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Published in Gaming

PlayStation Home Beta starts today

by on11 December 2008

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We guess “imminent launch” means today

As we told you yesterday, sources were telling us that the start of the PlayStation Home Beta was “imminent” and it would appear that imminent now means today. The beta will kick off later today for those in North America, but we have not been able to confirm when the beta will start for those outside North America.

The delivery of PlayStation Home was a bit of a mystery yesterday, but it would not appear that users will be able to download the beta directly from the PlayStation Network column of the XMB free of charge. Sony has said that the basic services in PlayStation Home will be free, which does at least give the impression that some of the features and activities will at some point either require a membership fee or be charged for as a separate add-on feature.

From game-themed environments to spaces dedicated to a variety of titles from third party publishers, Sony has assembled an impressive list of partners hoping to make an impact in PlayStation Home. One of the more interesting concepts is that Sony is calling “lifestyle brand” partners who offer a variety of areas within the environment. For example, Red Bull has created its own island that even offers a taste of the Red Bull Air Race Word Championships in the form of a game on the island.

As we said yesterday, it remains to be seen how users will embrace the PlayStation Home concept and if this new extension of the social networking that is making its way to a gaming console is a direction that gamers are interested in participating in.
Last modified on 11 December 2008
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