Rumour Outs Possible Future of PS3 Online

Hints that Sony is looking to combine the thrill of Achievements with the creativity of Miis.

Microsoft has had perhaps unforeseen success with its in-game reward system of Achievements much like Nintendo has scored with its own create-an-avatar Mii channel on the Wii. Rumour has it that Sony has a proverbial stone in hand to match both of them.

An unnamed source speaking to popular games blog Kotaku said that Sony was working on a new community feature called PlayStation Home, which the source described as follows:

"Basically, you get to make an avatar for your console (like a Mii) and this avatar has a room. As you play games and accomplish certain tasks, you will receive items with which to adorn the room that are specific to the game (achievements). The kicker is that this is going to be a new requirement for every PS3 game."

When Sony was approached for comment on the rumour, instead of brushing it off as per usual, corporate communications director David Karraker threatened to blacklist Kotaku from all matters dealing with Sony, lending authority to the rumour.

Further digging by a poster at the NeoGAF forums found a filing at the US Patent and Trade Office, which appeared to describe PlayStation Home along the same lines.

So is this Sony's big secret for next week's Game Developers Conference? Sony executive Phil Harrison is scheduled to give a talk on Wednesday, 7 March, where he will talk about "Game 3.0".

"It's about commerce, it's about community and it's about communication, but it's about collaboration as well. It's this network effect of users creating content and sharing it with each other, and that the game system or the game technology is a provider of that platform as much as it is a piece of gameplay," Harrison told Newsweek's N'Gai Croal, describing what he meant by the label.

Could the rumoured PlayStation Home be Sony's next step in this direction? Harrison will reveal all next week.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo