Home beta welcoming another 100,000 testers

ORLY? Well then that explains the Playstation Underground email I just got literally 10 minutes ago welcoming me to the Home Beta.

oh, really?

Cause I just got mine.

I want to know where people like tdrules get all their insider info from. Why is it that there's always people like this that, amazingly enough, TOTALLY have sekrit info that the website they are commenting on DOESN'T.

Makes a lot of sense, right?

Funny, cause I got one. My email must be magic.

Dear PlayStation®Network member,

Congratulations, you have been selected to help beta test PlayStation®Home!

We appreciate your help in making the PlayStation®Home experience the best it can be! Please log in to Home this evening from 6 pm - 8 pm PST for a big celebration of Version 1.0 and a load test of our new features.

How to download
After you have signed in with your PlayStation®Network Account:
- Go to the PlayStation®Store on the PLAYSTATION(R)3 system XMB™ (XrossMediaBar)
- Select "Redeem Codes"
- Enter the code (below)
- Click "Continue"
- The download will be available on the next screen

XXXX-XXXX-XXXX

Please note: The unique code is case sensitive and must be entered exactly as displayed.

Thank you for your continued support of the PlayStation®Network, and we look forward to seeing you in PlayStation®Home.

Yours truly,

The PlayStation®Network

Network Error: The connection to the server was lost.
D5027

Guys, whoever is the owner of the Joystiq club on Home needs to accept my request to join! ...pretty please?

Yay, I got in! The place could use more furniture though. =oP

i can i get home beta

It looks like youu don't have to do anything at all. I just got an invite and I haven't downloaded or signed up for anything special beyond just having a PSnetwork account, buying a lot of SingStar songs, and playing LBP multiplayer once.

No doubt I will waste many hours creating an avatar tonight that I will never really use again.

I think you had to of downloaded that home theme a few months back. I got invited today as well.

+1 for Apollo Justice avatar.

When you cuit asking about them.

I see what you did thar.

If you had got a beta invite, you would soon change your mind. I was sceptical, but after using for a couple of hours, I can see how it's going to totally obliterate anything Microsoft or Nintendo has right now. The game rooms are great, as are the public spaces, I can see how trophys earnt can give you cools stuff in Home.

Sure if you want to use private spaces, you have to pay, but the core of Home and 90% of the usefulness of it is free.

This Gen was just won, Sony just played the knockout blow.

Sounds interesting. Still, I just don't think Home will be for me.

Regardless, it's free, so I can't complain, I guess. When it releases, I'll download it and give it a go.

Agreed. +1.

U don't automatically hear everyone you have to walk up to them or be within range of hearing them.

I can't believe that some people aren't willing to try it. It's free. When it's released (which should be soon it's at 1.00) just try it. It's fun to hang out with friends see how they designed their space and meet people. It's also a great business model for Sony to recoup some of the money going to PSN with micro transactions inside of home. I am more inclined to purchasing things in Home than paying a monthly service fee (It is the reason I never purchased a 360 or World of Warcraft).

Agreed also. +1 to you as well.

Perhaps they're conducting stress tests on the servers?

one thing they are stress testing the servers however they still wouldnt want to flood the service with new users all at once

@ryan - why not? As soon as it goes live the thing will be flooded so it might make sense for them to see what a little push might be like.

They should make the beta open to everyone. If it system gets overloaded, then Sony can say, "haha, fuckers, it's still in beta". They'll probably do that anyway, but there's been so many of these invite over the past 6 months. Yeah, it's free advertising, but still. It's like kids forming their little secret clubs, and selecting the ones who can be apart of it, only come to find out it's never anything that special to begin with once you're in.

i am unable to tear myself away from L4D.

help?

Nope I don't do Qore and I got an invite.

Also nope.

I barely play my PS3 and definitely don't have a sub to Qore and didn't download any Home theme and I got an invite.

lmao. Not yet it won't.

Hey I got a laugh...that's all I was hoping for with my comment :o)

Proof of what? That you're a member of their private forum and still don't know what the situation with beta invites is?

Bravo.

yeah i thought the home program would be available shortly after NXE release, however i guess that has been pushed back like the other HOME delays.

at least its free though?
no harm done...

Agreed. +1

@Levi

I just checked my inbox and got a beta invite to Playstation home. I can't speak to the quality of the service because I'm in the midst of an all night Rockband 2 marathon. But, I remember hearing it would release (100%) before the end of the year and this looks like the precursor to the final release for all PSN users. Allowing access to 100,000 users seems more like a stress test to the servers before the final release. I believe the release notes already have it at 1.0 which would indicate Home is ready to be pushed out barring server issues.

Ill certainly be interested to see how Home turns out because what seemed like a cool idea has turned into an ambitious project. This service will be a first for home video game console. Sony essentially took inspiration from Live's achievements for trophies just as MS took inspirations from Nintendo's Mii for their Avatar's in NXE. Speaking of the NXE my only complaint (before I sold my 360 yesterday) was that the party system (excellent feature) was borked. It kept disconnecting our party at random times for no apparent reason.

I don't think Home can even be compared to the NXE as one is just an annual dashboard update (though it added new functionality) and one is more of a new (ambitious) social networking environment for PSN users. Maybe if MS adds some similar thing for the avatars it would compare.

you could honestly more compare the NXE to the ps3 dashboard. the NXE is like the ps3 dash in a vertical fashion instead of horizontal (of course the ps3 dash still has more options and things to do).

it is hard to complain about HOME at all when it will be offered for free on a free online service. even though i have before.

i thought that it would be released sometime soon after NXE was announced to release on nov 19 from things i heard.

100,000 codes sent out, and I didn't get one.

Sounds more like "why not me?!" at this point rather than a bragging right.

NXE really compares to the XMB. Home is located within the XMB under the network tab. After putting in nearly 3 hours into Playstation Home I can say that it is going to be a good service. It really is the future of social interaction on home gaming consoles. It gives you an environment to meet and interact with other people as well as the ability to play some decent arcade type of games. It is not without it's faults (though it is the Beta and much of the environment is not populated) with allot of the in game home mechanics being not up to par with the quality of PSN games. For the bowling they should have used the engine from High Velocity Bowling just as they should also polish the pool game a bit more - it feels like it's not as precise as I would like it to be.

The graphics and character customization is extremely polished and has more depth than most full retail games. If you put enough time into Home there is no doubt you can make an exact replica of yourself. The clothes, facial hair, hats and jewelry are severely limited in this build.

When I think of Home and I look at all of the implemented features it makes me truly wonder what this service will look like and function as when it is tested and tweaked. Once all the features, unannounced destinations and updates take place throughout the services lifetime there is no doubt in my mind that Home will become the next big thing on consoles. If you thought your NXE avatar or your Mii were a nice characterture of you just wait until you get to mess with the avatar creator in home. You can literally tweak and size and shape of any facial feature and body part. It's very realistic.