Sony announces online worlds of Home and LittleBigPlanet

3D interactive communities to rival MMORPGs

7 March 2007 19:45 GMT / By Amber Maitland

Sony has announced finally made clear its plans for the connected aspect of the PS3 by announcing two new games and discussing its Game 3.0 strategy.

Game 3.0 sounds a bit like Web 2.0, focusing on online collaboration and user-generated content. It's designed to put the spotlight back on consumers and let them shape their gaming world.

As part of this strategy Sony has discussed its new avatar-based online communities, Home and LittleBigPlanet.

Home is a real-time world that works along similar principles to Second Life. It will let users create avatars to move around the world and explore its indoor space with common areas, shops, game lobbies, and customisable personal apartments.

Each avatar will be assigned an apartment that they can do up and show off to online friends. Avatars will communicate through text, audio and video chat, and even show emotion.

The second game is LittleBigPlanet, which starts by each player learning about the powers of their chosen characters.

There are puzzles to solve and games to play that will require that players support each other through community-based teamwork.

As creative skills grow, players will be able to modify their surrounds, and will gain the power to shape, design, and build their own patch.

A beta version is expected by this fall, with a full version on release by early-2008.