Game Stooge

GDC 07: Surprise! Playstation Home Uncovered

• Scribbled on March 7th, 2007 by Devin Grimes
• Filed in GDC, Industry News, PlayStation Network, Sony PlayStation 3

Sure, this was one of the worst kept secrets in the game industry, but it still looks pretty darn amazing. During Phil Harrison’s GDC keynote today he officially announced Playstation Home (which you may recall from our previous post).

It pretty much follows up on exactly the same details that we previously reported on. Among them included are Sony’s answer to Xbox 360’s achievement points system. In it, any achievements you complete during games will show up in your virtual trophy room, where it looks like it’ll show off various videos of your accomplishments, as well as other media to stimulate your ego.

One of the coolest parts of the Playstation Home is the social networking. You can peruse through various locations and meet many of your fellow PS3 owners. Once you hook up with a bunch of friends, you can invite them back to your room, and from there you can form a party-like system in which as long as your friends are in your room, you can all go game to game together, and afterwards even meet up back in the same room.

Read on for some more details, as well as the official video…

Your online avatar looks to be highly customizable, with plenty of options to get them looking just like you, or not like you, whatever your intentions may be.

Sony is also giving future designers a chance to show off their abilities, in that you will be able to design and decorate your very own apartment exactly how you want. In the video, there was a drop down list where you could pick through various pieces of furniture to select the right piece for you. I don’t know about you, but this sounds like a perfect opportunity for microtransactions, and a smart one at that.

Playstation Home looks to be a real killer app for the system, and it is cool to finally see Sony doing something right, and different from the competition. The service will have a free beta on the PS3 during April, and will eventually launch sometime this fall.

(Thanks Joystiq.)