS redirection (simple stuff), you can point your own version of PS Home to display movies, text and music of your choosing. That's fun, but fairly harmless.

Another hack allows for the downloading of any file you want, like someone's user profile or avatar, while the final two, and most worrisome vulnerabilities include uploading any file to the Home server or deleting any file from the Home server. That's about as bad as security can get. [StreetSkaterFU and PS3Hax via Engadget]

1) PlayStation Home is out, but in Open Beta status. If the world of Home feels sparse or buggy, Sony wants you to remember that it's not really out yet, even though it's actually been released to the public. The final version of PlayStation Home with all of the features Sony has teased is promised for next year.

2) It's not a firmware update. So to download PlayStation Home, don't go searching around System Update for the software. The option to download Home is built right in to the XMB under Network. And while the initial download is just 77MB, each area takes another 10-20MB. The system requires that you reserve 3077MB of storage for all of Home.

3) Chatting has mixed results. Talking to others is fairly mediocre in quality but is interestingly proximity-based, just like in real life. So if someone is speaking near you, you hear it, whether you want to or not. (Luckily, I was able to mute the idiot shouting "I'm a venereal disease" over and over.) Also of note, if you have friends in a different territory than you live, they won't be seen in public spaces, but you can invite them to your apartment to "chat."

4) There will be microtransactions, lots of 'em. Diesel is the partner Sony has been most vocal about for the time being, with pieces of their branded clothing available for $1-$2. And if you want to expand beyond your base apartment, a Summer House will be available for $5.

5) There are lots of dudes. Lots of them.

6) Free Games! PS Home features free bowling and billiards along with a few choices in arcade games. Your avatar actually walks up to a particular arcade cabinet before playing games like a Breakout clone or a gimped version of Ecochrome. Interesting in theory, so-so in execution. And only one guy on a machine at a time.

7) Game Spaces will be limited for now, but available in the Open Beta. These are the themed areas for your group to meet before loading a game. The only two spaces accessible at launch will be ‘Far Cry 2‘ and ‘Uncharted.‘ Each also features puzzle-like objects to interact with and strategic objects like maps for strategic pre-planning.

8) Video sharing is not yet available. The Open Beta will be missing one of Home's potentially coolest features, the option to share your media with others to enjoy virtually. Whether it's technical or licensing issues that are holding Sony back on this feature is unknown.

9) The theater works great...for an ad. You can sit down to watch a movie...if there were a movie. For now, you can watch a loop of a preview for Twilight and an accompanying music video. The quality is that of typical flash video, though the video screen does render smoothly into the 3D background.


10) PlayStation Home is not Second Life. You cannot create anything in PlayStation Home. You can only buy it. Sure, you have your apartment to decorate as you see fit and you can choose the clothes your avatar wears, but these options are based upon preselections—preselections that Sony has complete control over. There are five shirts available to men in Home and you can't change the color. If Home were Second Life, not only would there be more shirts, but those shirts would be covered in animated dildos dancing to the beat of a live vocalist.

Home could be a great platform one day, but Sony needs to provide the content to back it up. And right now, anything short of more advertising is lacking. In Home, I feel like a prisoner—my uniform matches all the other inmates as I walk around beside the other inmates endlessly with nothing to do.

[Additional sources: Wired and MTV]

Remember, technically PlayStation Home is only an open beta. So if it kinda blows, melts your PS3 or sucks your physical body in to a Tron-like world of horror, it's not Sony's fault. You downloaded it. Oh, and apparently you can buy clothes for your avatar from Diesel. Yes, your fake you will dress better than your real you. Full details:

PLAYSTATION®HOME BETA SERVICE WILL BECOME AVAILABLE TO ALL PLAYSTATION®3 USERS ON DECEMBER 11
Highly Anticipated Service Open For All PLAYSTATION 3 Users

Tokyo, Foster City, London, December 10, 2008 – Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE) today announced that its highly anticipated PlayStation®Home Beta service for PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) will become available for all PS3 users around the world *1 on December 11, 2008. Following the successful completion of the closed beta service, PlayStation Home’s open beta service will continue to evolve with new features and functionality.

