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PlayStation Home version 1.5 bringing new game tech, realtime multiplayer
The first of Sony's GDC 2011 announcements isn't a new piece of hardware or a major sequel, but rather a new version of its virtual world, PlayStation Home. Version 1.5 of the core Home client, due this spring, is the most significant since the service's launch in terms of new technology. Specifically, Sony is making new features available to developers looking to make games that run within Home. The most significant improvements involve low-lag realtime multiplayer gaming, paving the way for first-person shooters, racing games and other fast-action genres within Home. To (literally) drive this home, Sony showed off an early glimspe of Sodium Two: Project Velocity from Lockwood Publishing, which unlike its arena-shooter predecessor is a Wipeout HD style racing game. We'll be getting our hands on Sodium Two later this week on the show floor, but we're already impressed with its fast, super-smooth framerate -- the result of new graphics engine capabilities. Its gameplay should provide a sense of the improved physics client Home 1.5 will offer. We have a sneaking suspiscion it will play a lot like Wipeout, but you never know.
Watch space shuttle Discovery's final launch from PlayStation Home premium yacht
Home users! Be sure to step out of your promotional wastelands and secret subscriber enclaves today, for the sake of history. Space shuttle Discovery is taking off for the last time today at 4:50PM ET, and you can watch the whole thing from the confines of the PS3's virtual world. However, there is a catch. You can't just watch from your own room in Home or the Central Plaza or wherever -- you can only view the launch from the Loot Sunset Yacht, a "premium personal space" available for purchase (previously known as the "Amaterasu Yacht"). Of course, this makes the event sound a bit less "historic" and more like "paying Sony for the privilege of watching your avatar watch the shuttle launch, instead of just watching it yourself on your whole TV screen for free."
Killzone 3 to include 'total' PlayStation Home integration
If you happen to wander into PlayStation Home's Central Plaza after this Thursday, January 27, you may not find it as antiseptic and serene as you remember. As part of a Killzone 3 promotion, Sony is going to transform Home's main meeting area into "the last ISA stronghold," wrecked by a Helghast attack. Players can fight back in three "levels" of Home minigames, earning points that can be used to unlock content in the real game's multiplayer mode. Sony is also adding the somewhat impractical functionality of a Killzone 3 pre-order from Amazon ... from within Home. For the first time, you'll be able to reserve a game from within Sony's virtual world, securing an exclusive jet-pack "costume" for your avatar (are you really asking -- not a chance it actually works!); in addition to Amazon's standard pre-orders bonuses, including more multiplayer points and the "Retro Map Pack" (two maps from Killzone 2 playable in the new game). So, you're supposed to go to the fake Killzone to buy the real one -- is that right?
Red Dead Redemption multiplayer XP challenge for Avatar awards begins
With all of the planned DLC out the door and a shelf full of Game of the Year awards to display, you might think Rockstar is done riding the Red Dead Redemption train -- but not so fast, pardner. A Rockstar XP challenge is now underway in the Wild West shooter which has players collectively earning XP in the multiplayer modes towards unlocking special Avatar awards for Xbox Live and PlayStation Home for everyone. The items include system-specific versions of both the RDR T-shirt and John Marston's in-game Elegant Suit. Of course, each system's goodies will only unlock when the totals for the platform are met. You can watch the bars rise on the official Rockstar Games newswire or Social Club site. What'er you waitin' for, cowboys and cowgirls? Get to yer XP earnin'!
PlayStation Home celebrates two years, outlines next year's additions
Man, it seems like only yesterday that we first stepped virtual foot into PlayStation Home, communicating with fellow PS3 owners using a complex system of gestures and gender morphing. In actuality, it's been two years since the platform launched, and according to a Sony press release, over 17 million users have visited its ghostly halls in that time. These users have participated in over 600 "community events," some of which were sponsored by other game developers and publishers, while some of which were hosted by us, such as our lightly-attended "Virtual Pizza Party/Singles Mixer 2009." The presser also announced two games which will arrive on the platform next spring: Sodium 2, a follow-up to Outso's successful, Home-based competitve tank shooter, and Conspiracy, a multiplayer "Spy/Puzzle game" from Jet Set Games. You can check out a few screenshots from the latter of these two titles in the gallery below. We wonder if our own proclivity for sexual espionage will give us a leg up? %Gallery-110310%
Force Unleashed 2 items hit Avatar Marketplace, PS Home Dec. 9
In the galaxy you currently reside in, LucasArts plans on hocking more digital Star Wars wares. On Thursday, avatars can tap into whichever side of The Force their inner fashionista prefers on both Xbox Live and PlayStation Home.
PlayStation Plus users get an exclusive space away from the crowds of Home
Are you looking for the quietest place in the (virtual) world? Yes, even quieter than PlayStation Home. Sony Europe just launched a PlayStation Plus-exclusive lounge inside of Home. Perfect for the person who likes Home, but just wishes it didn't have so many people in it. Once you get past the doorman in the marble foyer, you'll be able to converse with the other occupant of the PlayStation Plus Private Members Club in peace -- mostly about how awesome it is to have a place to go where you can get away from all the people who meant to launch the PlayStation Store. There's a bar, "alcoves" for conversation, and even an exclusive card game, optimistically designed for two to four players.
