These new screens from E3 show us how Home is shaping up. Looks like the graphics are really coming on well.

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Just had a press release from Sony all about the Home press event. Click through for the official press release. Those lucky, lucky journalists…

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Home, the interactive 3D world for PS3™ users, hosts the virtual re-run of PlayStation Day 2008 in its new Media and Events Space

Click the link below to find out more…

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Well, we asked for further stories and one Dominique Louis came straight back with this piece on his vision for Home…

I have a dream about Home. A dream that offers choice and, hopefully, an interesting angle on Home integration. It is a vision of user created content being developed to its full potential.

Step through a door; not of sight and sound, but of mind…

Imagine the following… You create your Home avatar, customise it to have the features you like and use it as Home allows you to. But then when you start a game, where you are the protagonist, you have the option to either use your Home avatar, in game, or you can play as the character the game developer intended. So, there’s the potential of a personalised you in every game.

Sony should think about creating a service whereby game developers offer the gamer the chance to use their Home created avatar within their games. This would require considerable liaisons between the Home team and the Sony PS3 committed developers, as they would need to work out a more formalised way of skinning the avatar so that it fits into the various game genres as well as dynamically loading the bone animations required for the avatar to do all the things that a particular game character can do. Crouch, roll over, play dead etc would all needed to be handled/loaded on a game by game basis at start-up.

If the avatars are boned and skinned correctly this will add to the immersion of *you* as a gamer in each and every game, if you so choose. So you could use the same avatar in MGS4 if you wanted to be Snake, or as part of LittleBigPlanet if you don’t like the look of the sack boys. Again, if you prefer the built in game characters, just use those.

This would certainly give something unique to PS3 owners. Sure, I’m not saying it would be easy, but it’s certainly possible, if co-ordinated correctly.

There are some new Home screenshots on the Japanese PS3 website. They look amazing; Home seems to be moving on apace.

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In a recent interview on Gamasutra, Time Crisis 4 producer Teruaki Minami made some interesting points about the Guncon 3 and Namco wanting more companies to implement it into their titles.

The Guncon 3 is said to feature six LED markers, making it much more accurate than previous light guns and sounds like an impressive piece of hardware. Not only does it feature dual analogue sticks, it also has SIXAXIS capabilities, too.

Read the full article here.

After its delay a while back, things have been quiet with regards to Home. However Home is progressing well, with the latest update of the beta (build 0.7.7) just being released.

The following details on 0.7.7 have been posted over at the PS3 forums:

* There’s a new building in the world, although it’s currently one that can’t be entered
* You are finally able to enter your Home Space’s patio
* You can now use your own pictures in your Home Space
* A game launching option has been added, though it is not functioning completely at the present time
* The cinema’s movie theatres have transferred from the second floor to the first floor
* America, Japan, and Europe each have their own server now

Head over to the PS3 forums for the latest news on home.

Play Quicktime version

In his keynote speech at the Tokyo Game Show, Kazuo Hirai, President and Group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment has confirmed that Home is now set for a Spring 2008 launch. It seems there’s still fine tuning to be done.

“This is going to be a worldwide service that needs to offer a wide range of functions required in Japan, in the US, in Europe and in Asia,” said Kazuo Hirai at TGS.

Games journalist Steve Boxer met Sony chiefs regarding the influence of Web 2.0 on the gaming world at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival. Over to Steve for what they said…

The Edinburgh Interactive Festival, which took place on August 13 and 14, is an unusual affair, best described, perhaps as a “boutique” games show. It’s always attended by a small but select band and, as it takes place while the Edinburgh Festival is on, the general vibe is relaxed and holiday-ish – rather than the usual manic nature of games shows in which everyone is trying to sell something. This year, a dream team of SCE people behind Sony’s merging of games and social networking – Jamie Macdonald, VP of Worldwide Studios, Paulina Bozek, Executive Producer of SingStar and Peter Edward, Director of the PlayStation Home Platform Group – gave a joint talk entitled Beyond Social Gaming.

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During PlayStation’s E3 press conference, company spokespeople presented both in person and as their own personalised avatars within the PlayStation Home 3D community service, transitioning from their virtual-world avatars to reappear live on stage.

Phil Harrison, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, unveiled some key new components of PlayStation Home. The newly introduced features, all available when the free 3D community makes its public debut this fall, include:
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