PlayStation Home

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PlayStation Home
Developer SCE London Studio
SCE Studio Cambridge[1]
Type Online community service
Virtual world[2]
Updated June 2, 2009
Version 1.22.3[3]
Launched December 11, 2008 (Open Beta)
Platform PlayStation 3
Website Asian website
European website
Japanese website
North American website

PlayStation Home (also marketed and referred to as Home) is a community-based service developed by Sony Computer Entertainment's London and Cambridge studios for the PlayStation 3 on the PlayStation Network(PSN). It is available directly from the PlayStation 3 XrossMediaBar. Membership is free, and only requires a PSN account. Home has been in development since early 2005 and started an open public beta test on December 11, 2008.

Home allows users to create a custom avatar, which can be made to suit the user's liking. Users can decorate their avatar's personal apartment ("HomeSpace") with default, bought, or won items. Users can travel throughout the world which is constantly updated by Sony and partners. Each part of the world is known as a space. Public spaces can just be for display, fun, or for meeting people. Home features many mini-games which can be single player or multiplayer. Users can shop for new items to express themselves more through their avatars or HomeSpace. Home features video screens in many places for advertising, but the main video content is shown at the theatre for entertainment. Home plays host to a variety of special events which range from prize-giving events to entertaining events. Users can also use Home to connect with friends and customise content.

Contents

History

The first "Central Plaza" was inside and enclosed from other spaces.

PlayStation Home (or Home[4]), originally named 'Hub',[5] started as a 2D online lobby for the PlayStation 2 game The Getaway: Black Monday. However, the online userbase for the PlayStation 2 was too small and the project was never completed before the release of the PlayStation 3, at which point the developers began porting code to the new platform. Phil Harrison, then president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, liked the idea of having a virtual 3D community hub for PlayStation gamers, and transferred the project to become PlayStation Home.[6] In a 2007 keynote speech, Phil Harrison used the term "Game 3.0" to describe the service.[7]

An online-based service had been the subject of speculation since the launch of the PlayStation Network. Sony had expressed interest in such a service, specifically trophies (known at the time as "entitlements") for first-party titles.[8] PlayStation Home, as a feature, was first publicly mentioned in an interview with NG-Gamer.[9] This was later detailed by Kotaku[10] and finally confirmed by NG-Gamer.[11] It was officially announced by Phil Harrison on March 7, 2007, during his keynote speech at the 2007 Game Developers Conference[12] and was originally scheduled for a global public release in October 2007.[13]

Home was delayed and expanded[14] several times before initially releasing.[15][16] Invitations to the closed beta were offered to winners of a weekly Warhawk online gaming event.[17] Kazuo Hirai, President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, stated that "Spending more time on the development and on the Closed Beta testing reaffirms our commitment to bringing a quality service, maintaining the PlayStation tradition". In July 2008, further invitations were sent to some Home XMB theme downloaders in Japan and North America.[18][19] SCEE and SCEHK did the same, but without releasing a Home XMB theme.[20] Users who purchased more than HK$60 or SG$12 worth of content in a single transaction over the PlayStation Store from August 29 to September 12, 2008 were also invited.[21] In November 2008, SCEA invited annual Qore subscribers.[22] After major version 1.0, invitations were sent worldwide.[23][24]

The Open Beta test was started on December 11, 2008, approximately 14 months later than the initial expected release date. In May 2009, Sony reported that Home had been downloaded by 6.5 million users, with 85% returning users.[25] In June 2009, Peter Edwards, Director of Home for SCEE, reported that the number of users exceeded 7 million and that 80% of users are male aged 18–35.[26] Jack Buser, Director of Home for SCEA, stated that Home will remain in beta "indefinitely," meaning that Sony does not know yet when Home will be out of the Open Beta. He also stated that, "We quite like the name 'open beta,' so you can expect us to stay in open beta for some time."[27]

Features

Users are given an avatar and invitation-only apartments which they can personalise with their own choice of decor and furnishings. The user's avatar is the means of travel and communication. The user's personal spaces and clubs are means of expressing their selves and meeting new people and friends alike.

A picture of a male Home avatar being created.