PlayStation Rewards program to offer free PSN bonuses for 'highly engaged' fans
Sony is preparing to launch a new incentives program called PlayStation Rewards. A closed beta for the offer is currently invite-only -- for "highly engaged" PlayStation owners -- but the full service will open up to include everyone next year. The program will reward players with a number of PSN bonuses, including "exclusive" avatars, dynamic themes and PlayStation Home content. In addition, Rewards will feature "member-only" sweepstakes, events and giveaways. At first glance, PlayStation Rewards seems to offer many of the same features as PlayStation Plus. However, the two services are separate from each other and will offer different bonuses. Rewards is free, and will be open to all PlayStation owners, regardless of Plus status -- although, Plus members are more likely to be offered entry into the service during the beta. Like Club Nintendo and Square Enix Members, PlayStation Rewards is tiered, separating its members into three groups: Select, Pro and Legendary. Playing games, downloading demos, using PlayStation Home, being active on the PlayStation.com Forums, answering surveys and buying content on the PlayStation Store are some of the ways in which members can increase their ranks in a Trophy-inspired leveling system.
Sony discounting PSOne Classics for 15th birthday celebration
Sony's rolling out the average-sized guns for its celebration of the original PlayStation's 15th birthday. In a recent newsletter, the company announced that select titles on the PSOne Classics storefront will be discounted on a weekly basis over the coming months. In addition, one of the early PSN titles, Super Rub A Dub, will receive a 50 percent discount starting today and running until Monday, September 20. If you don't feel like spending any cash to join in the revelry, you can also pick up a free PS1 ornament (pictured above), with which to decorate your apartment in PlayStation Home, by visiting the Theater space. We sure hope Sony also releases a "Tower of Dave Matthews Band CDs" ornament and "A VCR With a Copy of Bio-Dome Stuck Inside" ornament, just so we can recreate that late-90s college dorm room experience.
The Empire Strikes Back at PlayStation Home with new avatar items, bundles
Tomorrow, PlayStation Home enthusiasts will be able to pick up some Empire Strikes Back gear for their virtual pad. Pictured above are the upcoming items, available as part of the 30th celebration of Episode V in the Star Wars saga. The odds of successfully navigating an asteroid field may be 3,720 to 1, but the odds your pad will look totally badass with a carbonite Han Solo hanging on the wall? Definite. Coincidentally, LucasArts will also release two PlayStation Home bundles tomorrow. The "Everything Empire Strikes Back Bundle" includes everything related to the movie released in PlayStation Home so far for $24.99 -- a total of 51 items. Then there's the "All Furniture Items Bundle," a specific collection of ten specific Empire Strikes Back items for $9.99. Oh, and if you find yourself in PlayStation Home today, stop on by the LucasArts shop for a free "Yoda Ears" cap. Today's the last day you can snag one!
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World price, pre-order bonus announced
While it's unlikely Scott Pilgrim vs. the World will be sold out when it launches on the PlayStation Store's virtual shelves next month, you may still want to pre-order the game. Ubisoft's official online store is throwing in a special bonus: a free "Sex Bob-omb" t-shirt for your PlayStation Home avatar. Okay, this may not be the most exciting pre-order bonus ever concocted, but there's still good reason to be excited. The Ubishop has Scott Pilgrim listed at $9.99, bucking the recent trend of $15 downloads. We definitely approve.%Gallery-98112%
Codename bringing original indie games to PlayStation Home
Sony has announced a partnership with upstart independent game label Codename that will see a variety of games from indie devs released on PlayStation Home, beginning with four revealed today that are due over "the course of the next several months." The group includes Dueling Gentlemen from Odd Gentlemen (Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom) which, as its title suggests, will see Home inhabitants squaring off one-on-one in a classic battle of honor. The hook: Duels will take place live on stage in Home's Central Plaza. Addiitonally, Lazy 8 Studios is bringing its unique 3D puzzler Cogs to Home as a Central Plaza spectacle, complete with multiplayer. Super Awesome Mountain RPG -- a board game/RPG mash-up from Codename itself -- and Minor Battle, Peanut Gallery's Indiecade award-winning, team-based platformer round out what we here at Joystiq HQ are calling "The Most Excited We've Been About Home in Forever Collection." The official announcement is posted after the break.
Develop: Is PlayStation Home the next great game development platform?
These days, every developer and their brother seems to be making a beeline for hot new gaming platforms like Facebook and the iPhone, visions of Farmville- and Doodle-Jump-style riches dancing in their heads. But nDreams CEO Patrick O'Luanaigh says all these gold rushers might be ignoring a more welcoming and neglected platform for their gaming projects: PlayStation Home.