PlayStation Home is a ground-breaking 3D social gaming community available on PS3 that allows users to interact, communicate and share gaming experiences. By leveraging the power of PS3, PlayStation Home delivers overwhelming visual graphics and rich gaming social experiences only possible on the PS3 platform. Within PlayStation Home, users can create and customize their own unique avatars and explore the virtual community in real time where they can communicate freely through text or voice chat. PlayStation Home users will not only be able to enjoy variety of entertainment content such as mini-games, videos and special events along with their friends, but will also be able to create their own community by using the “Club*2” feature to create clubs with other PlayStation Home users who share the same interests. PlayStation Home also allows groups of users to launch directly into their favourite online games together from PlayStation Home.

PlayStation Home, available as a free download*3 starting December 11, will launch directly from the PlayStation Home icon on the PlayStation®Network column of XMB™ (XrossMediaBar) on PS3. Users will be able to experience basic features and services of PlayStation Home, free of charge*4. PlayStation Home will allow open interaction among users, business partners, and SCE, and will evolve with additional features including dedicated game spaces, special events and exclusive themed items, to further enrich the entertainment experience on the PS3 platform.

“PlayStation Home is truly a promising network community service on the PlayStation platform, made possible with the powerful combination of PS3's overwhelming computational power and PlayStation Network that covers many countries around the globe,” said Kazuo Hirai, President and Group CEO, SCE. “We are committed to providing PS3 users with exciting gaming experiences with PlayStation Home and together with our partners and users, expand the new world of interactive entertainment as we move forward.”

For users accessing PlayStation Home in the Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) regions, themed virtual environments will be available to explore. Starting with a themed Far Cry 2 space, PlayStation Home will offer game inspired environments that allow people to discuss the specific games, plan strategies and access content and clues that will enhance the gaming experience. The number of gaming environments such as this will regularly increase, with spaces for Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune™, Warhawk™, Motorstorm and SOCOM following very soon. SCEE is working with leading publishers such as: Electronic Arts, UBISOFT, Midway, Sega and Atari to create engaging environments that will provide users with an on-going gaming experience.

“We are very excited to be bringing PlayStation Home to Europe and the PAL territories, offering users an interactive, social, gaming experience,” said Daniel Hill, Home Service Manager, SCEE. “PlayStation Home is unique to anything else in the gaming world and by partnering with both global and regional gaming and non-gaming brands, we are able to offer exciting and entertaining content that will enhance the PlayStation experience.”

SCEE today also announced the first partnerships with some of the world’s most respected lifestyle brands for the Open Beta. Fashion leader Diesel, contemporary furniture designers Ligne Roset, energy drink Red Bull, film studio Paramount Pictures and video content providers Hexus TV and Eurogamer are the first on board. They will offer resident’s virtual clothing for their avatar, virtual furniture for their PlayStation Home apartments, exclusive video content and a virtual flying challenge: the Red Bull Air Race.

Visitors and residents will be able to explore PlayStation Home with their avatar character and, thanks to Diesel, avatars can look great from the start with Diesel offering the latest men’s and women’s designer avatar clothing, with items ranging from free of charge to €1.50. So for those visiting PlayStation Home, they can dress their avatars in the latest jeans and jacket prior to getting out and about.

On the home front, PlayStation®Home gives everyone their own apartment to spend time in and entertain friends - who will now be able relax on exclusive Ligne Roset furniture. At the virtual store, people will be able to choose from a selection of the most popular Ligne Roset designs, including the iconic Togo and Facett upholstery collections. It will be possible to personalise furniture by selecting from a wide selection of fabrics and leathers allowing a unique and individual look. This is an opportunity to get acquainted with Ligne Roset’s cutting edge designs created by some of Europe’s most talented designers.

As the very first consumer brand space, Red Bull has created the Red Bull Island where visitors to the Island can interact and take part in many of Red Bull’s unique events. Initially there will be the opportunity to get inside the cockpit of a Red Bull Air Race plane and compete against the PlayStation community. The real-world Red Bull Air Race World Championship has become a global phenomenon in just four years, attracting millions of spectators. Now those spectators can leave the stands, become a pilot and tackle the Red Bull Island course themselves. The Red Bull Island will continue to expand, adding new and exciting content in early 2009.

Taking full advantage of the PlayStation Home Theatre, SCEE has partnered with various content providers to enhance the cinematic experience. Offering a wide range of content, the PlayStation Home Theatre will provide lifestyle technology programming from Hexus TV, gaming content from Eurogamer and exclusive film content from Paramount Pictures. Starting with the release of the highly anticipated film, Watchmen, Paramount Pictures International will use PlayStation®Home to promote its latest films. Initially, PlayStation®Home residents will be able to view an exclusive video greeting from Watchmen Director Zack Snyder as well as the latest Watchmen trailer. A selection of virtual Watchmen merchandise e.g. T-Shirts with the smiley face logo, Doomsday clocks and character statues, will also be available in the New Year, ahead of an exclusive Q & A event where cast and filmmakers will meet selected press and competition winners fans within the Watchmen themed environment.

