Home Updates

[xtop]

Home updates on US PlayStation.Blog | Home updates on EU PlayStation.Blog

Full listing of Home contents on AlphaZone4.com

LittleBigPlanet PlayGround

[Show spoiler]Calling all Sackboys and Sackgirls! Hot on the heels of this week’s massive LittleBigPlanet 2 announcement, we here on the PlayStation Home team are proud to unveil two – you heard me, TWO – new spaces dedicated to this celebrated franchise. True to the “Play.Create.Share.” mantra, these brand new LittleBigPlanet spaces provide the perfect locations for users to indulge in their affinity for all things LittleBigPlanet, from creating custom content to playing addictive games to finding new friends to launch into multiplayer sessions of LittleBigPlanet for your PS3.

Start with the King’s Snap Happy Photo Challenge in the LittleBigPlanet PlayGround space – find the target, snap the perfect shot, and unlock some exclusive rewards. Next, team up with your friends to create custom wallpapers in the Creator mini-game, where you can build, stick, place, and shoot the perfect XMB backdrop. Finally, you can nurture your inner sharpshooter at the LittleBigDerby mini-game, which recalls the carnival games of yesteryear, albeit in a patented LittleBigPlanet fashion.

LittleBigPlanet Pod Penthouse

[Show spoiler]After earning your rewards and stocking up on all the LittleLittleBigPlanet-themed clothing and furniture items available in the PlayStation Home Mall, head to the LittleBigPlanet Pod Penthouse – your very own LittleBigPlanet personal space, rife with opportunities to personalize and customize. This excellent new personal space (as well as the LittleBigPlanet PlayGround public space) will be available this Thursday, May 13th.

LucasArts Store

[Show spoiler]

MotorStorm Carrier

[Show spoiler]That’s right, the stunning new MotorStorm Carrier has arrived in PS Home! Hinted at a few months back in the MotorStorm Sphere, the new MotorStorm space is a decommissioned aircraft Carrier. Bought by a wealthy, anonymous, rock star and donated to MotorStorm, the spaces comes complete with a number of mini-games, quests and funky rewards.

Check out the trailer of this fantastic new space.

Try your hand at Lunatic Launcher arcade game or help out some of the ‘Stormers roaming about the space for your chance to win a prize. Or, if the mood takes you, spin some tracks at the DJ decks, where you can also play around with the smoke machine and lights. There’s plenty to do, and the choice is yours.

MotorStorm Pacific Rift Camp

[Show spoiler]

MotorStorm Monument Valley Camp

[Show spoiler]

LocoRoco Loco Island

[Show spoiler]

Uncharted 2 Nepalese Village

[Show spoiler]Set inside a breathtaking Nepalese village surrounding that was constructed with assets pulled directly from the game, this immersive environment contains three unique UNCHARTED 2-themed mini-games that will keep you coming back for more. Treasure hunters will be driven to the Mask Mayhem questing mini-game where you must search throughout the village to assemble the scattered remnants of an ancient Ganesh mask (which, upon completion, miraculously appears in your Wardrobe). Adventurers that pride themselves on their agility will love the challenge presented by the Torch Race, and will revel in getting their PSN IDs plastered on the game’s leaderboard. Action addicts with a penchant for strategy will be engrossed by the Fortunate Thieves card battle game where players will seek out treasure on maps that are fully dynamic (with weather and terrain effects,) all while using the expandable card pack to thwart one another with a bevy of treacherous tricks. Check out the video below to see this space and the associated games for yourself, with even more details explained by PlayStation Home Director Jack Buser.

