Gamers hoping to create a green-skinned and generously fanged persona in PS3's social online hub, Home, will need to rethink their designs as the ability to sculpt any such far-fetched creature from fantasy land simply won't be catered for. Home's executive producer, Peter Edwards, has explained that outlandish, non-human avatars definitely won't be a feature of PS3's ambitious online space. "It's not the Home ethic," Edwards told UK Official PlayStation Magazine. "If everyone's walking around ... » Read More

IGN still lists MGS4 for November.
PlayStation 3: US Release Date Revision 5/21
» Read More 

In order to make things easier for you all, PS3 Fanboy lists all of their Sony Gamer's Day posts here so that you can see exactly what was reported on at a glance.
» Read More 

Whether you're into the whole social networking scene or not, chances are, you are into chat clients online. So the question becomes: Would you want an advanced version in your video game console?
» Read More 

Despite the testing stage of the new Home feature of the PlayStation 3 being underway right now and Sony making the service a priority for the success of the new hardware, it seems that the company has held off from releasing tools to Third Party developers a little too long.

There was a three day conference called 'Devstation' that took place last week down in London, UK, where Sony Europe threw around major buzzwords such as 'technology', 'innovation' and 'creativity' as it tried to show how developer-focused it is trying to be. The event was a major chance to unveil the plans and overall strategic work for the future of both the PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 3, keeping over four hundred and fifty Third Party developers firmly in the loop, plus getting them up to speed on the PlayStation Network and impending Home service.

Michael Denny, Vice President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, Europe, who keynoted the event was quoted as saying:

"We're breaking [into] a new business, much as we did with the first PlayStation. We used to be predominantly a single platform publisher, but now with PlayStation 3, PSP and PlayStation 2, we're truly a multiplatform publisher with a mix of products and services that appeal to a wide range of tastes, lifestyles and budgets.

"With Home, we are having to manage a much more sophisticated business and that's exciting and pioneering. It's great to be given the opportunity at DevStation to stand up and inspire our valued third party partners to join us."

Whilst some developers are currently underway with talks regarding being launch partners for the extensive Home online network feature, it seems that development kits have not even been sent out, with Sony planning on rolling out the first generation of Home creation tools later this month. But with Sony determined to deliver strong support for Home, its impressive 3D lobby, the co...
» Read More 

During a panel discussion on the topic of new opportunities in console technology at the Online Game Developers Conference in Seattle, SCEA's director of third-party developer relations took the opportunity to explain to an audience of developers - as well as detail the PlayStation Network with many fresh specifics.

"So what is the PlayStation Network?" asked Sony's Michael Shorrock. He proceeded to state that it was a 'loyalty catalyst for PlayStation platforms.' "It's designed to be a profitable eco-system for both developers and publishers. And it's a marketing platform for games and content."

He revealed that Home could also be launched from within PS3 games themselves.
» Read More 

ten spaces for Three Speech regulars on the second phase of the Home beta trial, which is due to start later in the summer....
» Read More 

Technology, innovation and creativity were the buzzwords at Sony Europe's developer-focused DevStation event, held in London last week.

The three day conference provided the opportunity for over 450 European developers to get a heads up about Sony's future strategy and tools support for PlayStation 3 and PSP, as well as the fastmoving PlayStation Network and Home online services. It follows on from similar events held in Japan and the US.

"We're breaking [into] a new business, much as we did with the first PlayStation," said Michael Denny, VP of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, Europe, who keynoted the event. "We used to be predominantly a single platform publisher, but now with PlayStation 3, PSP and PlayStation 2, we're truly a multiplatform publisher with a mix of products and services that appeal to a wide range of tastes, lifestyles and budgets."
» Read More 

New screenshots of PlayStation Home have been released. With "Closed Beta" running now, and Open Beta in July, more leaks are sure to be on their way up until Home's release this October.
» Read More 

Open Home as Sony talks to devs:

Denny names social networking as key at London DevStation conference
The latest figures from Sony's PlayStation Network underpinned the bullish attitude at its three-day DevStation developer conference, held in London.

Millions of pieces of content have been downloaded, while Michael Denny, VP of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, Europe, also said the number of network registrations since launch was very encouraging.

