Technology

Sony’s PS3 hasn’t been doing as well as was hoped. With all the competition out there it’s acctually no surprise to us. One of the main problems that they have been having is the fact that it hasn’t been getting enough publicity…until now.

Sony is determined to show consumers that the console’s online experience is above and beyond that of the Xbox 360. Sony has unvieled to us ‘Home’, a three dimensional world that is an avatar based social networking, which pulls together directly into the the console’s integrated services. What Sony is offering is similar to ‘Second Life’ and it’s meant to be. ‘Second Life’ was a phenomenon among consumers and Sony has made enough differences to theirs, but are hoping for the same reaction. Using ‘Home’ is free, but of course requires you to own a PS3.

Once you are £425 poorer the virtual world of ‘Home’ is your oyster. You are given a customisable avatar, a pad (which you can kit out with downloadable furniture, pictures and equipment) and any audio or video running on your hard drive can be set up to echo around your apartment walls. Outside, every person you meet is a fellow £425 poorer PS3 owner who you can chat with using emoticons, typing or talking, using a Bluetooth headset. If you make new friends then you can participate in online games together, go to the ‘mall’ to shop for Home add-ons, share your videos and audio back at your pad and more.

There will also be challenges that you can participate in which requires teamwork with prizes up for grabs and commercial zones that will be sold to third parties to create further areas that you can flock to. Home goes into a large scale beta test in April with the final version launching towards the end of Q3. If all the negative publicity which the PS3 has (quite rightly) attracted in recent months made you feel down about your monstrous pre-order this should make you smile again.