With Sony's social MMO Home now a more distant prospect following its most recent delay, Microsoft's UK boss Neil Thompson has come out saying he's disappointed, adding that he feels Sony "underestimated" the challenges associated with creating a virtual world like Home. Given the progress report sent along by an anonymous Home tester in late August, which indicated that testing had fallen behind schedule, we're inclined to agree.

However, despite being pushed back, Sony executive Phil Harrison, who debuted Home earlier this year at the Game Developers Conference, seems steadfast in his belief that the initiative remains on target for a public beta roll out in late November/early December, with a commercial release to follow in 2008.

Will Home, whenever it's finally released, be anything like the online utopia promised by Harrison in March? It's all guesswork at this point, though Thompson notes interest in seeing "what they wanted to deliver against what they can actually deliver, because I know they generated a lot of interest based on what they said last year." We'd love to hear how the service is shaping up, should anyone currently enrolled in the beta like to come forward.

Read - Microsoft disappointed
Read - Harrison confirms public beta