PlayStation Home is exclusive to PS3, free to download and easy to join. It’s the ultimate online community – a place where you can meet friends, try the latest games, hear new music, watch videos, relax in the apartment of your dreams and much, much more. With more and more spaces being created and partners like Diesel, Ligne Roset and Red Bull coming on board, the PlayStation Home experience is just getting started.

SCE will vigorously promote the expansion of the world of PS3 by introducing new services that will open up new possibilities and enjoyment in interactive entertainment.

*1 PlayStation Home will not be available in some regions.

*2 To be a “Clubhouse” owner, user will need to buy the entitlement to run the club.

*3 When the service is available, PlayStation Home icon will appear after booting/ re-booting the PS3 system. To enjoy PlayStation Home, users will need broadband network connection and PlayStation Network account in addition to the PS3 system.

*4 Some content and services are charged.

[Kotaku]

To try Home, which is slated for release in the next 10 days, players must download a piece of free software from Sony’s PlayStation store onto their own PS3.

Just keep in mind that even if Times Online has the scoop, they're a UK publication who may not be speaking for a worldwide release date.

Then again, December 17th up with Sony's own assurances quite nicely...even if it's all a bit too late for pre-Christmas hype. [Times Online via Kotaku]

Like we've said, we're excited about moving PlayStation Home into its Open Beta stage this year. Once we make the move to Open Beta, everyone will have access to PlayStation Home.

So we'll have PS Home in 2008, but in potentially not quite cooked Open Beta form, we just may not want it all that much. [IGN via Kotaku]

Character Creation:

The first thing that I noticed when you go in is that the sliders for character customization move slow as shit. They move so slow that you can't really see the difference in the changes that you are making.

General Play

After you create your character, you jump right into your apartment. The controls are pretty intuitive and the integration of an in game psp is pretty cool (basically in game xmb with extra home options)...[you] really need a keyboard to communicate, but it is still functional with multiple emoticons and preprogrammed messages.

Zones

Each different zone you enter you need to download a new file they range from 18 to 33 MB (They should integrate this into the main download). From the main area you can visit the following places:

1. Movie Theater - A movie theater that you can walk around, sit enjoy...more lapdances, all while the trailer of the last guy is playing. Its kinda funny seeing the text bubbles pop up above peoples heads as they see the trailer. "Game Sucks Ass"...."cool music"..."soundz like bad porn tunez".

2. Shopping center - Visit store for more clothes, furniture, and "stuff". I bought everything I could within 2 mintues. Very limited suppy of "free" items, currently nothing for "sale" with actual dollars.

3. Music zone (no download required, part of the main area) - Listen to 1 of 3 tunes and dance appropriately for the style of music. Get made fun of by other dancers.

4. Game zone - Play crappy arcade, pool and bowling games (absolutely no motion integration, very crappy controls, meh all around)

Closing Thoughts

20 minutes and you get the full experience of Home. The only entertaining thing that keeps me logging back on is stalking other people and doing the twist dance maneuver while saying "grind me hard". I basically chase people around and shake my booty at them and they try to jog slowly away from me, its pretty amusing.

Home just needs content. It is currently a 3d chat room.

It should be noted that the PlayStation Home beta does not include areas with PlayStation 3 title game integration as we'll see with games like Warhawk and Resistance 2.

Thanks Randy!

We'll see how smoothly Home operates when more users are sharing server space, but for now we're remaining extremely optimistic about Sony's newest experiment. It's just different enough from the offerings of Microsoft and Nintendo and similar software like Second Life that it could be a little incredible. What do you think?

Of course, we're looking past copyright issues and Sony's mediocre track record with software. But if Sony can get their PlayStation Network up to snuff—providing some of their entertainment properties for easy download—while allowing users to DVR and share, at minimum, their own media, the PS3 really will revolutionize living room home entertainment. And we aren't even talking about the PSP yet in this equation.

Still, the approaching holiday season will probably have more to say about the console's success than any peripherals coming out next year. [press via kotaku]