UPDATE: Not only have we got hands-on with the O2 Joggler, we’ve just found out third party apps could be coming to it!
Thought Capcom’s PlayStation Home plans were exciting? That’s a drop in the ocean compared to what Sony has planned. In a recent presentation Sony Computer Entertainment Japan revealed the names of some 24 Home licensees, all of whom are planning their own Home spaces.
Capcom has revealed that it will creating new Resident Evil 5 and Street Fighter IV content for Sony’s PlayStation Home service on PS3. Famitsu has a wad of screenshots showing exclusive Street Fighter VI costumes and Home furniture as well as a Resident Evil 5 themed section for players to visit, modelled on the game’s opening level, though the hordes of flesh eating nasties will be replaced with Diesel-wearing Home users . We’re assuming you can’t headshot them either.
That plain old, single room stereo getting you down? Multi-room audio is what you need, letting you juggle music across rooms.
The technology required has made leaps and bounds in recent years, including one in a downward direction on the pricing front.
Still confused about what does what though? Not to worry: here’s the products you can use in every price category to sling sound around your home, whatever your budget.
When we first got our hands on Home, we weren’t terribly impressed. There’s bags of potential in the service, sure, but at the moment it needs a major injection of soul content to be anything more than a brief conversation piece. We also said it would be a cold day in hell before we paid real money for virtual apparel, but it turns out that some people are more than willing to lay down the cost of a bag of salt and vinegar for non-existent T-Shirts, and Sony is reporting significant revenue from its first week of virtual sales.
“It’s still beta”, “It’s not a game, it’s a social network”, and “You don’t have to use it if you don’t like it”: these are some of the most common arguments being voiced by Home supporters in the wake of an underwhelming, long awaited launch of the PS3’s latest, erm, thingy. We doff our hats to Sony in at least one regard: Home has certainly got gamers talking. Which was main the idea behind the whole exercise, even if it’s not quite in the manner Sony first envisioned. We’ve had a few hours checking out the Home experience now – read on for our first impressions.
Sony Computer Entertainment has at last decided to take the training wheels off the PS3’s long-awaited PlayStation Home virtual world cum social gaming community cum Second Life rip-off – and slightly sooner than expected. Tomorrow, December 11th, the service will move beyond its invite-only closed beta stage and step up to full public beta. A free download will be made available (presumably within PlayStation Store) which will open up the service, placing a new Home icon on the XMB.
