14 DAY TRIAL // The last few days have been inundated with news from the PlayStation Day Europe event and with various statements from Sony regarding matters as diverse as the new PlayTV add-on for the PlayStation 3, the possibility of adding new external hard drives to the console or the strength of the games line-up that Sony has prepared for 2008. Now it's time to let someone outside of Sony for a change talk about one of Sony's promised initiatives.
Sony Home is a concept that aims to establish the gaming console as a hub of social activity. It's basically an interactive world that allows every PlayStation 3 owner to create an account and then go about creating a personal avatar and a customized living space that will serve as the place where he can then interact with other Home users. Sony promises that the application will connect with other Sony products, from PS3 games to the PlayStation Store, so that the Home account will reflect as much about the player as possible.
The trouble with Home is that it received a serious delay, until fall, as there are still a couple of issues left to iron of the experience. Peter Moore, who is nowadays heading the EA Sports division and who has experience as former boss of Xbox operations at Microsoft, commented on the potential of Home while talking to Eurogamer.
Moore said that "Yeah, I just wish it would ship. I questioned it a little bit, whether I'd want to wander around there. Phil Harrison showed me a demo - it's very cool, but let's go already. And so I'm disappointed that it's been pushed back a little bit again".
He thinks that all products coming out of Electronic Arts that have the PlayStation 3 as a platform of choice will eventually use the Home initiative, as long as Sony manages to get it out quickly and makes it real easy to use for both players and developers.