Next up will be download packs for MotorStorm, which will be available in premium (adding 'significant gameplay' to the title), and lite flavours.
» Read More 

According to a post at the US PlayStation forums, the Home beta for Europe has started. The post has been backed up with other people claiming it started for Europe also, below are two screenshots showing why people have claimed it.
» Read More 

"A closed beta phase for around 15,000 users will take place between April and August, with an open beta for 50,000 or so operating between August and October."
» Read More 

It seems a new PlayStation Home community has been launched at the most obvious destination, PlayStationHome.com

The community includes forums, and a Social Home "MySpace" like Network for Home users to register. Enjoy!
» Read More 

Grouper enables its members to watch, share and create video on the Web, desktop and connected devices and continues to be the leading innovator in the user-generated video space. Members can browse videos on Grouper.com and post them to a wide variety of third party Web sites directly from Grouper. With one-click, members can add video to their personal pages on MySpace, Facebook, Y!360, Friendster, Blogger, and any other video webpage.

Killzone Unit communicated with Dave Karraker, Sr. Director, Corporate Communications of Sony Computer Entertainment America. When asked about the integration of Grouper to the PlayStation Underground and the PlayStation 3, he mentioned it could be implemented as soon as the launch of HOME.

Dave Karraker: "We haven't announced any changes to the PlayStation Network or PlayStation Store beyond what we have delivered in the latest Firmware 1.6 update. Grouper integration will most likely first be seen with the launch of Home."

Hit jump to learn more.
» Read More 

A new Q&A has been posted on the semi-official PS3 blog site ThreeSpeech where Harrison gets asked about people uploading porn to PS Home. When asked about some of the animations you can do within the world of PS Home, he replied, "Well, it's absolutely deliberate that there is no physical impact between characters, between avatars. We are going to have animations that will allow you to shake somebody's hand or to have some social touch but in a very, you know, appropriate way. But no, we're ... » Read More

Nintendo legend, Shigeru Miyamoto, played down the originality of Sony's newly-announced Home service for PlayStation 3, saying: "What they're doing already exists in one form on the PC." Miyamoto went on to accentuate Nintendo's focus on originality. "Our focus is always to be different and do something that's different. That's why, even though, technically speaking, the Miis take advantage of the Internet, that isn't our main focus," he said. "We are trying to do something that is different ... » Read More

While attending GDC last week, PSU had the chance to stop by the Linden Lab booth, developers behind Second Life, and talk with Jeff Luan about his thoughts on the Phil Harrison keynote and, more importantly, PlayStation Home.

"Mimicry is the greatest form of flattery for us," said Luan.

Luan believes that "Home" will be great for console gamers, but what Sony is doing really won't have an affect on Second Life due to Second Life being on PC and it being targetted whole different market of users.

Perhaps "Home" won't have an affect on Second Life, but how will it affect Xbox Live and the Wii? Bringing almost unlimited options to PlayStation gamers in creating their character, earning trophys, or decking out their pad. I guess only time will tell.
» Read More 

From the article "Pro-G: Well yes, that too. But what about the game 'Mr trying to dance around the question'? (laughs). Perhaps it's being integrated into PS3 Home as a Safari Holiday package?

Harrison: (laughs) That's actually a good idea. The game designers on Afrika are being deliberately coy about the game experience. I know what it is; I've seen it and I know it's going to be a very interesting gaming experience. It's not about killing and it's not about running around the environment shooting elephants and hippopotami - that would be awful. That's not what we're all about. What we're about is taking people to places in a virtual world. So Afrika, I think, is a great example of that. But hold on just a little bit more!"
» Read More 

Discussion and reaction to Sony's recently-announced PlayStation Home has been rampant at the Games Developers Conference, with most excited and dying to dive into Sony's virtual world, while others are skeptical whether the service goes deep enough (mostly Nintendo and Microsoft employees). We roamed the GDC halls to get a quick reaction to the PS3 Second Life-alike, and here's what our victims had to say... Cliff Bleszinski, lead designer, Epic Games: "I think PlayStation Home is very ... » Read More

Following Sony's much-discussed PlayStation Home announcement earlier this week, Microsoft's Chris Satchell has talked down the service saying that it's "not a very game-centric approach." The general manager of Microsoft's Game Developer Group told CVG this afternoon: "I think they've definitely taken some concepts that we originated like Achievements, but I think they're pushing in a different direction and we've sort of fundamentally got two different approaches going on here." "I think ... » Read More