Ratchet & Clank: Time Travellers

[Show spoiler]Ratchet & Clank: Time Travelers is arguably the most interactive environment we’ve published during this phase of Open Beta. Boasting three mini-games ranging from super-casual to über-deep – like the massive Skunk Works’ tower defense game – this space is jam-packed with things to do, rewards to win, virtual items to collect (like a full-on Ratchet outfit), and sheep to wrangle (huh?). We’re even releasing a Ratchet & Clank apartment – set in a galaxy far, far away – that is a must-have for every die-hard fan of the franchise. And this space is even launching ahead of Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time, which means that if you want a taste of the future of the Ratchet & Clank series, you have to get into PlayStation Home. Put your eyes on the below vid, as PlayStation Home Director Jack Buser walks us through more details.

Zombie Deadquarters

[Show spoiler]We’re celebrating Halloween PlayStation Home-style this year by releasing a very special personal apartment that you can use to “undead yourself” and all of your friends. The Deadquarters is a hideout set on the other side of the proverbial tracks where you can let your inner zombie loose. But the best part isn’t that the Deadquarters transforms you into a zombie upon entry; it’s that the Deadquarters transforms you and all of your friends into zombies upon entry. But we warn you – not everybody wants you to have fun this Halloween. Mr. R. Phunrooner, President of the so-called “Society of People Against Zombies” is on a mission to ban the Deadquarters and all related zombies from the world of PlayStation Home. So if you are decaying and proud of it, you’ll need to log in to PlayStation Home, grab your closest friends, and head over to the Deadquarters to make the transformation this Thursday. You can learn more about this space and what you can do to ensure an epic Halloween in PlayStation Home by visiting http://undeadyourself.com/.

Batman: Arkham Asylum Batcave

[Show spoiler]

BUZZ! HQ and Quiz Board

[Show spoiler]

inFAMOUS Abandoned Docks of Empire City

[Show spoiler]

Resident Evil 5 Studio Lot

[Show spoiler]

[Elandyll]

I don't think they have it right.

By definition, when you have invited guests (as it has been the case for months now), it -is- a closed Beta.

Internal testing is employees, familly and friends only.

As per the "Open Beta", it is widely considered to be Home's actual launch, which is, at this time, still expected in mid/ late November I think

[xtop]

the internal tests are for version 1.0. or is that version already available to closed testers?

[Blu Jacket]

Originally Posted by xtop

http://www.ps3fanboy.com/2008/10/27/...out-this-year/

While the original date for moving into Home was "autumn 2008," it looks like the digital living space isn't ready to occupy just yet. Home community manager "TedtheDog" tagged the service with a "this year" release frame, responding to posters in the official European PlayStation forums.

Ted said Home v1.0 is currently in "internal testing and will hit the closed beta in the coming weeks." This means, freshly-invited Qore readers will probably get a taste of v1.0. "1.0 is a major milestone on our journey but it is not the destination," continued Ted. The closed beta will continue into early November and sometime later an open beta will occur. Hopefully Sony can roll out Home before Christmas; otherwise, a lot of PlayStation fans will have to deal without shelter during the cold winter -- a very cold winter.


sounds like theyre really cutting it close getting it out by the end of the year

Autumn doesn't end until right before Christmas, so this is not really any change at all to say "this year" instead of "this fall".

[xtop]

Originally Posted by Blu Jacket

Autumn doesn't end until right before Christmas, so this is not really any change at all to say "this year" instead of "this fall".

true. i think a lot of people are expecting it to hit right after the next qore episode. so this seems to clarify again that it'll probably be later in the year still

[CptGreedle]

This is very inaccurate, unless the UK is getting access at a different time than the US. Closed Beta has been going on already, and it IS fall. Last I heard, they are trying for November.

[xtop]

Originally Posted by CptGreedle

This is very inaccurate, unless the UK is getting access at a different time than the US. Closed Beta has been going on already, and it IS fall. Last I heard, they are trying for November.

is the closed beta using version 1.0?

[CptGreedle]

I don't know, I did not get an invite, but I know some people on these forums did get in.
They might see the official version number.

But I doubt it since usually a beta has a ß symbol to represent it is in beta... or at least it would say beta...

