PlayStation Home

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PlayStation Home, network-based service allowing users of the Sony Corporation’s PlayStation 3 (PS3) electronic-game console to interact in a computer-generated virtual community.

PlayStation Home uses a video game-like interface to present a socially interactive environment. Players connect via their gaming console to the online PlayStation Network (PSN) to access Home, design a character (or “avatar”), decorate a virtual apartment (or “HomeSpace”), and venture out into the larger video world. In the central Home Square, players in numerous physical locations encounter one another’s avatars, converse by way of text “bubbles” over their characters’ heads, play games such as chess and bowling, and explore a variety of rooms, shops, and events. Players can direct their avatars to perform a number of different gestures, dances, and other actions.

Access to the Home environment is free for PSN subscribers, as are many basic clothing items, home furnishings, and decorations that players can use for their avatars and in their HomeSpaces. Players can purchase more elaborate virtual items, or even larger HomeSpaces, from Sony in online stores. A Home Theater shows video content, including trailers for upcoming movies and games. Home is used to promote PlayStation games by way of themed rooms and visual advertising; Sony plans to eventually license similar promotions for other products.

Sony first announced plans for Home in early 2007, seeking to gain a market advantage for its PS3 console over competitors, such as the Nintendo Company’s Wii and the Microsoft Corporation’s Xbox 360. However, the project was delayed several times, with a public trial, or “beta,” version finally debuting in December 2008. The beta was released in multiple languages in the United States, Europe, Japan, and elsewhere, each with its own local Home network.

This article was most recently revised and updated by William L. Hosch.