Avatar

The user can create their own avatar or use one of several preset avatars available in Home.[28] Users can access the Wardrobe from the Menu Pad at any time and location. They may customise a variety of the characters features including gender, skin tone, hair, body shape and facial structure. They may also customise their avatar's clothing and accessories using a set of standard items, or items bought from one of the clothing shops in Home. The user has the ability to save up to nine versions of their avatar for quick access at any time.

An avatar sitting in their decorated Harbour Studio.

Personal Spaces and Clubs

Each user has a Personal Space, called a "HomeSpace", which they can modify and change any time they are in it. The initial basic apartment, the Harbour Studio (a studio overlooking a harbour), is free and offers users limited options for customisation and personalisation. In the future, Sony will provide tools that will enable users to have an even greater ability to create their own Personal spaces and content. Users may invite any other Home user (even cross-region) to their Personal Space and in time, will be able to stream the host's music from their console's hard drive.[29] Videos may be enabled in the future, but not during the opening stages of the beta.[30] Users can also place their own digital photographs in picture frames to display on the wall of their apartment (currently only available to North America).[31] Whilst the Harbour Studio and basic furniture is provided to all users free of charge, premium Personal Spaces, dedicated furniture for the premium Personal Spaces, and other furniture is available to purchase from the shopping complex.

Premium Personal spaces that are available from the Home Estates store include the Summer House, the Lakeside Log Cabin, the Living Room Stage Set from Loot (North America), the Ghostbusters Firehouse: On Location (North America), the City Penthouse (Currently unavailable to North America),[32] and the Visari Throne Room (Currently Europe, North America at a later date). The Visari Throne Room is based on Visari's Throne Room from Killzone 2.[33] The Chamber Apartment was free and was only available for one week from May 14, 2009 to May 21, 2009 in the North American Home.[34] The Chamber Apartment has four interactive fire pits/waterfalls and the user can decide rather or not they want a fire pit or a waterfall by stepping on a switch. There is also a living tree with a face on it that will follow the user if the user walks by the face.

Users are able to purchase a Club. Currently, there is only one club to purchase called the Basic Clubhouse. Each club has a leader (the user who purchased the club) who can elect up to 4 sub-leaders and can have up to 32 members in total. A user can only be a member of up to five clubs and if the user owns a club, they can only be a member of up to four clubs. Also, a user can only own one club. In a similar way to Personal Spaces, the club's owner is able to set-up and decorate a private clubhouse as a meeting point for club members. The clubhouse also features a notice board where the leader and sub-leaders can post messages and announcements to other members. There is also a video screen in the clubhouse that has currently only played two interviews from the directors and actors of the films Watchmen and Star Trek. Japan's video screen has the option to access a Home members page after they've entered their PSN info.[35]

In time, Home will have a Hall of Fame which will include "Trophy Rooms". The Trophy Room is a Personal Space where users are able to display 3D representations of their PlayStation Network Trophies.

Stage Sets from Loot

Stage Sets are premium personal spaces where users, if they have a video capture system, can make their own machinimas in Home.[36] Stage Set was created by Loot, a newly formed group of developers from Sony Pictures Entertainment that creates experiences and products for Home.[37] The first Stage Set, the "Living Room Stage Set from Loot", is available at the Home Estates store loaded with interactive lights, cameras, backdrops and film-related equipment to simulate a real-life studio production environment. The versatile lighting and camera systems allow for a wide range of desired angles, movements, transitions, cuts and lens set-ups that allow users to take control of the technical and artistic aspects. Combined with twelve props and a director's t-shirt that come with the space to decorate the set, users have access to the tools necessary to create their own film when hooked up to a video capture system. This premium personal space was made available to users of the North American Home for $4.99 USD an May 7, 2009.

The second Stage Set to be released from Loot in joint with Atari and Terminal Reality was the "Ghostbusters Firehouse: On Location".[38] This space is dedicated to the 25th anniversary of Ghostbusters and it's worldwide release on Blu-ray on June 18, 2009. The Firehouse personal space is a detailed replica of the three floor Ghostbusters’ headquarters from the original film. It comes complete with the ghost containment unit in the basement, the garage and office areas on the 1st floor, plus the living room, laboratory, fire poles, bedroom and bathroom areas. It comes with the Living Room Stage Set from Loot’s camera functionality, film props and portable blue screens. Users can, through the use of an external special effects/compositing programs, create images of their avatar driving the film's Ecto-1 vehicle in their own machinima movies. Users will also be able to fly around as Slimer, a character from the film. Twenty-one furniture items and ornaments and a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man headwear for users avatars also comes with the purchase of the space. Ghostbusters' costumes, other ornaments, and t-shirts from Loot are available at the shopping complex. This premium personal space was made available on June 18, 2009 for the North American Home for $4.99 USD.

