I’ve been looking at this. From what I can tell initially, there’s a development kit available to PS3 developers (great), but being a PS3 developer means getting a €7,500 PS3 dev kit (not so great). Querying locally to see if anyone would object to a project to recreate an archeological site in Home (we’ve got all the models already, and a version in Second Life, so makes for an obvious comparative study), and hope to approach Sony before the end of the year.

I’d love to know if anyone else is doing anything. Also, if you have any ideas where we could get funding for hardware

http://www.scedev.net/home/ is the URL for people to express interest to Sony, for reference.

Annabeth Robinson is a regular contributer to the VWW surveys and a well-known SL developer in UK academia. She also has a beautiful-looking personal website that, for academics with virtual world interests, is well worth a look through. And she is one of the academics having a good exploration of what Playstation Home has to offer. She has a set of pictures on Flickr, of which here are a couple:

Lakeside Apartment in PS3 Home

Making a furniture den for the Bears

From the article:

PlayStation Home will let gamers create their own avatar -a virtual representation of themselves – and then interact with other users in a 3D environment. Players can chat to other users, invite them into their own “home”, and stream music and videos via virtual Sony TV’s.

VWW has, though not currently in possession of a PS3, had a look at an earlier incarnation of PH. The environment does look good, with lush graphics and backdrops. However, options for building or manipulating content seem either very limited or non-existant, which will be of concern to practitioners in the education sector. Another Google Lively from a functional (or lack of) point of view won’t help the education sector much.

The Wikipedia entry hints at future customer optimisation options:

Every user has a private apartment space that they can modify and change over time. The basic apartment is free and will offer users lots of options for customisation and personalisation. In the future, Sony will provide tools that will enable users to have an even greater ability to create their own Home spaces and content.

And this statement in the same article is, well, kind of vague:

In the future areas can be developed by major companies outside of gaming. The then Executive Vice President of SCEE, Phil Harrison, stated that locations built around famous coffee companies, famous drinks companies, clothing companies, record companies, major retailers and so on could feature depending on whether these companies felt it worthwhile to create something for Home.

(Basically saying “Well, Starbucks might have a presence in Home. Or they might not.”)

Facial detail on avatars does look impressive:

Is it worth experimenting with Playstation Home? Unsure. The PS3 is the most expensive of the three games consoles on the market, and it is very unlikely that every student in a class (even of games programmers) will possess one. Kitting out an academic laboratory with PS3s will be difficult to justify.

Having said that, it may be worth exploring Playstation Home to see what is currently technically possible from a high-end, closed technology, virtual world.

Has anyone in the UK HE/FE community experimented with Playstation Home from the perspective of learning, teaching or education? Or are thinking of doing so? Please do let us know if you are. Thanks.