Duh. It's a virtual courtyard where people stand around and look at advertisements, just look at the picture.

Maybe since the PS3 will have a 10 year life cycle this means they'll have it in year 5 or 6? Ziiiiiiiing! Sorry, couldn't resist the cheap potshot.

ppl are waiting for there free virtual apartment so they can see there trophys to bad that none of these ideas are actually coming together...

Home will come out after the announcement of the PS4, and the second generation version of home (scheduled to release alongside the PS5)

Because otherwise all those PS3 owners would be homeless. Sony is just trying to shelter, feed and clothes its peoples.

Here's why I care about and like the idea of Home. You log in, find a group of players standing around. It seems that they are looking for more people to play Warhawk. So you join them. You start up a game of Warhawk directly from Home which in turn creates a server just for you and the people in your party.

You play a few rounds, have some fun. But now a few of the people in the party don't feel like playing Warhawk anymore, so you all exit back to Home. You then chat about what game we should play next. They decide on Motorstorm. So, they start the game right from Home which will drop you in your own Motorstorm server that just has the people in your party.

I don't see how that's different than loading warhawk, refreshing the server list, and joining the fullest room with the lowest ping. After that's over, you load Motorstorm, and play that. It's not as if all the people you meet in Home are magically going to own every single PS3 game that you do, and be willing to switch between games whenever you feel like it.

In that respect, home is a very poor substitute for making real, living friends that own PS3's, that will play games with you. If I'm going to play with strangers, I could care less if I meet those strangers in avatar form, or in-game.

Yea, what he is describing is called Xbox Live, except you don't have to use a stupid Avatar, well you will soon I guess.

Because it will change your whole perception on reality.

Because I'm cold....and there's wolves after me. (distant howl)

"It's not as if all the people you meet in Home are magically going to own every single PS3 game that you do"

You're absolutely right. But it's a hell of a lot easier to meet people that you like and have the same taste in games using Home then the current method of making friends online.

Your question is silly, do you ask the same of Menu?

Think of Home like a game, it's as valid as a home in GTA. It's something to play with and something to play in.

Think Menu to the Nth degree.

kotaku let the cat out the bag too soon, if i remember correctly

So what you're saying is that Sony (like Tom Cruise) shouldn't come out of the closet?

i hate playing it too but i cant help myself. the worst part is THERE ARE NO TROPHIES!!! i just finished level 37. what about you?

If you've ever played an MMO that is attractive to kids, you'll realize why Home may end up a good reason not to own a ps3.
You can say the same for people that play xbox live. If someone said to me "Hey, i want a xbox 360 but i don't want to deal with the idiots online." I would partially agree (only partially because you can ignore people that aren't friends...but that sucks and shouldn't be necessary.)
One day people are going to say "I want a PS3 but god, i don't want to deal with the idiots on Home," and I'll nod my head and agree.

"you'll realize why Home may end up a good reason not to own a ps3. "

Yeah, that makes sense...not buy a console because of its optional software that won't affect your gaming experience if you choose not to use it. I guess Folding@Home is another good reason to not own a PS3 also right?

err, Kaz

Personally, I don't think that it will have that big of an impact on consoles as a whole. From what I have seen, it will be a diversion for some people, but not likely something that they will spend a lot of time using. That being said, they did say they wanted to place some nice features in it (like the trophies and war rooms), which should add some reason for people to give it a go.

I personally don't see this as being all that big. Community is one thing, but as the above poster said, this feels like more of a diversion. Xbox Live allows you to easily chat with other members, either text or voice based, and you can even use Windows Live Messenger (MSN). And you can do all that WHILE playing games. In my opinion, that's more than enough, I don't really see the need to do that in a 3D environment, it seems like it will be there as a distraction, rather than providing any sort of useful features. I'd rather be able to do things like chat, and check my email quickly, rather than going through this whole virtual environment.