Operation

Home is in third person, users walk or jog in that way. Upon entering Home, users are greeted with the "Message of the Day"'. It contains administrative information such as upcoming updates, events, and event winners. The Message of the Day is updated frequently.

User Interface

PlayStation Home has no HUD, however, all of Home’s features are available from the controller. The options are: Quick Chat, a Gestures menu, the Menu Pad, the Safe Screen, and in-game XMB. In time, users will be able to play music on their PlayStation 3 hard drive. Whether this will be private or can be heard by others will be determined by a complicated licensing issue that Sony must attempt to solve.[39]

The "Menu Pad" – accessible by pressing Start; controls the user's avatar’s appearance – with the 'Wardrobe', decorations, where to travel (with the 'World Map'), settings, and other main options. The Menu Pad is shown in the user’s hands when in use. It has eleven options including a Help menu for beginners. The Menu Pad features an inventory, which currently only has the “Bubble machine”. In time, "Home Stuff" in the shopping complex, will have inventory items for purchase, which the user can use at any time.[40] The "Safe Screen" is used for reporting, changing communication settings, and quick access to the user’s Personal Space and XMB friends list. This is accessed with the Select button.

The Menu Pad was introduced in version 1.0 and was formerly a “virtual PlayStation Portable” (vPSP), but was introduced to reorganise the menus and because of the addition of the in-game XMB feature, eliminating the need for the vPSP’s XMB. A SCEA public relations spokesperson explained that “We felt that PlayStation Home deserved its own navigation device, so we built a user interface that was dedicated to just that purpose.”[41]

Communication

Users communicate in a variety of ways in Home. They are able to write text messages to each other using a either a USB or Bluetooth keyboard or with a PlayStation 3 controller using the on-screen keyboard. These messages appear in speech bubbles over the avatar's head and in the 'chat log'. As of version 1.21, there are three modes of the chat log by clicking the left analog stick; normal, expanded, and minimized. Voice chat, with the use of a USB or Bluetooth headset is currently only available within personal spaces or by making a 'Phone call' to a specific user. The user can also perform gestures (or "e-motes") such as waving, nodding or dancing.[42] As of version 1.10, some gestures can be performed whilst walking. A 'Quick chat' feature is also available. This library of short, predetermined phrases (such as "Hello" and "Where are you from?") can be accessed using a quick access menu.

Virtual economy

The shopping complex's store interface. Note its resemblance to the PlayStation Store.

Although the service itself can be used free of charge, premium content is available to purchase from various stores in the shopping complex. Users browse and pay for items such as virtual clothing and furniture by accessing a shop and using its PlayStation Store interface. Items are paid for in real currency using funds from the user's PlayStation Network Wallet.[43][44] Alongside content designed by SCE, real-world companies are also able to sell virtual goods through their own stores in Home. For example, Diesel and Ligne Roset are both represented in Home with their own stores where users can purchase virtual items based on their companies’ own clothing and furniture designs respectively.[45]

Advertising is prominent in Home’s public spaces. Currently, this is primarily PlayStation focused although other video gaming-related brands are also represented. Sony currently streams most advertising from ‘their’ Home servers. Most advertising is targeted to specific regional audiences although it is also possible to target particular users.[13]

One of the ways Sony has used advertising in Home is with advertising of the PS3 exclusive Killzone 2. Users in the North American Home who pre-ordered Killzone 2 from Amazon.com received free I.S.A. and Helghast costumes for their avatar.[46] On February 16, 2009, if users located a Helghast soldier in the North American Home, they were granted access to the Killzone 2 demo.[47] European users got a chance to get the Killzone 2 costumes by participating in the "Killzone AM!" event hosted in the European Home on March 28, 2009 at 11 am CET. The requirement was that the users must participate in one full round of Killzone 2 and have a United Kingdom PSN. If users met the requirement, the Home Managers sent the users a voucher code for the costumes.[48] In Japan, if users watched the Killzone 2 trailer and took the Questionnaire in the Home Theatre, the users received an I.S.A. costume. In order to get the Helghast costume, the users had to do a pre-order.

