Sony Keynote Address: A 'Home'run?

One of the biggest draws for the GDC are the Keynote address' that are held daily at the conference. We waited an hour in line to hear what Phil Harrison, the President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, had to say about 'Gaming 3.0 Developing and Creating for the 3rd Age of Video Games.' It was an amazing event from beginning to end as Harrison put the future of the Playstation 3 console out for the entire group to see.

The primary focus of the address centered around two distinct areas: Audience participation and emergent gameplay. He explained that the first two generations showed a progression from disconnected consoles and static singular gameplay to consoles that where linked together but were still dependant on discs and carts. In the 3rd age of gaming we would find not only connected (or wired) consoles, but gameplay that was truly emergent and based strongly on community.

Why can't I have a pet like that?

Okay, so now I must have a PSP in the virtual world as well?

Sony's example of this was their new PS3 feature aptly titled 'Home.' Featured on the 'cross media bar' on the PS3 OS, Home is a 3-D social networking community that allows players to navigate the network via their own customizable characters. (Imagine the "create a player" feature that comes with games like Tiger Woods Golf).

Home allows players to navigate from a home base called the central lounge. You can run around Home with your avatar that can wear special clothing and accessories ala Sims-style look and control.

While you run around in the central lounge, your player is greeted by HD quality video ads as well as banners from various sponsors. Navigation of Home is all generated through a virtual PSP that the player can access at any time. The PSP takes the user to different rooms through Home's database.

One room is the game room where the players can engage in traditional games like bowling and pool, or you can slide over to an arcade machine and play downloadable games by yourself, or with and against other players that you can interact with.

Home offers several different modes of chat including a keyboard you can call up to type messages, voice chat, or a series of preset phrases. It all looks beautiful and operates pretty seamlessly. They showed a test version that had about 8 or 9 people in a room at once. It is unknown how many users one room can support at any given time.

The user can also set up their own apartment complete with furniture and various wallpaper themes. One of the coolest features was being able to install a TV and then watching HD quality movie trailers on it. There is also a theatre house where movies, blue disc, and user created content could be viewed.

All the rooms have complete 3-D real world physics, so you can throw your TV down the stairs if you choose or pile all your furniture in one corner of the room if you feel so inclined.

For all the MMO fans out there, your personal apartment can also double as your clan house and meeting area, so you and your buddies can link up before a death match against another team. All of your friends from your buddy list can also drop by whenever they'd like and look at the various things you keep in your apartment.

Another thing mentioned was the themed lounges, where developers could create lounges based on their games that users could visit and network with one another. At the show they featured a sports lounge that allowed players time at the driving range, three point shoot-out and more.

You can also build your own personal Hall of Fame. Got a high score on the hardest level of your favorite Playstation game? Now you will get a trophy for your accomplishment that other users can stop by and view.

The Beta trail for Home will begin its second phase in April, and Sony hopes to have the service launched in the fall of this year.

-- Dante Maddox