PlayStation Home beta launching Dec. 11 [update]

by Ludwig Kietzmann { Dec 10th 2008 at 4:00AM }

At last, the future has arrived. Threatening to thrust our flabby, pitifully organic bodies into a virtual playground and significantly dull the allure of boring ol' reality, PlayStation Home is set to deliver the online utopia we thought we wanted after reading Snow Crash all those years ago. Sony has confirmed that Home's public online beta -- sans samurai haxorz -- will launch tomorrow, December 11th. (Update: Announced by SCEA, too.) With some minor caveats.

As the press release dutifully notes, the service will become available for "all PS3 users around the world," except for those who find themselves in "some regions." You'll find the service nestled under the PlayStation Network bar of the XMB. The beta will include all the basic services and features, save for some content (like designer pants) which will, in fact, be charged for. Partially among those is the "Club," a social umbrella you can set up for your like-minded friends. Of course, it's bad luck to open an umbrella inside the Home, so you'll be asked to buy an "entitlement" if you want also want a "clubhouse."

According to SCEE, several activities in Home will hinge on the content provided by Diesel (clothes!), Ligne Roset (furniture!), Red Bull (wings!), Hexus TV (video!), Eurogamer (witticisms!) and Paramount Pictures (trailers and movie merchandise!). Perhaps we should plan our day around all this stuff -- we should totally hang out tomorrow (virtually!).

Tags: Beta, breakingnews, Home, Home-Beta, JS-Twitter, PlayStation-Home, PSN, SCEE

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

cimino15 @ Dec 10th 2008 4:06AM

hmm...can we trust it this time...

and first :)

Killjebus @ Dec 10th 2008 4:29AM

I look at Home's evolution from the same context of the first FW on the just released PS3. Look at how far the FW on the PS3 has come in just 2 years, so many new features.

Home will be no different, within 2 years one can only imagine the impact of this FREE service. Many companies are signed on, and if the Red Bull game is just the beginning, the possibilties are nearly limitless.

I applaud Sony for thinking outside the box and trying something different and much more complex and evolving. I have not spent too much time in Home, but I would imagine being Home will become more interesting as the months roll on.

Hashbrown Hunter @ Dec 10th 2008 5:19AM

Well I don't know if Sony deserves that much praise, and this will be an uphill battle for them, but they already have two great selling points:

1. It's innovative and there's nothing quite like it on the 360 and Wii.

2. There is no point to sell because it's free anyways.

So I'm sorry but the people complaining here should simmer down and just realize that this is absolutely free. And if you get bored with Home then fine, no one is forcing you to use it. I know that once I pick up my PS3 I'll dive into it head first.

SoCoolCurt (PSN: KillaKornbread - XBL: SoCoolCurt) @ Dec 10th 2008 6:42AM

im with KillJebus. Home has great potential and should be equipped with lots of features that people conveniently like to forget about like party chat and game launching. its also a great place to meet people that have the same game interest as you. im in the beta now and i can certainly see that it has the potential to be something special.

Vcize @ Dec 10th 2008 10:16AM

Like has been said, Home is free and just an "extra" thing, so it's kind of hard to really criticize it. You could just pretend it's not there if you don't like it.

My only problems with Home are that it likely:

A) Delayed us getting features that should have been easy to implement a while ago for the sake of having Home around them. Private chat and a party system could have just been a regular firmware update a year ago (MS had barely announced the same for a couple months before it actually hit release), and we could have been using it all along.

B) Will overcomplicate using these features. Game launching, party system, etc are all good ideas. But that's all a lot of people want. If it's going to be a cumbersome process of loading up Home, "walking" somewhere to meet the people, etc just for the sake of having it in "Home" rather than it being a couple button clicks like it is on XBL, then that's a problem for the people that don't care about the second life aspect of it all. Hopefully these new features will come not just in Home, but as a quick to access option on the XMB as well, though I doubt that will happen.

Markez @ Dec 10th 2008 4:07AM

Was the designer pants remark a joke?

aaronx_x @ Dec 10th 2008 4:27AM

orly

Hashbrown Hunter @ Dec 10th 2008 4:44AM

Home is releasing tomorrow so I JIZZ IN MY PANTS

Daniel @ Dec 10th 2008 9:41AM

Well played! Best work Andamy Sandlerburg has done.

B3astofthe3ast @ Dec 10th 2008 4:58AM

Wait, it's still in beta?

Brodie-san @ Dec 10th 2008 5:04AM

It will be like Gmail. In beta for a loooong time but available for everyone.

Gavin @ Dec 10th 2008 5:06AM

Hey, I'm currently reading The Diamond Age!!!

David @ Dec 10th 2008 7:57AM

That book is f**king awesome. I assume you've read Snow Crash as well, then. Great books, great author.

Moffka @ Dec 10th 2008 5:06AM

EXCUSE ME!? What is up with the purple dude on the right side of the image?! Anyone else see this!?

Hashbrown Hunter @ Dec 10th 2008 5:15AM

hmm....who is that?

Moffka @ Dec 10th 2008 5:25AM

No idea, but it's creepy as hell.

Hashbrown Hunter @ Dec 10th 2008 6:13AM

Is it...Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face in Batman Forever?

And he's confirmed to appear in HOME?!

HOME = AWESOMESAUCE

deaftly @ Dec 10th 2008 1:29PM

hahaha I didn't even notice that, hilarious.

aaronx_x @ Dec 10th 2008 5:51AM

oh my, a purple guy

JoeTheBlow @ Dec 10th 2008 6:00AM

I wonder how many "i don't care" or "its boring anyway" comments this thread will get, from people who don't even own a PS3, naturally.