Another Amazon.com pre-order bonus occurred with the PS3 exclusive inFamous. Users in the North American Home who pre-ordered inFamous received a Reaper costume for their avatar.[49] If users of the North American Home downloaded the demo of inFamous and beat it, users received a Cole costume for their avatar on June 18, 2009.[50][51]

Public Spaces

The North American Home Public Spaces "World map".

There are four main regions of Home: Asia, Europe, Japan, and North America. Countries which are not geographically related to those regions, join Europe. Countries that join Europe are Australia, New Zealand, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and United Arab Emirates. Japan is the only country with its own version of Home. Each region has different features as well as some similar ones. SCEHK operates the Asian Home, SCEE operates the European Home, SCEJ operates the Japanese Home, and SCEA operates the North American Home.

"Spaces" on the world map are broken-up into categories based on the Spaces' publisher or purpose. Home consists of locations from Sony Computer Entertainment and various third-parties. These include the user's Personal Spaces and Clubhouses; a central meeting point; a bowling alley and gaming arcade; a shopping complex; a café; and various game, developer, and company Spaces.

The Spaces' names and availability vary based on the user's location. For example, the shopping complex is called the "Shopping Mall" in Asia and Japan, "Mall" in North America, and the "Shopping Centre" in Europe.

Sony Computer Entertainment content

The North American Central Plaza.

The Home Square (Europe,[52] Asia,[53] and Japan) or Central Plaza (North America[54]) is Home's central meeting point where users commonly meet and chat. It is where much of the advertising occurs, and it connects all the main locations in Home together. Currently, they have two video screens, advertising posters (unavailable in Central Plaza), and region-specific features (such as Listen@Home for North America). 'Listen@Home' is a listening post in the Central Plaza where users gather to listen to music. There are a number of songs for users to vote on to listen to; songs change frequently and has featured the rapper 50 Cent and music from the Winter X Games. Also in the Central Plaza, there is a pond-like feature with the mini-game "Saucer Pop". The European Home Square has the mini-game "Helicopter Hit", and a place to play chess and draughts/checkers. The Asian and Japanese Home Square has a pier, located behind the Game Space. Those two also feature posters with event info and results.

The Home Theatre[55] (all regions) is a virtual cinema where users can view a range of video content. This content includes film and game trailers and video game features from third-party publishers such as Eurogamer. Videos are displayed in the 3D environment on virtual video screens which can be viewed full screen. When selecting the full screen view in North Americas Home Theatre, users can also select the option "Link" that opens PlayStation.com. Users can walk around the cinema that they are in except in the European Home. The dynamic video content in Home is presented in standard definition to reduce loading times. Each region has very different Home Theatres.

The Bowling Alley- Europe & North America (left: pool, right: arcade, centre: bowling)

At the Bowling Alley (Europe[56] and North America[54]) or the Game Space (Asia[57] and Japan), social mini-games such as 10-pin bowling and pool billiards can be played; it also features a variety of arcade-machine games: Echochrome, Icebreaker, Carriage Return, and Yuusha no Kuse ni Namaikida www (Japan only). Prizes are awarded for beating the arcade-machine games, such as an Echochrome suit for users avatar. Users who have downloaded the Namco Museum collection (including the beta) from the Asian, Japanese, or North American PlayStation Store are able to unlock additional arcade games including Pac-Man, Dig Dug, Galaga, Xevious, Dragon Spirit, and Xevious Resurrection (the latter two are not included with the beta).[58] Users with Namco Museum.comm/Essentials or the beta on their PS3 can win the prizes for Home for the corresponding account it is played on. However, users can only play them (excluding the latter two listed) at the Game Space, and not the Bowling Alley. Currently, there is pool tables, bowling lanes, arcade machines, video screens, and dart boards (only in Game Space).