PlayStation Home 'Wipeout Museum' preserves futuristic racing history
Have you taken the time to familiarize yourself with some of the biggest moments in the history of the Wipeout franchise? The original game's ship date? The day Psygnosis was acquired and rebranded SCE Studio Liverpool? How about the time young Billy Caruthers first traveled fast enough in Wipeout 64 to break the sound barrier, causing the speakers of his 17-inch television and his left eardrum to disintegrate? You can learn all about these momentous occasions by visiting the "Wipeout Museum" space, which recently opened in PlayStation Home. The space celebrates the franchise's 15th birthday with a few scale models of the game's hovercrafts and a couple of interactive minigames -- you know, games like Wipeout Shooter, which recreates all the thrilling shooting gallery action for which the core series is known.
PlayStation Home is a good, profitable business, says Sony's Buser
Ask anybody what they think about PlayStation Home and you'll likely get one of two reactions: "What is that?" and "Meh." For PlayStation Home director Jack Buser, however, it's quite the accomplishment -- a "very good business model for PlayStation, and quite profitable," he told Gamasutra. "With numbers like we have, it goes without saying that Home has been a huge success for our company, something that we have been very proud of." The numbers he's talking about look pretty decent on paper: there are over 100 games on the service, the average user session is about 70 minutes, there are over 50 unique spaces available and 14 million people have at least stepped foot in Home once. Not bad, but it's all about the context -- do people play those games? Do people explore those unique spaces? How many of those 14 million are actual active users? "We haven't talked too much about the platform itself, but what we have said is that every mature virtual item we have ever created has been profitable," Buser said. "We've released over 5,000 virtual items on the platform, and we know that once those items reach maturity, they are profitable. So you see us creating a tremendous amount of virtual items, because it is such a high margin business for us to be in." So it's very much a long-tail thing, then? Look, you could probably present the numbers in any way possible and spin the service as a success, but for us, the real success is its ability to pull in new users, its effectiveness as a marketing tool and its profits from the sale of virtual goods. Log in now and you'll no doubt find a community there, passionate about Home. But is it pulling in new users? Are marketers beating down the (virtual) door to get into Home? And how much does Sony really earn from the service annually? Until we get less vague statistics and hard numbers, we might never know.
More people visited E3 from PlayStation Home than real life
Though there are few things we love more than our annual excursion to E3, there are some inherent downsides to the trip which we could do without. Namely, the ever-present threat of apocalyptic earthquakes. Next year, we might just follow the example of the quarter of a million people who PlayStation Blog claims stopped by Sony's virtual booth in PlayStation Home. Sure, our coverage might be a little one-sided given the absence of every other company, but seriously, guys, earthquakes are terrifying.
PlayStation Home launches Community Theater with PS Nation
PlayStation Home has launched one of its most exciting initiatives yet. The Community Theater is a screen in Home's virtual film house dedicated to bringing players "close to their favorite gaming websites" through "exclusive videos specially crafted for PlayStation Home." The first partner to join Sony's online community is PS Nation, a long-running PlayStation-oriented podcast (which was formerly partnered with Joystiq). Glenn and the rest of the PS Nation team are working on providing regular updates to the online service. While other outlets haven't been named, this is a good first step in countering Xbox Live's video partnerships, such as IGN Strategize and the OXM Report.
LittleBigPlanet crashes into PlayStation Home today
This week's PlayStation Home update promises to be the LittleBig-gest ever. It will add the LittleBigPlanet PlayGround space, which features the King's Snap Happy Photo Challenge, a new Home-exclusive minigame that lets you take pictures to unlock rewards. There's also a Creator minigame that has you building a custom LBP-themed wallpaper for the XMB using a variety of stickers you can place, stick and combine. (Check out the trailer after the break.) Finally, Qore fans will want to pay attention to this: show hosts Veronica Belmont and Audrey Cleo will be making an appearance in Home to chat with fans of the PSN video magazine. For more details, check out the PlayStation.Blog.
Become Iron Man with new flying game on PlayStation Home
This may be the greatest thing to ever happen to PlayStation Home ever. To promote the upcoming Iron Man 2 movie, Paramount Pictures and Audi have partnered up to create a brand new Iron Man-themed mini-game, exclusively for PlayStation Home. Debuting on Thursday, April 29th, the Audi Space will be updated with a game that has your avatar donning an Iron Man suit, flying through an aerial obstacle course. The best times will be recorded on a leaderboard, and the top 10 scores by the end of June will be awarded with a virtual Iron Man suit to keep, making this one of the rarest virtual items ever offered for Sony's online community. Unfortunately, this game is exclusive to the European PSN, meaning those of you outside of SCEE's domain won't be able to partake in the fun. To see what you're missing out on, check out the trailer after the break.%Gallery-91832%
Final Fantasy XIII and BioShock 2 costumes available today in Home
Your adventuring in Final Fantasy XIII may be coming to an end. You can show your fandom for the game by buying a five pound tub of hair gel and cosplaying at the next anime convention ... or you can buy a Final Fantasy XIII-themed outfit for PlayStation Home. Good news: you'll be able to take the easier option later with today's PlayStation Home update. Costumes for Lightning, Vanille, Sazh and Snow will all be available in the Costumes store in Sony's virtual world. In addition, you'll be able to rock costumes from BioShock 2 with purchasable Big Daddy and Big Sister costumes. Expect Home to have an interesting denizen of costumers this week.