[xtop]

Originally Posted by CptGreedle

I don't know, I did not get an invite, but I know some people on these forums did get in.
They might see the official version number.

But I doubt it since usually a beta has a ß symbol to represent it is in beta... or at least it would say beta...

i imagine it'll be labeled as beta for a long time. but i dont think the closed beta users have 1.0 yet, thats what the article is saying is in internal testing

[PA_Kid]

Originally Posted by xtop

is the closed beta using version 1.0?

Last time I checked, no.

So the statement is accurate - 1.0 is in internal testing and scheduled to be rolled out to closed Beta soon.

I think the beta client is something like 0.98 or something.

Home really hasn't done anything for me, but on the other hand I have like all of 2 friends on my PS3 - so I'm hoping that maybe that will change once I buy more friends.

It definitely looks sharp and all, but with a 2 year old my tendency is to immediately pop in a BD or game if the TV is free and I have time, not to open up home and wander around.

[Elandyll]

Yeah sorry.
The title of the thread misled me into thinking the article was talking about Home in general, not just specifically about 1.0

[DaMexiRican]

Originally Posted by xtop

is the closed beta using version 1.0?

still at .98

[ADRiiAN`]

Wow.
And we were all so set on an autumn release, that Sony has once again, dropped the ball.

[xtop]

Originally Posted by ADRiiAN`

Wow.
And we were all so set on an autumn release, that Sony has once again, dropped the ball.

winter doesnt hit till dec 21, so they still have time.

[Elandyll]

Originally Posted by ADRiiAN`

Wow.
And we were all so set on an autumn release, that Sony has once again, dropped the ball.

It is Autumn until Dec 21st...

[Elandyll]

http://www.videogamer.com/news/27-10-2008-9768.html

Sony “madly working” to hit Home open beta date
By Wesley Yin-Poole - 27/10/2008 - 3:08 pm GMT

Worldwide Studios boss says Home is “going well”.

Sony is “madly working” to hit its scheduled end of the year open beta date for PlayStation Home, it has said.

Speaking at the Gamer 3.0 conference this morning in London, which is part of the London Games Festival, Jamie MacDonald, vice president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, said the latest on the much delayed Second Life-style virtual world was that “it's going well”.

He said: “At Tokyo Game Show it was announced that PlayStation Home will be hitting what we're calling an open beta by the end of the year, which means it will be available to everybody.

“And the latest is, it's going very well. The guys are madly working to make sure that date is hit, and it's going very well.”

Recent speculation suggested the open beta for Home was set to begin at the end of October, to coincide with the release of Home version 1.00 and PS3 firmware 2.50. However, Sony is now officially saying the open beta will hit at the end of the year.

MacDonald revealed that PS3 Home was originally conceived in response to frustration at the hardcore nature of online gaming, which he called “geeky, tedious and short”.

He said: “The reason why we even started developing that (PS3 Home) was really a frustration a few years ago that the online experience for most games players was geeky, tedious and short. Certainly in my experience, I got into a first person shooter online and I lasted about 15 seconds. It's not much fun. So that was really our driving force with Home, to provide an environment where it's fun to go, you can hang out with like-minded people and talk about games, play games, have a look at the leaderboards, but in an environment that was game centred but not just for these teenage boys, who are fine, but they enjoy very much shooting people, which is fine.”

... waiting for someone to be offended (the guy apparently doesn't last long in online FPSs)

[Gamekid]

I wouldn't give up hope just yet.

[Count Zero]

I think November will be used for the open Beta, then we'll see Home released early December.

[xtop]

that article further cements the end of the year release. makes it sound like a late december launch

[CptGreedle]

I see... I misunderstood what they were saying.
However by definition, I believe something that is 1.0 is supposedly no longer beta... so it would not go to beta, but whatever, I get what you/they are saying.
Well I was fully expecting this to come out in November, and while that is still not out of the question, it might be pushed back... AGAIN... to December. At least they didn't push it back a whole YEAR this time, like they did last time.