The PS Blog has the news that PS3 owners have been waiting for since, well, they got their PS3- the Home open beta launches tomorrow, December 11. As an ‘open’ beta, this means that all PS3 owners can download and use PlayStation Home; the words ‘open beta’ are becoming more and more synonymous with ‘you can use it, but don’t complain if it sucks’ nowadays. In case you hadn’t heard about Home, it’s an open platform for social interaction, similar to Second Life, with customisable aspects. More after the jump.

In short, Home is a place to meet Internet friends, customise yourself and your house, and visit special places- for example, as reported by Gamezine, Far Cry 2, Uncharted, Warhawk, MotorStorm and SOCOM will all have special areas within Home, and more big names in the industry are on their way. Plus, non-gaming companies are getting involved as well, so expect to be admiring people dressed in Diesel fashion drinking Red Bull while watching a Paramount movie on a Bravia HDTV. It’s just like real life, kids! Still, it does sound like a nice service, and I’m looking forward to trying it out. See you there.

A member of the Official Sony PlayStation message board got tired of waiting for his invite to the Home Beta (originally scheduled to go out yesterday) and decided to take matters into his own hands by calling up the all knowing customer support team for some answers.

The first rep he spoke to (call recording here) stated that if he applied via email, per the company’s instructions, that he would be finding out soon, and then adding that “it should be arriving today.”

While this news may sound good for those who genuinely want to believe, he tried back again, this time getting a different rep (call recording here) who responded by saying that the company doesn’t tell them those things and that he should check the site for answers. Give that girl a Klondike bar.

Source: boardsus.playstation.com (via: feedonps3.com)

The highly anticipated and long awaited PlayStation Home online virtual service has been delayed several times, but it seems that a launch date may finally be in sight.

Home producer, Martijn Van Der Meulen, commented at the Leipzig Games Convention about the release date of Home, guaranteeing that it would come out this year.

In an article published by IGN UK, Ryan Clements had the following to say:

“First and foremost, Meulen told me (without hesitation) that it is a 100 percent guarantee that Home will be released by the end of this calendar year. He has absolutely no doubt that this will be the case, so it looks like the long wait to come Home is finally reaching its conclusion.

Meulen also assured me, quite adamantly, that Home will always be a free service — only premium content will need to be purchased. I know some gamers were concerned that once Home reached a certain user base, a fee might be applied to the service, but this is not the case. Meulen says that there are no plans to charge for Home, even in the far future.”

That’s really good to know, but I’m still a bit skeptical. Let’s hope he’s referring to the actual full service and not the beta … that would just be a tease.

Source: uk.ps3.ign.com

The astonishingly popular PS2 and PS3 quiz show game, Buzz!, will have a room in the upcoming Home interface on the PS3. According to a blog by one of the designers of the Buzz! Home space (which he calls the Buzz: Road Show), players will be able to stand on various colored lights to submit their answers, and up to 64 people will be able to play at a time.

In the article, Cumron Ashtiani, the designer, shows some early concept art and talks about his feelings on the Home creative process:

The Avatars are part of the Home system and so not customisable for their surroundings. I think stylistically the characters for Home could have done with a bit more exaggeration and style. There were several technical limitations with he tools at that time in that we couldn’t have animated objects, no characters other than the Home avatars or lights and so movement could only be provided with shader based UV scrolling.

Check out his blog for some really amazing looking artwork. Of all the things I’ve heard and read about Home so far, this might be the most interesting– and I’m not even a big fan of Buzz. Somehow to me this just seems to be Sony taking Microsoft’s idea of letting your avatars compete in “1 vs. 100″ and just running numerous laps around it.

On Monday, SpikeTV are set to reveal BioShock PS3 goodness, making us unconventionally excited about what most would call a “port.” But hey, one of last year’s most critically acclaimed games is meeting an entirely new audience. A glance at the box art reveals another reason for PS3 owners to get excited.

On his very own blog, Geoff Keighly hints at what will be in store for BioShock fans this Monday;

Another game set to debut on the show is BioShock PLAYSTATION 3. Now I know what you’re thinking….’why are you guys making a big deal out of a port?’ Well I can’t spoil the surprise just yet, but let me tell you there is way more to this game than you might think. There have been hints about some “exclusive features” in the game and on Monday night I’ll finally reveal the details on Spike – and of course show you the first real gameplay footage from the PS3 version.

So what could this exclusive content be?  For a start we know the game will support trophies, since 2k Games were one of the first developers to add the feature into their game.  You can read all about the process over at their official website.

However, when we visit the website of UK retailer Game we can spy BioShock’s supposed official box art:

What’s wrong with this picture?  Apart from the Ripten watermark, you should notice the Home logo, suggesting BioShock has even more tricks up its sleeve.

The first PS3 box to sport this logo could be a sign of something special, or it could just suggest that BioShock will suport game launching from within Sony’s virtual world.  Speculate away.

