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SCEA files patent for interactive movie technology

by Griffin McElroy { Nov 4th 2009 at 2:45PM }

"Interactive movie technology," you may find yourself asking, "isn't that just another word for video games?" Well, grandpa, yes and no. While this recently filed patent from Sony Computer Entertainment America will likely be implemented in some form of game -- our guess is PlayStation Home -- it doesn't really resemble anything we've ever seen from a ludological offering. Basically, SCEA is designing a framework for "avatars" to interact with a film in a number of different ways, such as tossing tomatoes at on-screen actors, or climbing into the film to deliver a swift kick to one of the characters' behinds.

The patent's illustrations resemble pencil-drawn versions of Mystery Science Theater 3000, where a player's avatar can be seen sitting in a chair in front of the interactive movie. These interactions can even be scored, granting bonus points for a well-aimed tomato toss. We have no idea how well this type of technology would work, but our deep, deep fondness for Mike and the 'Bots makes us more than a little interested in how SCEA is planning on using it.

[Via Siliconera]

Stay indoors and visit PlayStation Home for Halloween celebrations

by Andrew Yoon { Oct 28th 2009 at 12:30PM }

Don't want to bother going outside with friends on Halloween? Good! PlayStation Home is hosting two different virtual events, one for Europe and one for America.

On Halloween Day, from 6-8PM GMT, SCEE will be hosting a virtual party in the Burn Zombie Burn space. Participants that purchase and wear appropriately undead attire will receive a special "treat" upon arriving. For more details, visit the EU PlayStation.blog.

SCEA is celebrating one day earlier, on Halloween Eve. At 11:59PM EST, the Central Plaza will feature a zombie rally that will put Hamsters vs Humans to shame (cough). Once again, virtual prizes will be handed out to all that participate -- and isn't that so much better than going outside, only to get tooth decay? For more details on America's festivities, visit the US PlayStation.blog.

Source - Halloween comes to PlayStation Home
Source - Celebrate Halloween PlayStation Home-Style at the Zombie Rally

Uncharted 2 Home space opens on Thursday

by Justin McElroy { Oct 21st 2009 at 2:45PM }

It's hard for us to blame you for wanting to extend the Uncharted 2 experience. Who wouldn't want a big second helping of the one of the year's best titles? While it's no substitute, we're hopeful that the Home space based on the game opening on Thursday will help to fill the hole in your heart, if only a little.

Those of you who haven't played the game might be able to help stave off the cravings with the space's three mini-games, though we'd submit that time would be far better spent finding a second job so you can just buy your own copy already.

Jersey sales in Home support breast cancer awareness charity

by Griffin McElroy { Oct 17th 2009 at 1:00PM }

The sentence following this sentence will be completely unprecedented for this humble news blog: We completely endorse the practice of spending real-life money on virtual articles of clothing -- provided that clothing is the jersey seen above. Sure, black and pink jerseys may not be your style, but when you purchase that shirt in PlayStation Home's EA Sports Complex, the entirety of your $2.00 goes to the charity of New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees, the Brees Dream Foundation, which raises money for breast cancer awareness.

Though altruism is its own reward, we'll sweeten the pot even further: Anyone seen wearing this jersey will be granted amnesty from our Quincying, which has grown increasingly violent over the past few months. Trust us, it's a worthwhile investment.

LocoRoco Home space is the happiest place on virtual earth

by David Hinkle { Oct 16th 2009 at 4:15PM }

Sony is set to unleash a new Home space to coincide with the release of LocoRoco Midnight Carnival in Japan this November, andriasang reports. The new destination -- which features an island theme and many of the LocoRoco franchise's signature characters -- will sport "gimmicks" that make it feel more unique than any of the other Home spaces available, Sony says. Sounds fine to us, though we think it's going to be tough granted how high the bar has been set by the Ratchet & Clank space.

Ratchet & Clank, Deadquarters spaces headed Home

by Richard Mitchell { Oct 14th 2009 at 7:45PM }

Sony has announced that two new spaces are coming to Playstation Home. The first is dedicated to the upcoming Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time, and features a handful of mini-games for Home dwellers to enjoy. Playstation Home director Jack Buser seems particularly excited by the tower defense game, which has three different levels, one for the past, present and future. The space also includes plenty of rewards, including a Ratchet costume.

The second Home space has been created in anticipation of Halloween. Called Deadquarters, the space turns all those who enter into a zombie. Sony has set up a website dedicated to the space -- undeadyourself.com -- which suggests there will be some zombie-related Home in the near future. Dare we hope for full-on zombie war? Deadquarters and the Ratchet & Clank space will be available this Thursday.

