This is being reported all over the place and may be quite a coup for Sony and the PS3. They have unveiled the first shots and stories around a ‘free’ virtual world that PS3 owners will be able to use and interact with via the Cell powered game console.
Some of the finer details will come out in time, it would appear that it certainly tries to trump the Xbox 360 Live service and achievements by placing game awards and bragging rights in your digital world aparment for your friends to come on by and see with you.
3Pointd has some footage, also Eric Rice has some links other coverage such as this MTV article hint and even more of the depth and attempt to contrast with what we have in Second Life.
We have had a bit of a buzz on twitter about it tonight too, and an important point Aidy rasied around how closed the platform is likely to be from content creation and external data feeds. After all if it gets too easy to build things then that would challenge the games content?
If it does have mashup power too though, this could become a very interesting angle on virtual worlds and enhance its acceptance even more.
I usually pitch about the Playstation generation entering the workforce, knowing how to move and kill in 3d so easily accepting business applications in the metaverse. Well now the PS3 generation will know how to move and socialize and work in 3d metaverses too.
All that and Lego are planning a virtual world too, which is linked in terms of generational acceptance and expectancy of the presence of virtual worlds. Construction fits into the Lego concept, and fuels the the post PS3 generation. Also lets face it we all still love Lego. Though Roo used to trade rare Lego on ebay so he wins on the Lego front.
Having a generational migration path through the various platforms, some for play some for work, raises all the questions about how we represent ourselves in each and how we are able to move between them. Is the answer meta conversations like twitter or a morphing portal between worlds that prepares you like the apparent ritual of leaving the Second Life teen grid when you come of age?
Its going to be interesting finding all this out.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 8th, 2007 by Ian Hughes/epredator at 1:18 am and is filed under Hursley, Second Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. You can also bookmark this page on del.icio.us or digg.