Bad news for PS3 owners...
Looking forward to setting up your new digital digs in the upcoming "Virtual Home" world coming to the Playstation Network? Well real-estate still isn't for sale, and it won't be for a while.
In another embarrassing blow for Sony, the much touted "Virtual Home" has been delayed until Spring 2008 according to Kazuo Hirai's keynote address at the Tokyo Game Show today. What a way to kick off your first major public appearance as the new chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment... by announcing a delay.
"Home" is supposed to be an online virtual world similar to Second Life, but exclusive to Playstation 3 owners. Sony has been very vocal about the kinds of things people can do in this virtual world, including things like create a custom virtual "you", setup your own apartment (complete with furniture, knick-knacks, and other digital gear), and a variety of social activities like play mini-games with a virtual PSP and watch video content with friends in your digital home theater.
Looks like fun. But then why did Sony delay it until way into next year?
"We wanted to wait until we could offer what would be totally satisfying for consumers," Hirai said.
Not a good sign.
Playstation 3 launched last holiday season, and has so far sold a total of 5 million consoles world wide. With few blockbuster games to keep these 5 million people busy, and no "Virtual Home" to sink a massive amount of time in, it looks like PS3s will continue to spend their time performing calculations for the Folding@Home project. Protein folding calculations is a lot more fun than Lair and PixelJunk Racers, which isn't saying much.
With the most anticipated PS3 titles not scheduled for release until next year, it's hard to predict what kind of holiday season is in store for Sony and their growing base of disappointed customers. No doubt there will be ample supply of movies on Blu-Ray disc to enjoy...
What do you think? Post a comment below.
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