Sony discusses PlayStation Home's shift from social network to 'game platform'

by Ludwig Kietzmann { Oct 14th 2009 at 4:15PM }

Aside from providing a venue for a wonderfully childish gender bending game, PlayStation Home initially failed to offer PlayStation 3 users much of a playground. But the various Home spaces and minigames implemented by third-party developers have changed Sony's thinking, according to platform director Jack Buser: "In the early days when we built Home, we really were building a social network for gamers ... through that, over the last year, it's developed into a game platform, first and foremost."

Speaking at a San Francisco meeting -- documented in detail by Gamasutra -- Buser described Home-based games as a "low-risk and high-margin" opportunity for developers. "Home is a high definition environment where you can create extremely polished games but with very rapid development cycles," he explained. "You can have small teams of developers -- a couple of engineers and a few artists -- crank out very sophisticated social gaming experiences in very small amounts of time."

Buser also highlighted the value of community input in the "evolution" of Home, though he didn't indicate whether Sony had also stopped listening to that guy in the office who's really into Snow Crash. But even that guy might see the sense in Sony's vision, which is "about social, repeatable, fun, and dynamic games that are always changing and being fun for people."

We haven't seen the "killer app" yet (we're still waiting in line), but renovating Home into a social games platform -- even if it's built atop the PS3's actual game platform -- seems like a much better use of all that segmented real estate.

Ratchet & Clank & Uncharted getting their own Home spaces

by Griffin McElroy { Oct 12th 2009 at 12:15PM }

Tired of waiting in unbearable queues while trying to access the games embedded in PlayStation Home's virtual territories? A couple of new additions may reduce your abeyance -- according to 1UP, the social platform will receive new areas based on Uncharted 2 and Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time, both of which will include fairly robust minigames. The Ratchet space will include a four-player Tower Defense game, while the Uncharted space introduces "Fortunate Thieves," a competitive game that pits two players against one another in a hectic treasure hunt.

Okay, so you'll still probably have to wait in line to try these games out -- however, there'll be plenty of diversions in these two areas to keep you busy in the interim. For instance, the Ratchet space allows you to travel in time, changing the landscape of the zone, as well as the enemies featured in the aforementioned Tower Defense game. No release date has been given on the arrival of these new territories, but with Uncharted 2 hitting stores tomorrow, and A Crack in Time releasing later this month, we're guessing they'll appear in a soon-ish manner.

Europeans, get Wolverine claws in PlayStation Home

by Andrew Yoon { Oct 9th 2009 at 7:00PM }

Okay, we'll admit that this is one of the cooler items you can wear in PlayStation Home: Wolverine's adamantium claws. Best of all, you can don these shredders for free. Yes, you'll have to suffer through the trailer for X-Men Origins; Wolverine at the Home Theatre -- but once the painful two minutes are over, you'll find these claws waiting for you in the Threads store of the Home Mall.

Unfortunately, these are non-functional weapons. We so would've loved to go on a virtual rampage in Home. Also, this is strictly a European affair. Sorry, everyone else.

[Via Kotaku]

Home 1.3 update freezing systems, workaround offered

by Andrew Yoon { Oct 2nd 2009 at 3:30PM }

The biggest update to PlayStation Home since its public beta debut went live not too long ago. However, the transition hasn't been as smooth as many hoped. There are sporadic reports of system hangs during the initialization screen, post 1.3 update. While EndSights says "many systems" are affected, it seems likely the problem is isolated to a minority of PlayStation Home users.

According to Home Manager Locust_Star, a few items in the virtual world may be causing the hiccups. Items like the Namco Bandai Love Seat, Fat Princess Throne and Ghostbusters Bagel are amongst the few suspected to be causing crashes. Until a proper patch is implemented, the PlayStation team recommends deleting and reinstalling PlayStation Home. Erasing Home data from the Save Data Utility may also help PlayStation gamers that are desperate to log into the virtual world.

Let us know if you've been affected by the latest Home update, and if these workarounds, um, work.

PlayStation Home patch 1.3 adds universal game launching ... kind of

by Griffin McElroy { Sep 30th 2009 at 4:45PM }

One of the most attractive promised features of PlayStation Home was the ability to meet up with friends in Sony's virtual space, pick a PS3 title and join in the multiplayer offerings of said title as a group. Sony's delivered on that promise by adding this functionality for a few select titles, such as MotorStorm and Street Fighter IV. However, these capabilities are going "universal" with the release of Home Patch 1.3, which will add "simplified game launching" to the service.

