Talk Playstation 3 News

In a interview with Silicon Valley Insider, Susan Panico revealed that virtual goods are very popular in Home. Without giving any clear numbers the Senior PlayStation Network Director said

In Home’s first four days, virtual goods priced from 49 cents to $4.99 have generated more revenue for Sony than PS3 movies and video priced up to $14.99 generated in their first week. “It’s a classic 80/20 model, where 20 percent of your customers create 80 percent of your income

Does this simply mean that the Video Store didn’t do well in it’s first week or that the Home items were really selling despite all the complaining on the forums. The ‘hottest’ selling item in the shopping store was Santa outfit.

She also cleared up some the misunderstanding of the temporary disablement of the Voice support. It was done to help with a technical issue. And despite the Red Bull area being delayed till January we can expect more similar partnership deals in the Q1 of 2009.
With Sony long term goal for the PlayStation Network is to make the PlayStation 3 a replacement for cable boxes, we wonder if they will succeed.

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TedTheDog posted some info about tomorrows release of Home Open Beta on the Official EU Playstation forum.

Home will be offline for a while so don’t try to hammer it. Once its back online we will be running version 1.03 and all those with the current version will be offered a patch. The patch simply supports the server changes being made to support Open Beta.
The age limit will be lowered from 18+ to 16+ (Sigh)
You will be able to download Home off the Playstation Store after you have opted to install it, you will find it under PlayStation®Network on the XMB.

Only one sad thing the Red Bull Air Race will not be included tomorrow, but will arrive a few days later.

And some last words from Ted

Please remember, this really is a Beta

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After almost two years and three possible release periods, Home will finally be available to the public from December 11th 2008.

SCEE let know that tomorrow, everybody who has registered to the Playstation Network will be able to download Home from the Playstation Store. There was much speculation of when it would be available and in the latest interviews with people from SCE/Sony/Playstation only increased them.

Kazuo Hirai was proud to say,

PlayStation Home is truly a promising network community service on the PlayStation platform, made possible with the powerful combination of PS3’s overwhelming computational power and PlayStation Network that covers many countries around the globe. We are committed to providing PS3 users with exciting gaming experiences with PlayStation Home and together with our partners and users, expand the new world of interactive entertainment as we move forward.

We’ve heard about different kind of places you can visit like the lately announced ‘Clubs’ or event halls like the Tokyo Games Show, but also special spaces dedicated to certain games. From the start you can expect to have access to a Far Cry 2 space.
Sony has aimed for such game inspired environments so that it allows people to discuss the specific games, plan strategies and access content and clues that will enhance the gaming experience.
Expect more spaces like this to come soon from games like Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune™, Warhawk™, Motorstorm and SOCOM (we say this one will be available once the game hits Europe) and even other games.
SCEE has focused on bringing us more of these engaging environments together with Electronic Arts, UBISOFT, Midway, Sega and Atari that will provide users with an on-going gaming experience.

We already know that Red Bull had it’s own thing coming in Home but joined by other brands like Fashion leader Diesel, furniture designers Ligne Roset, Paramount Pictures, video content providers Hexus TV and Eurogamer they are one of the first to provide us with content once the Open Beta launches.
Expect to Dress 2 kill your avatar in Diesel clothing ranging in prices from free of charge to €1.50. Or do you rather want to show of your in-door decorating skills by furnishing your apartment, Summer Cottage or any other estate with exclusive Ligne Roset furniture. Maybe even be hired by somebody else.

To take the PlayStation Home Theatre to another level, Sony teamed up with various content providers to enhance the cinematic experience. Expect to see lifestyle technology programming from Hexus TV. Gaming content from Eurogamer and exclusive film content from Paramount Pictures (Maybe Sony Pictures as well in the future).
Paramount Pictures will be using Home to promote it’s latest movies like the highly anticipated film Watchmen to PlayStation®Home residents. You will also be able to get a selection of virtual Watchmen merchandise like T-Shirts with the smiley face logo, Doomsday clocks and character statues. Expect to see these items in (begin) 2009, ahead of an exclusive Q & A event where cast and filmmakers will meet selected press and competition winners fans within the Watchmen themed environment.
So this all seems like good news, but we still wonder how much content will actually be released in Open Beta from the start. With content we mainly mean clothing and furniture. The small store update that was received last week for people who were able to get into the Extended Closed Beta was nice acording to some but still not enough.
Will we be able to play music from our hard disks in our apartment or watch a clip on the TV in you Summer Cottage home. We don’t know yet, but coming tomorrow most questions will be answered, and then the judgement over Home’s potential will really start.

Get ready and be prepared to an experience that will take your Playstation 3 console to a whole other level.

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Red Bull will be the first company other than game developers to support Sony’s PlayStation Home. Red Bull will have it’s own space, and have a mini game based on their Air races. 

John Beasley, brand marketing manager for Red Bull UK said Home represents an opportunity for brands to create “memorable and rich content”.

“The game gave us the first opportunity to recreate in the gaming world what we try to do in the real world, which is to facilitate interaction, to give people stories, memories, experiences and a really good opportunity to interact with the brand,” he said. 

Beasley said Home will show marketers how in-game advertising can be used effectively and will open up the medium to more brands. “It’s an easy environment for brands to take that first step into gaming,” he added. 

Sony has set up Home so that gamers and brands can “generate significant revenues”, but has not revealed details of brands it is working with.

A spokesman for Sony said that brand partnerships for Home will be announced at a later date.

Home is slated for a public release before months end.

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