The Shopping Centre (Europe[59]), The Mall (North America[54]), or Shopping Mall (Asia[60] and Japan), is where all purchases are made. The shopping complexes allow users to buy new clothes, accessories, premium locations (such as new Personal Spaces), and other items. Purchases use PlayStation Network Wallet funds, and work in a manner similar to the PlayStation Store. Currently there are stores, a video screen, advertising posters, and a place to play chess (unavailable in the Shopping Mall). The current stores consist of "Home Stuff", "Home Estates", "Home Threads", a Home "furniture store", 'Ligne Roset' furniture, and 'Diesel' clothes. The latter two are unavailable in the Shopping Mall. Europe has two new clothing stores which are "Alter Ego" and "The Original V-Shirt Store". North America now has a "Costumes" store for full costumes as well as a Threads II and Furniture 2. Currently, there are no items available for purchase from Home Stuff. In time, Home Stuff will have items that go into users inventory, such as the "Bubble Machine".

Home Café (Asia[53] and Japan) or The Gamer's Lounge (North America) is a two-story building where users can meet up and chat. There is a water feature, a wine gallery and chairs, which is slowly becoming an event space for developer talks and parties.[61] The first developer talk occurred on March 4, 2009 in The Gamer's Lounge with the developers of Street Fighter IV. Users got to ask the developers questions about the game.[62] For a time, Japan’s Café was sponsored by Famitsu Game Magazine which featured a statue of the mascot of Famitsu holding a video screen and the upstairs had a display of Famitsu’s office. The Home Café for Japan has been remodeled as the "Music Café" for a limited time.[63] The first floor is a "Sound Space" for a dance club-like feel with music and on the second floor, a "Gallery Space" displaying various Sony entertainment products such as Bravia televisions, VAIO computers, and Walkman products, and there is a Questionnaire that rewards Sony headphones for users avatars. The Café is still closed for Asia and is unavailable to Europe.

The PlayStation Events Space[64] opens to the public in the occurrence of an event. This space is a venue for special events, announcements, and VIP parties. The first event occurred during the end of January 2009. During that time, the space featured "Events Landing" and "The Gallery". When first entering the PlayStation Events Space, users received a PSP Loco Roco hat for their avatar. Events Landing had a mini-game called 'Tri Sphere' and two video screens. The Gallery had animated Loco Rocos, the 'Touchpad', which featured the 'PSP-3000 Treasure Hunt', a poster, a music-playing sphere for one song, and two video screens. During the first event, the space was only used by Europe.[65]
Another space opened on May 21, 2009 for the next event. The space newly featured the "Presentation Podium" which has a large screen and lounge. It is known as the "beating heart of the PlayStation Events Space". Sony's E3 2009 press conference was shown in the Presentation Podium a few hours after Sony's press conference ended in three part segments for each day of E3. The event lasted all three days of E3 in Home and there were limited time, exclusive virtual items for all three days. The exclusive items were six differently coloured NPLH (No Place Like Home) t-shirts, for both male and female users, were available by finding a voucher code in the Presentation Podium or the SCE Home spaces and redeeming it.[66] During this event, the space was used by Europe and North America.

Game Spaces

Main article: List of PlayStation Home Game Spaces
The Texas Hold'em table in the The Godfather II Game Space.

Sony Computer Entertainment and various third parties can create dedicated "Game Spaces" for specific games. These spaces depict a level of the game itself and have mini-games or interactions related to the game. There are currently eighteen Game Spaces that have been released for Home. These Game Spaces vary depending on the region the user is in. The first five Game Spaces released for the Home Open Beta were Uncharted: Drake's Fortune "Sully's Bar"[67], Far Cry 2 "Reuben's Office", Far Cry 2 "Train Station", Minna no Golf Lounge, and Siren: New Translation Lounge. The Resident Evil 5 "Studio Lot" (or Biohazard 5 "Film Studio") was the first space to offer an in-lounge shop. The inFamous space is the first space to broadcast exclusive media from the games developer, which in this case is Sucker Punch Productions.

Game Launching is a feature in Home which allows users to launch multiplayer games with other Home users. Dedicated Game Spaces help do this. Currently, games that support game launching are Warhawk, Resident Evil 5/Biohazard 5, Everybody's Golf 5/Minna no Golf 5 (Asia & Japan), Namco Museum.comm (Asia & Japan), Minna de Spelunker (Japan), Catan (Japan), Street Fighter IV, Resistance 2, Crash Commando, MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, and Far Cry 2.