*Update* - The Official Website of Digital Extremes, better known as the developer who brought us Dark Sector but who are also helping in the BioShock port, displays the very same box art.  This must at least be confirmation that Home will be out before BioShock releases in October…

Home was revealed some time ago now, but the vast majority of users haven’t been able to experience the ambitious virtual environment yet. Those eagerly awaiting the opportunity will have to wait a bit longer still, says Sony.

Home has been running in a closed beta environment for some time and now officially the open beta has been scheduled for the fall of 2008.

For those interested in getting involved as soon as possible, the closed beta will be expanding this summer. More PS3 users will be invited to take part, but details on registration and expansion dates will be provided at a later time.

Home is taking its time to materialize and it’s disappointing to hear that optimism for a summer release, at least of a public beta, has been dashed.

Kaz Hirai, President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, admitted that they were asking users to wait longer but added this to reassure them, “Our overarching objective is to provide users with new gaming experiences that are available only on Playstation Home. Spending more time on the development and on the Closed Beta testing reaffirms our commitment to bringing a quality service, maintaining the PlayStation tradition.”

Large-scale online projects like this are certainly major undertakings. Fall 2008 is a firm date at least, and there are many worthwhile games out there right now to make the wait more bearable.

The stars continue to align… Following the dubious 20th March countdown on an unknown website, a somewhat reliable Japanese news source has revealed that the Home Open Beta will begin on March 24th in Japan.

Jonnyram, as he is known on the Neogaf Forums, says in carefully chosen words “Home open beta starts 24 March in Japan. Sorry if old.”

It’s very possible that the original countdown is to signify the end of the closed beta and the beginning of a worldwide open beta for Sony’s Home. Though Jonnyram is trusted on the infamous Neogaf forums, his reliability is unknown to us, so take his words with a pinch of salt.

Enjoy some footage of the most recent build of Home below.

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Image: Fragcast

Could Playstation Home be out within 24 days? A web countdown suggests as much, though its reliability is unknown. Make your mind up after the jump.

There have been signs that Home’s release is imminent, with a Warhawk patch adding game launching within Home, XMB accomplishments integrated into Devil May Cry 4, a significant update to the Home beta, and news that internally Home is well past v1.00 – the version that when made available will signify the launch of the service.

A website countdown has now been discovered, suggesting that Home will be released in less than 24 days. Although an announcement was expected at last weeks GDC ‘08, a March release is certainly not unexpected.

Combine the countdown with this insider report…

A game must be able to integrate into Home, a game must support “Accomplishments”. Right there, two important things, the PS3 system for achievements is called “Accomplishments”, and Home is coming out VERY VERY VERY Soon.

…and like a teenager on a McDonald’s diet, the imminent release of Playstation Home gains weight.

Yes ladies and gentlemen, the rumors surrounding an open home beta are back. This time they revolve around the latest Sony Playstation 3 advertisements, featuring abstract cgi transitions that morph the next gen console into a few of its well known and exclusive titles.

Playstation message board member, Shadowman540, posted a still from one of the latest Playstation 3 commercials (you can see the video below) in which he points out that the Home icon appears next to the icon for PAIN, a PSN exclusive that Sony has already confirmed a November 29th release date for. The portion of the commercial the poster refers to is available below.

He goes on to explain his logic by stating that since the two are paired together in the ad, there is good reason to believe they could possibly hit the Playstation Network at the same time, and reinforces his thought process by reminding the forum that Phil Harrison, Executive Vice President of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, mentioned the possibility of a late November or Early December release.

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The Playstation network sent an email to me, and presumably the rest of the PSN community, regarding recent policy changes to the PLAYSTATION Network. The email itself provided a link to Sony’s support page which clearly outlined the policy changes in red.

The 1st sentence of the new agreement reads ‘”Version 2.0 (October 30, 2007) *updates noted in red’. Below are the changes that were highlighted in red exactly as they appeared in the agreement.

This Agreement applies to services, software and content provided through or in connection with PSN, including via the PLAYSTATION®Store and virtual communities, whether delivered onto the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, the PSP®(PlayStation®Portable) system, a personal computer or otherwise. Such services, software, and content include subscriptions, data, system software, fixes, updates or newer releases and peripheral materials.

This could very well be referring to the much-anticipated 2.0 update that is rumored to hit soon. The main part of this upgrade would allow you to access the XMB (Cross-Media-Bar) while still in game.

Now, take a closer look at one particular piece, the part that reads “and virtual communities”. Virtual communities sounds like fancy legal speak for HOME if you ask me. So if all goes well you should see 2.0 hitting your PS3 along with a full version of HOME(r) (not a beta or demo) at the end of the month.

Oh and I emailed this information to our Editor in Cheif, Mr. Chad Lakkis, on 10/11, so blame him for not getting it up on the site sooner.

Update: 10/17 3:33PM EST
I received an email from Patrick Steen, our UK writer, shortly after this post hit the site. He informed me that Euro Policy /Terms and Conditions have reached 3.0. So while the “2.0″ version of the policy may not have anything to do with the firmware release, we still believe that the “virtual communities” segment is in fact referring to HOME.