PS3 Fanboy

On top of the list of common misconceptions here at our fine site is that there is never any good news concerning Home. We kid, we kid. We do actually have some good news though -- during Sony's Japanese press conference, it was announced that Home's open beta is on track for release in Japan later in the month. The open beta will end in November, at which time we take for granted, in the absence of proof to the contrary, that the final product will be released.

Additionally, it was announced that 24 additional publishers have just signed on to create content for Home. Jem noted that Square Enix is conspicuously absent, but the inclusion of some of the big boys like Disney and Activision does provide a bit of relief. No word on whether this carries over to the North American or European versions. List of the publishers after the break.

Qore, Future's monthly PS3 video magazine, has a history of delivering (with questionable timeliness) betas for many popular Sony titles. Well, it looks like they may also grant access to the open beta of Home. A comment on the PlayStation.Blog from Sony's Kevin Furuichi hints at the possibility. "We're working on this for the current Extended Closed Beta. We are trying to get you guys [Qore subscribers] into Home before the official public beta. We hope to have more information in about two weeks."

[Via Edge]

Home Community Manager "TedtheDog" has clarified statements he made last month on the US Home beta forums. In regards to a specific bug, Ted said the bug will be fixed in firmware update 2.5. "2.5 is what we're waiting for and 'October' is what I've heard, later October is my guess." He goes on make a statement that would seem to indicate Home 1.0 will be arriving at the same time.

Not the case, Ted stated on the official European PlayStation Home Forum. "Open beta will be later this year after 2.5 is released. Sorry about that, I should know better than to say anything that could be misconstrued like that on such an important subject." It's okay, TedtheDog, we forgive you ... all you have to do is tell us exactly when Home 1.0 will arrive. Just kidding! Or are we?

[Thanks, Danny!]

A tipster from the Home beta took a snapshot of this recent thread in the beta message board. A bug affecting Home users got a response from the Home Manager, "TedtheDog." The bug currently freezes PS3 systems running the beta and also gives users sporadic Network errors. He says that the bug will be fixed in an upcoming system software update. "2.5 is what we're waiting for and 'October' is what I've heard, later October is my guess."

The firmware update will also be released in conjunction with Home version 1.00, according to the post. Currently, the beta is at version 0.98. The simultaneous release of firmware 2.50 and Home 1.00 has us thinking that perhaps this could mark the beginning of the wide release of Home. Stay tuned.

Update: Since writing this article, the PS.blog has updated about the expansion of the Home beta. More invites are being sent to users right now. The continued growth of the beta adds even more weight to the possibility that the final version of Home will be available next month.

Edge of what? It's okay if you don't remember the game being announced. Thanks to a lack of developer pedigree (and we don't mean that in a nasty way), plus the fact that Edge of Twilight is a new IP being developed in Australia, the game hasn't been given much attention. Oh, it's also not due out til some time next year. While we may have heard very little about the title, what we have heard has us intrigued. When you describe the game as being an amalgamation of three of our favorite franchises, it's hard not to get us interested.

The latest news out of developer FuzzyEyes (via an interview with Gamespot) is that Edge of Twilight will support Trophies when it launches next year. They also have plans for Home content, which is always nice to hear. Check out the full interview for more information on why the developers decided to go for a steampunk style, some more background on the main character, Lex, and some insight into the day and night gameplay. Hopefully it'll work better than other games ...

It's Friday night, and if you don't mind us saying so, you're looking rather snazzy: spiked hair, blue jeans, black hoodie, and brand new sneakers. Your cell phone rings. You pick it up, greet your friend, and tell him that you'll be there in a few and to meet up by the pool table in the back corner. You disconnect and slip your phone into a jacket pocket, but instead of grabbing your keys and heading out the door, you hop into your favorite chair, grab your DualShock controller and power up the PS3.

A couple of button presses and analog stick flicks later finds you in the local Game Space of PlayStation Home. An avatar waves as he notices you approaching the pool table. "What's up?" appears above his head. "Not much, Jeff. Where are the others?" you reply, just as the rest of your gang -- Mike from across the country in Ohio, and Andrew who's currently teaching in Japan -- run over to the table. Greetings and the prerequisite smack talk are exchanged before you finally pick up a stick, challenge Jeff to a game, and catch up with Andrew as Jeff breaks -- quite poorly, too.

The camaraderie between gamers, the ability to meet up with friends for some evening fun despite all of you being dozens, hundreds, or thousands of miles apart... that, according to SCEA's Jack Buser, is what PlayStation Home is all about. With hundreds of free and purchasable customization options, meeting areas, and activities, Home promises to be both a social network where people can hang, and a way to exponentially expand your PS3 gaming experience. We recently met up with Home director Jack Buser and received a guided tour of Home's more notable features. Join us, won't you?

Download to PSP

It's been a while since we've heard about PlayStation Home. This new video goes through all the things you can do in the online community. For example, you can play a game of chess with an online stranger. You can customize your character, your apartment. You can walk through Game Spaces for various titles, like Warhawk. For those of you not in the beta right now, this is a rare opportunity to see everything that's happening in Home right now.