No, this form of launching won't allow you to group up with friends in Home and jump into a game of your choosing as a single, conglomerated entity. Rather, it lets you ... well, launch your games without having to return to the XMB. It was a wise choice to cut the middle man out of the game-booting equation, but it seems for the "full" game launching experience, Sony's going to have to add that functionality one title at a time.

Also added in the update is an in-game camera, in-store item previewing, new categories of clothing, new emotes, new spaces, and whole lot more. Check out PlayStation.Blog for the full scoop on the update.

TGS 2009: Make room for 'PlayStation Room'

by Andrew Yoon { Sep 24th 2009 at 11:39AM }

Sony has announced a new PSP service for designing 3D avatars and "my room" spaces, along with blog, album, and group gathering and chat support. Um ... does this sound familiar to anyone?

Yes, it looks like PlayStation Home is coming to PSP ... sort of. PlayStation Room (officially spelled with an infinity symbol in place of the "oo" in Room) will be added to PSP in an upcoming firmware update this winter and can be launched directly from the PlayStation Network section of the XMB. Just like in Home, PSP owners will be able to invite other PlayStation players into their rooms to "enjoy real time communication." Is that what the kids call it these days?

While anything remotely resembling PlayStation Home has us reeling with trepidation, we do think Room's stylized avatars look significantly less creepy than the Home avatars ripped from the uncanny valley. We're also hopeful that the advent of Room will mean the addition of much-needed features, like a friends list and proper messaging services. And just imagine the connectivity possibilities: PlayStation HomeRoom! ... Anybody?

Gallery: PlayStation Room

Audi opening sleek Home space, apartments

by Griffin McElroy { Sep 23rd 2009 at 10:15AM }

Yet another enormous corporation is dipping its toes into the advertising-friendly waters of PlayStation Home -- later this year, Audi is releasing a Home space with a whole slew of new features beyond "televisions that show commercials all day long." Well, they have those too (of course), but the space will also grant access to an Audi-driving minigame. Those who perform well in said game can unlock apartments in a massive housing complex in the middle of Audi square. We assume if you lose your ranking, you get evicted. Such is life in the high-stakes, no-mercy Home racing circuit.

WTF: Fable characters in Sonic Racing and other oddities from alleged Sega leak

by Ben Gilbert { Sep 22nd 2009 at 1:28PM }

Among the truckloads of possibly legit megatons included in the alleged leaked minutes from a meeting between Sega of America and Sony Computer Entertainment America, a number of notable gaffes and oddities can be found. Besides wondering if "characters from [the] Rare or Fable universes" should be included in Sonic Racing, it appears that Sega may be interested in assigning all of its properties a PlayStation Home-room. Oh, and a product evaluator thought Alpha Protocol felt "barely RPG" -- final analysis: make it even more Mass Effect-y.

Additionally, the mention of PS2 games as downloadable content on PSN makes us reminisce all the way back to mid-2006 when the idea first popped up on our radar --- surely, this isn't why Sony removed built-in backwards compatibility? And either the person taking minutes was daydreaming or knows something we don't, as reference is made to "Eidos' Batman" featuring "PS3/PSP interoperability" support -- a Batman or related DC Comics PSP game then? Juicer still, that little mention comes right after talk of a project named "Vanquish" and a possible PSP iteration of the currently shelved Aliens: Colonial Marines that Gearbox Software is working on. Also, Sony is eager to check out that hopefully not-so-crappy Thor game soon (suggestion: make it less Iron Man 2-y).

The cherry on top comes in the form of what we've been calling around the Joystiq water cooler: "Sonic and the Inverted Castle." Found under the "Sonic Anniversary" subhead, the note taker jots down, "SCEA would love PSN exclusive power ups/different game modes (like Castlevania's flip it over/backwards)." Actually, we believe that's Missy Elliott who puts the thing down, flips it and reverses it, thank you very much.

Dizzee Rascal gets first keys to Home's new SingStar VIP space

by Xav de Matos { Sep 17th 2009 at 3:00PM }

British artist Dizzee Rascal will headline the European launch of the new SingStar VIP space during an online PlayStation Home event on September 24 at 20:00 BST (UK time)/ 21:00 CEST (Mainland Europe). The Mercury Award-winning rapper will be on hand to promote his upcoming fourth album Tongue N' Cheek and answer fan questions, but not before taking the stage to perform some of his chart topping jams and his upcoming single.

If you need more incentive to connect, Home users who join the artist's launch party can get their hands on a free Dizzee Rascal mask (as terrifyingly seen above) for 48 hours. With an accessory as crazy as that, we hope to see a quick Quincy resurgence.

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