More from Sony's conference at E3 - the company has announced some interesting new features for its online environment, Home, set for launch in the Autumn:
* Launch Games Within PlayStation Home: Users will have the ability to launch Blu-ray Disc or PlayStation Network games from inside PlayStation Home. Since PlayStation Home is designed to be a virtual meeting place for a worldwide community, users who want to play a game together can meet in one location to set options and start the multi-player online game.
* New Home Square: The newly designed Home Square replaces the PlayStation Home lobby concept first introduced at the Game Developers Conference in March. The new open-air space provides internal developers with more flexibility to build upon the community experience.
* New Personal Spaces: Four new apartments including a Beach House, Norwegian Cabin, Manhattan Penthouse and a traditional Japanese House, were introduced today to allow for additional user choice and personalization.
The in-Home game launching is the key addition really, going that bit further to competing with Xbox Live and its seamless, user-friendly service. Merging social networking and virtual environments with multiplayer gaming is something new on console.
Other than that the addition of a Norwegian Cabin will no doubt send ripples of excitement through the gaming community.