I'll no doubt use it a couple of times.. but I imagine the novelty will wear off very quick. This is basically just Second Life, or Habbo Hotel. I wouldn't call it anything new, or revolutionary, and I very much doubt we'll see Microsoft copying it anytime soon. Their current system works fine, and with the avatars it makes it at least a little more personal, instead of just talking to a generic picture. And I certainly don't see Nintendo going for something like this.

My names Duke.

I have no problem with people innovating and trying to find new ways to bring a gaming community together. I just haven't seen anything about Home that will help much in that regard. It's neat, it's a novel concept, but only time and effort will tell if it has any wings.

Hey Duke, just wonderin', didn't you used to be NATO_Duke? Why the change?

I got sick of people calling me NATO. Seems the idea of a tag was not something everyone understood.

I seriously wish I could have voted you all the way down for continuing touse that stupid Larry the Cable Guy catchphrase that was never funny to begin with.

Yeah Im def more excited to play around with the new xbox dash then this third life shit.

@deaftly
who are you kidding; you more excited about bashing sony.

With HOME sony is trying to bring the sims element into the PS3.

also for those that dont know... MS Charges you for live; SONY DOES NoT. How can you expect something that is basically free to have the same standards as something that cost your parents 50 bones?!? in 4 years thats $200 on top of your parents ISP.

@ naxe

I doubt any of this will be very relevant in four years and that was a bit of a stretch with the $200 over 4 years example. (7.3 cents a day) If you don't want to pay for XBL or prefer Home, that's totally cool. Just keep in mind that the odds are that it will be more of an interactive commercial and product placement vehicle than anything else. I seriously doubt Sony is investing all the time and assets for "free."

"also for those that dont know... MS Charges you for live; SONY DOES NoT. How can you expect something that is basically free to have the same standards as something that cost your parents 50 bones?!? in 4 years thats $200 on top of your parents ISP."

You know, its cute how you need to say parents mutiple times to belittle people. Yes, we are all little children. Thanks for babysitting us.

Btw, you posted this in a previous thread and I never got a chance to respond:

"hey Nato_Duke you know as well as i do that ms is all about money and bullying smaller companies. Shit thats how they were concieved; Throwing bags of money to devs. for exclusive this and DLC that. ive yet to see what makes your GTAIV so much better than mine. but thats old news. I dont have a problem with FF screwing over its loyal fans but i do have a problem with people pointing the finger at sony. how is this sony's fault? how did they drop the ball? Its called bribery.

Like it's been said before MONEY TALKS and BS WALKS. i dont see how this one game can be the death of sony but if it makes you feel better to say it then go ahead. Most of you are full of &hit anyway, "now i have no reason to buy a ps3" like MGS4 doesnt have more appeal than FF. GET the ^uck out of here. RPG's are a japanese thing. FFXIII isnt a FPS you guys do know that right? "

Here is my response: You're a moron.

I never said one version of GTA was better than another. Lie much?

I also never said I didn't have a reason to buy a PS3 now, I already have one you tool! Using quotes for something I didn't say - that takes being a real prick! Also, what is with you talking about fault with Sony? Who cares if it is or isn't their fault, it husts them to lose an exclusive - no matter what one lame fanboy like you says. Money lost hurts companies.

As always, you talk down to us like you have a damn clue who the hell we are. Shove it. I know wtf FF is, and have played them for a long time now, so save the holier than thou shit for someone else. Crawl back into your hole and continue typing M$ for giggles and saying the 360 is only for FPS like the twit you are.

Pool's closed.

lulz

You say that, but then Sony takes a Nintendo approach and don't announce nothing until its damn near done, and you get a E3 like Nintendo where fans have no gameS to look forward to.

I like Microsofts approach the best: announce game, show demo in following months

So this guy worked on a Sony Online Entertainment product that launches PC MMO games...what does this have to do with Sony's PS3 department?

Also, GMail has been in Beta for like 5+ years now. I guess that means that Google isn't a good software company either.

gmail is a service, not software.
The software they created was GoogleEarth, and yeah they did well, but man... what a horrible comparison.