John Z @ Dec 10th 2008 7:17AM

I don't care how many "I don't care" posts there will be.

JoeTheBlow @ Dec 10th 2008 9:40AM

I don't care about you not caring about how many "i don't care" posts there will be.

The Aggie CEO @ Dec 10th 2008 6:28AM

wow........so it WAS Included in 2.50.......

thats HILARIOUS!!!!!!!!!

they just set it to pop up on a certain date........

Ima go change the date on my PS3 and see if it comes up.........

KarlW @ Dec 10th 2008 7:09AM

No, changing the xmb doesn't require a firmware update. I installed PlayTV, and have an extra menu on my XMB without a firmware update.

The Aggie CEO @ Dec 10th 2008 12:08PM

yea but play TV read from the tuner thingy when you plugged it up didnt it??

Kodros @ Dec 10th 2008 12:44PM

"No, changing the xmb doesn't require a firmware update."

Ok, but somehow, sometime, somewhere, Home was installed on your system. It had to have been attached to one of the firmware updates.

The Aggie CEO @ Dec 10th 2008 12:56PM

thats what I was saying.......according to them it will appear tomorrow simply by restarting your PS3.......which tells me that its ALREADY on the system SOMEWHERE

Ethan @ Dec 10th 2008 7:22AM

Diesel? Really? They should have more taste than that.

Tez @ Dec 10th 2008 9:30AM

In advertising, taste does not matter. Just the monies!

Kodros @ Dec 10th 2008 12:45PM

I've never tasted Diesel.

aj @ Dec 10th 2008 7:27AM

The only people I have ever met who claim to like "Snow Crash" also learned English as a second language (this is not a derogatory remark about French Canadians. French Canadians are the best kind of people, honest.), and as such admit that they don't fully grasp just how bad a writer Stephenson is.

Ludwig Kietzmann @ Dec 10th 2008 9:12AM

So, because I enjoyed the book, it signals a deficiency in my appreciation and understanding of language? Dissent must have an educational flaw at its root?

I think the more likely explanation is that, being from different cultural backgrounds, your friends appreciate things which you may not. In most cases, "bad writing" is a matter of opinion, isn't it? But hey, I'm a second-language English user who really enjoys Stephenson ... despite his exposition. Perhaps you're correct and I'm simply *incapable* of discerning bad writing. ;)

John Z @ Dec 10th 2008 9:42AM

As a native speaker of English, I will say this much:

1. Stephenson might not be a GREAT prose writer, but he is a) better than MANY other writers out there (Brown and Meyer come immediately to mind) and b) has some excellent ideas in his fiction.
2. I still haven't finished Snow Crash (ironically too busy playing games at the time, one of which being WoW), though I LOVED The Diamond Age.
3. Opinions are like... yeah, you know the rest.

JoeTheBlow @ Dec 10th 2008 9:42AM

wut?

Popfrogs @ Dec 10th 2008 1:51PM

He's no William Gibson (Neuromancer era, not the crap he writes now), but he's not bad either.

Cryptonomicon is a badass book. It takes awhile to get used to his style, but it's worth the time.

ludwig @ Dec 11th 2008 1:34AM

One of the most entertaining fiction writers of our time. And you'd be hard pressed to find one critic who would completely disagree with me. The Palahniuk of cyberpunk - he can write one good story. (english as a first language)

Jayslacks @ Dec 10th 2008 7:56AM

Home? What's that? Oh, PS3's answer to Xbox Live and stuff. Ahh. Its been so long since I heard anything about it...

The Aggie CEO @ Dec 10th 2008 12:58PM

Home is not the Answer to Live........

Thats what the PSN is........

Home is SO much more than a network interface......

Popfrogs @ Dec 10th 2008 1:52PM

Hmm? What's that? An Xbox troll who pays enough attention to barely formulate a weak slam on the PS3.

Wow, of all the places, I didn't expect to see a post like this on Joystiq. /s

Abdo @ Dec 10th 2008 8:00AM

All the more reason for me to acquire a PS3

chad @ Dec 10th 2008 8:22AM

If it is not any different from the closed beta that is currently out then who cares. I'm in the beta and it is so booring, there is nothing to do.

Killjebus @ Dec 10th 2008 10:00AM

So.....I'm guessing you did NOT read the press release? Y'know, the one where they announce many business partners that will have some neat things at launch like the Red Bull Island? And the themed game spaces?

On a different note, Sony...bring back the previously announced ability to listen to our own music in our private spaces, watch what we want in our private spaces, and put up picture frames of what we want in our private spaces. Make the private spaces FUN please.

It would be really cool to stay in Home in my Summer House or whatever with my own picture frames and decorations like LBP stickers, listening to my OWN music. I like to think of it like an interactive screen-saver and I could keep it running just listening to my music on my HDD while doing something around the house. Just like I do now when I loop a picture slide-show or put the planet Earth background on.

Hala Madrid!! (THE BIRD IS THE WORD!!) @ Dec 10th 2008 1:54PM

Why you keep saying "private spaces" killjebus?

Is it like a fort made out of couch pillows and a sign that says "no girls allowed" on the outside?

something like this: http://static.desktopnexus.com/wallpapers/9326-bigthumbnail.jpg

ExMcCloud @ Dec 10th 2008 8:48AM

Though I've been hard on Home in the past I will say that even though the beta isn't as exciting as SONY makes it seem, its still has the chance to be the great Social network SONY wants it to be if they back it up with ONE game...Whether its Killzone or sum MP game...They need a game to make Home worth your time....The movie service and things like that are also great ideas to add to this...So I think Sony is on the right track with their Online service and social network....Just flesh out home more and make it apart of every game and you could have a Xbox Live killer