Some games, such as Street Fighter IV, Resident Evil 5/Biohazard 5, SingStar (Europe), and Makai Senki Disgaea 3 (Japan)[68] support Home rewards. The users receive the rewards by earning certain trophies in the game itself except with one of the RE5/BH5 rewards. If users have RE5/BH5 in their PS3 and log into Home, they receive a reward.

The PSP has support for Home rewards as well.[69] In Japan, the first and currently only game with Home rewards support is The Idolmaster SP.

In a discussion at GDC 2009 on March 25, 2009, Jack Buser stated "You'll see about three new spaces launched a month...I'll be shocked if we ever go under that number, we have so much in the pipeline.".[70]

Third-party content

The "EA Sports Complex Upstairs" before it was updated to the Green Poker Room.

Video game developers are able to create "Developer Spaces" and their own "Game Spaces" to showcase their products in Home.[71] Namco Bandai was the first to do this with their "Namco Bandai" space for Asia, Japan, and North America. There is two rooms of the space, the Namco Bandai Game Arena (Asia and Japan) or Namco Arcade Center (North America) and the Community Arena (Asia and Japan) or the Namco Theatre (North America). This space features all of the Namco Museum.comm/Essentials arcade games as well as a mini-museum, show casing Soul Calibur IV, Ridge Racer 7, and Tekken 6. There is also a 'Money Exchange Machine', a 'Vending Machine', and a 'Love Seat' in the Game Arena that give the users a Namco Museum Coin, a Namco Museum Soda Can, and a male and female love t-shirt respectively. The first room also features The Idolmaster SP Wandering Star, Perfect Sun, and Missing Moon Vending Machines and the second room features The Idolmaster SP 961 Production Vending Machine, all four of which user play roulette to get various cans with idols on them and a Haruka costume. The space was released on December 11, 2008 for Japan, March 26, 2009 for Asia, and July 16, 2009 for North America.

Irem has released a promotional space called the "Square of Irem" for Japan. This space features various 'Night Stalls' with free items such as a Kimono and was released on February 26, 2009. Users can also access the game space for Minna de Spelunker from this space. On April 1, 2009, Irem gave away free alien-like suits in the space that were only available for that day.[72] This space was released in the Asian Home on July 16, 2009, but the only way users can access it is by riding in the space ship that is accessed at the "Bus Stop" in the Home Square. The ship departs every fifteen minutes and after landing, users get a hat that is modeled after the ship. The space will be added to Asia's world map on July 23, 2009.

EA Sports released the long awaited "EA Sports Complex" on April 23, 2009 for Europe and North America. EA has updated the Complex a couple of times and it now features four rooms; the EA Sports Racing Complex, the EA Sports Golf Complex, the EA Sports Complex Green Poker Room, and the EA Sports Complex Red Poker Room. The Racing Complex features Racing with a total of eight karts and playing one race rewards a t-shirt. The Golf Complex features a Practice Range for golfing with rewards; by hitting the boat, users get a boat ornament, and by making 50 shots users get a Golf Academy t-shirt. A Golf Pro-shop is coming soon for the Golf Complex. The Green Poker Room features four green poker tables in which winning a green poker table rewards a silver bracelet. The Red Poker Room features four red poker tables in which winning a red poker table rewards a gold bracelet. By just playing a game of poker for the first time, users get a t-shirt. As of July 16, 2009, users can access EA Sports' new game space for Fight Night Round 4 called "Club Fight Night" from the Complex.[73]

SCEJ have also announced that Sony have given licenses to 24 companies to produce content for Home. As well as independent Japanese developers (such as Irem and Koei) the list also includes international companies such as Activision, Capcom, Tecmo, Disney Interactive, EA, Konami, Namco Bandai, Sega, and Ubisoft. [74]

Non-gaming-related companies can also create sponsored "Company Spaces" for Home. [75] The first to do so was Red Bull with their "Red Bull Space" released on January 8, 2009 for Europe and North America. This space features the Red Bull Air Race mini-game with two leaderboards (one for the user's friends and the other for all users of Home in that region, reset daily). Phil Harrison stated that locations built around famous coffee, drinks, clothing, and record companies; along with major retailers and other such companies could feature content depending on the company's desire to create Home content. In time, users may be able to make user-generated content for Home, but under strict moderation.[76] Picture frames are the first feature to support user-generated content with photo sharing. The inFamous Home space also supports user-generated content by allowing users to create their own unique graffiti designs in the graffiti mini-game and save it to their PS3s HDD to display for their friends.

