14 DAY TRIAL // Sony Japan has announced that development on the PlayStation Portable connected Room virtual space has been terminated. The concept was thought to be something similar to the Home social space that debuted on the PlayStation 3 and has attracted quite a bit of a following. It's not clear at the moment why the company decided to can the project, especially when considering it had been in a closed beta test in the country for quite some time.
Room never had a launch date for the Japanese market and it's not clear whether Sony actually planned to release it in the rest of the world. It was unveiled last year at the Tokyo Game Show and the developers said that they planned to allow players to create cartoon-like avatars, which could then walk around and gather in virtual rooms. Gamers would be able to interact by chatting, writing blog posts, modifying the way their avatars looked and sharing photos stored on the PlayStation Portable. Also, the plan was to allow connectivity between the PSP Room and the PlayStation 3 Home.
Sony has not offered clear reasons for the demise of the Room project but a statement says that its intention is to take the knowledge gained from the project in order to create new networked services for its gaming platforms, both for the living room and for handhelds.
Home was initially accessible on December 11, 2008 and is free for all those who have a PlayStation Network account. There are now more than 12 million users who have created an Avatar that can walk around the Home virtual area and interact with others. Sony and videogame publishers have taken to use Home in order to promote upcoming videogame launches and merchandise is sold for the Avatars for real world money. There are also spaces for other companies, like car maker Audi.