Posted 03/01/2007 @ 10:30:47 PM by Joseph Molnar Filed under: News Picks , PlayStation 3

Living @ “Home” in the PS3

A rumour broke on Kotaku today that was effectively verified when Sony blacklisted, and subsequently forgave, Kotaku. It is with regard to a coming feature that will allow users to have virtual homes within an online neighbourhood of friends. Apparently users can have friends over so they can show off game achievements, listen to music, watch videos and potentially play some casual games.

Sounds like a combination of Second Life, Xbox 360's Achievements and Wii's Miis. The technical geek in me finds this a very interesting idea if implemented well and certainly stirs up cyberpunk memories such as William Gibson’s Neuromancer or Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash.

Will it attract those who aren't hardcore gamers? I'll give my thoughts next week after the official details are given.

Sony Has Game

In the lead up to GDC, Sony has been spreading the word that they have more game developers than Nintendo and Microsoft combined. For PS3 owners this is great news. Sony owns some great gaming properties and will undoubtedly be working on some original titles.

I am curious, however, if this is a mixed blessing for Sony. I agree with David Jaffe’s statements that with third parties doing more multi-platform titles the first party titles play a much larger role. But, will pushing too many first party titles risk alienating third party publishers, particularly at a time when the install base of the platform is under the shadow of its competitors?