Xi

Main article: Xi (alternate reality game)
The Xi logo.

Xi was the world's first console-based Alternate Reality Game. The game was an adventure to help find "Jess" and the meaning of Xi by collecting fragments and butterflies that took place in a series of secret areas in Home that changed frequently.[77] The game also involved the users to search for clues in the real world.[78] This game was created by nDreams who released several spaces for Xi including, "The Hub" and another space called "Home Maintenance" as well as "Alpha Zones 1", "2", and "3" within The Hub and "Party at Jess's Apartment" within Home Maintenance. When users completed Xi, they were no longer able to access The Hub, but could access the "Xi Alumni Hub" in its place. Xi was advertised via clues and hints during the month prior to its release on March 23, 2009. The clues were hidden in the Menu Pad and videos in the central meeting point. Xi and all of the corresponding spaces were exclusive to Europe and North America. The only spaces users can access now that Xi is over, are the Xi Alumni Hub and Alpha Zone 1 - Game Test Area, Maximum-Tilt Lobby, & Adventure Lobby through the Teleport in the Xi Alumni Hub. The Xi Alumni Hub was added to the world map on July 2, 2009 under the chip with the Xi logo.

Events

Home plays host to many types of events, such as developer interviews. They are organised by Home and its affiliated content providers. Live events such as sports and concerts may also be broadcast within Home.[79] Premium events may well use the PlayStation Network Wallet. Special events are held at the 'PlayStation Events Space', the 'Home Café' and 'The Gamer's Lounge'.

Some events are used to promote upcoming films. Currently in Europe, there is a treasure hunt occurring in Home to promote the upcoming film, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. In this event, the users must go to a poster in one of the Home spaces that is advertising the film, click the link option to open the Web Browser which takes them to a web page where the users play a game. If they beat the game, they are rewarded a Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen themed item for their avatar or personal space and can proceed to the next game when it is released. When the next game is released, it will be in a different Home space from the previous game. This event is running from June 6, 2009 to June 24, 2009.[80]

Several events that have taken place in Home require the users to either answer questions or suggest ideas on the Official PlayStation Home Forums for a chance to win a prize. A couple of these events are the "12 Games of Christmas"[81] (annual event in North America), a question and answer event, and "Name the New Home Space" which determined the name of the North American Home Space known as the 'Home Café' in Asia and Japan.[82] The prize is generally a $10 USD product voucher for virtual items in the shopping complex. These events are organised by the PlayStation Home Managers.

Security

Sony says that it is strict on the behavior of users in Home.[83] A variety of potentially offensive words and word combinations are automatically censored in messages that users write to each other and administrators are able to block a users' individual console and IP address from accessing the service if a user behaves illegally, inappropriately or other than in accordance with the terms of use of the service.

Users are also able to report the inappropriate or offensive behaviour of other users to moderators by accessing the PlayStation Home Safe Screen. [84] Users are also able to change their communication settings to block messages from users who are not on their friends list.

Updates

PlayStation Home undergoes a weekly maintenance, which occasionally comes with updates. These updates provide bug fixes and expand the social and gameplay aspects of Home. The beta has received several updates such as giving the users the ability to access their patio,[85] to access the 'Menu Pad'; and to access the shopping complex. Other features such as Home Trophies, pets, weather, and seasons have yet to be released. After location-affecting updates, the location must be re-downloaded. World map updates usually do not update the version number.

Version 1.0 was released on November 21, 2008. This version was available to beta testers as a 77 MB download from the PlayStation Store by redeeming a code sent to their email. Upon installation, 3077 MB of hard disk space is reserved for the application. Additional downloads are needed to access the different locations such as Home Square and the Bowling Alley. Those locations' download sizes vary from 16–45 MB each.[86][87]

Version 1.03 was the first open beta version and was released on December 11, 2008.[88] The Home icon automatically appears under the PlayStation Network category on the XMB when players turn on their PlayStation 3. The current version is version 1.22 and was released on June 2, 2009. The update was 13 MB and fixed a couple of bugs.[3]

See also

External links

References

  1. ^ "PlayTV Review Review by Tom Bramwell". Eurogamer.net. August 29, 2008. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/playtv-review?page=2. 
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v • d • e
The PlayStation brand
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