[Via NeoGAF]

We want to nip this one before it becomes a widespread problem. A program calling itself the "Home Beta Injector" will supposedly generate a redemption code for the Home beta by simply inputting a valid PSN e-mail address and password.

Sound too good to be true? Of course it is. The PlayStation team will NEVER ask for your password. Your password isn't used to generate codes for use on the PLAYSTATION Store. Instead, giving up your password means you're granting a stranger total access to your account, personal information and credit card. DO NOT FALL FOR THIS SCAM.

If you've already given away your information, we recommend you contact PlayStation support. SCEA Legal is already trying to make sure this scam doesn't spread any further.

While Home-less Europeans have been given invites to the scheduled beta since mid-August, it's now the turn of North Americans everywhere to access the digital shelter. If you believe you're destined to receive a proverbial golden ticket into a world of pure interior decoration, check your e-mail right now. If you've got one, congratulations. If not ... then hopefully more invites will be given out within the next few days.

[Thanks Michael T.!]

A PS3 Fanboy tipster (left anonymous to protect his identity) told us about a new update to the Home beta. The update adds a few redesigned locales, like a brand new Home Square. A new music application is being added to the central square as a meeting place for Home's virtual citizens. Here, they can listen to music as a group and even virtually dance.

The beta program will continue to expand over the next few weeks, and looking at the version number -- it won't be long until this baby reaches good ol' one point zero. At that point, is Home considered officially "ready"?

In Hong Kong or Singapore and want to take part in the Home beta? Just spend $60 HKD ($7.69) or $12 SGD ($8.48) on one single purchase off the PLAYSTATION Store before September 12th and you've secured your spot.
Don't feel like spending money? SCEH have 100 spots available for those who fill out an online registration form here. We are guessing they'd rather you spend some money at the PS Store, as 100 spots ain't too many to go around.

Note that, the Home beta will only be in Tradition Chinese in Hong Kong while in Singapore the language will only be English. Finally, local newspapers and magazines will have a third unspecified method of gaining entry. However, information on which publications remain undisclosed at this time.

[Via Siliconera]

Home Producer Martijn Van der Meulen told IGN "without hesitation" that there is a "100 percent guarantee" that the oft-delayed Home will be released by "the end of this calendar year." Not 2009. Not 2010. This year. "He has absolutely no doubt that this will be the case."

We're not surprised by this. While many on the internet joke about the "DelayStation 3," the rapidly expanding beta and increasing developer support for Home makes us honestly believe Mr. Martijn Van der Meulen.

[Via Joystiq]

Home and LittleBigPlanet have a lot of common elements. Both focus on empowering the player with a wide range of customization options, both are PS3 exclusives, and both will be available this fall season. With so many parallels drawn, it's only natural that somebody would ask Media Molecule co-founder Alex Evans if the two would share cross functionality with one another. Eurogamer were not shy to inquire; however, Mr. Evans was a tad reluctant to spill the Sackboy beans.

While Evans said that he couldn't "announce anything right now," he did open up the doors to possibility. Pointing back to GDC, Evans reminded of a presentation which was done in Home and had a Sony-built LittleBigPlanet space. Not only was there proof that such content can exist, but he also cited how close the LBP crew was with the Home team -- they're "just down the road from us ... I'm looking forward to getting the LittleBigPlanet space in there, working on it and making it cool." It seems like the possibilities are very real; however, it also looks like you'll be customizing levels in LittleBigPlanet first before ever tinkering with LBP in Home.

[Via 1UP]

With the release of the new Home beta, we now have a much clearer idea of how these region restrictions, that we discovered at E3, are being implemented. It seems that the client reacts to your console's native region, locking you out of any Home servers that don't match it. That means that if you're a UK gamer who imported from the US, you'll be spending all of your time with Americans inside Home. If you imported from Japan ... well, you can guess where that's headed.

What we find bizarre is that it's such a strict lock-out, and that you're not given any degree of choice in the matter. It seems so weird that anyone can access any region's PSN Store, but not the online social networking hub. We can only assume that similar restrictions as on the store will be made for purchasing within Home. That is to say, if you're a UK credit card owner you won't be able to spend anything in the US Home without some jiggery pokery.

Obviously, this all makes sense to Sony. Home is meant to be a big income generator for them; mostly through advertising. They want the most appropriate eyes to see these adverts in order to maximise the "click through" rate. There's no point advertising Mountain Dew to a UK citizen, for example. But console-specific region locking is not the answer. At the very least, set up an IP location check or, god forbid, give people a choice.

Check your emails, folks. Over the next few hours and days, new members of the expanded beta for PlayStation Home will be added. Already, folks in Europe have received a notice acknowledging their acceptance into the new beta. From what we hear, American members of the beta should be receiving download codes soon as well. Make sure you check your spam messages, as you wouldn't want to delete the code necessary to access the updated beta client -- would you?

Remember: if you're already in the old beta, you must still get the download code to access the new, expanded beta. An edited version of the invitation e-mail is available, after the break.

[Thanks, Snake!]