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PlayStation Home (which was also marketed and referred to as Home) was a virtual 3D social gaming platform developed by Sony Computer Entertainment's London Studio for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) on the PlayStation Network (PSN). It was accessible from the PS3's XrossMediaBar (XMB). Membership was free but required a PSN account. Upon installation, users could choose how much hard disk space they wished to reserve for Home. Development of the service began in early 2005 and it launched as an open beta on December 11, 2008. Home remained as a perpetual beta until its closure on March 31, 2015. Home allowed users to create a custom avatar, which could be groomed realistically. Each avatar was given a personal apartment that users could decorate with free, bought, or won items. Users could travel throughout the Home world, which was frequently updated by Sony and its partners. Public spaces were made for display, entertainment, advertising, and networking. Home's primary forms of advertising included spaces themselves, video screens, posters, and mini-games. Home also featured many single and multiplayer mini-games, and hosted a variety of special events, some of which provided prizes to players. Users could use won items to further customise their avatar or apartments. ==History== PlayStation Home was originally named "Hub",〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Sony: PlayStation Home Was Originally 'Hub' )〕 and started as a 2D online lobby for the PlayStation 2 game ''The Getaway: Black Monday''. However, the online userbase for the PlayStation 2 was too narrow and the project was soon ported to the PlayStation Network for the PlayStation 3. Phil Harrison, then president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios at the time, liked the idea of having a virtual 3D community hub for PlayStation gamers, and transferred the project to what would become PlayStation Home. In a 2007 keynote speech, Phil Harrison used the term "Game 3.0" to describe the service.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=GDC: Phil Harrison's Keynote Speech )〕 Home had been speculated since the launch of PSN, when Sony expressed interest in such a service, specifically trophies (known at the time as "entitlements") for first-party titles.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=No gamerscore, no achievements on PS3 )〕 PlayStation Home, as a feature, was first publicly mentioned in an interview with NG-Gamer. This was later detailed by Kotaku and finally confirmed by NG-Gamer. It was officially announced by Phil Harrison on March 7, 2007, during his keynote speech at the 2007 Game Developers Conference where it was originally scheduled for a global public release in October 2007. Home was delayed and expanded multiple times before initially releasing.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Virtual Worlds News: Sony Home Delayed to Spring 2008 )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Playstation Home not open till fall of 08 )〕 Invitations to the closed beta were offered to winners of a weekly ''Warhawk'' online gaming event.〔Sony (Play Warhawk Wednesday – win a Beta Trial Invitation!! )〕 In August 2008, Sony sent additional invitations to select users who downloaded a new Home XMB theme in Japan and North America. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) and Sony Computer Entertainment Hong Kong (SCEHK) also sent out invitations to select users for a closed beta. Users who purchased more than HK$60 or SG$12 worth of content in a single transaction over the PlayStation Store from August 29 to September 12, 2008 were also invited. In November 2008, Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) invited annual Qore subscribers.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Qore's Free PS3 Home Beta Available Only to Annual Subscribers )〕 After major version 1.0, invitations were sent worldwide.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Welcome new testers plus information on bug reporting )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Japanese Home Betas Out )〕 Home's open beta test began on December 11, 2008. In March 2009, an alternate reality game involving puzzle and intrigue called ''Xi'' proved popular after it was released by nDreams for Home. In June 2009, Peter Edwards, Director of Home for SCEE, reported that the number of users exceeded 7 million and that 80% of users were male, aged 18 to 35. At TGS 2009, Kaz Hirai announced that Home had been downloaded by 8 million users. Jack Buser, Director of Home for SCEA, stated that "beta" would not be removed from the name. In a ''Eurogamer'' interview with Peter Edwards on July 24, 2009, Edwards commented that the service would no longer be beta when it "() a kind of final quality." On October 14, 2009, Jack Buser commented that "the vision of Home () evolved." He said that originally, they built Home as a "social network for gamers", but it developed into a "game platform, first and foremost." On December 17, 2009, SCEA released its first massively multiplayer online game, produced specifically for Home, called ''Sodium'', a planned four-part series of games, but only two parts were released by the time of Home's closure. The first part was ''Sodium One''. In February 2010, emails were sent out to a select few PlayStation Home members inviting them to participate in a private beta test for the service. This beta test was for feedback on certain changes suggested by the Home community. The first global "public space" was released on June 10, 2010, allowing all users from the Asian, European, Japanese, and North American Homes to converge in one space. This space was called the FevaArena Global Pitch Area, which was dedicated to the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The Arena allowed all of Home's users to participate in events and mini-games to celebrate the 2010 FIFA World Cup. In June 2010, Sony released a virtual replica of their E3 2010 booth in all versions of Home. The virtual E3 booth, slightly modified, returned the following year with previews of seven different games and the PlayStation Vita, with virtual rewards for watching the videos as well as a demo of a new PlayStation Home game, "Scribble Shooter". In addition, Sony's E3 press conference was streamed live in PlayStation Home in a special virtual theatre, as well as other live interviews that occurred during the week of E3 2011. The E3 virtual booth returned again for E3 2012, this time featuring previews of 12 games as well as a virtual avatar of Christina Lee (host of PSN's ''Pulse'') hosting a special E3 Quest for all 12 games with rewards. Finishing the quest granted access to the VIP section previewing upcoming PlayStation Home games and content, including the upcoming massively multiplayer online racing game ''Mercia'', as well as Hell Fire Games' upcoming ''Home Tycoon''. The E3 virtual booth returned the following year for E3 2013, once again featuring previews of multiple games, and a quest where players could earn a number of rewards. PlayStation Home did not feature a virtual E3 booth in 2014. On April 20, 2011, Home released version 1.50, which dramatically improved the physics and graphics engines.〔 ''Sodium 2: Project Velocity'' was also released; the second and final part of ''Sodium'' to be released.〔 In November 2011, a new area known as the "Hub" was released, featuring a variety of games, including ''Cogs'' from Lazy 8 Studios. The Hub also featured an "Activity Board" and a "User Generated Content" events system. Surrounding the Hub were districts based on game genres to suit users' moods. Users could also watch full-length movies for free as an effort by online video distributor Crackle via Loot Interactive. The movies were available on all Loot Entertainment on Demand (EOD) screens throughout PlayStation Home.〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=PlayStation Home – Over 23 Million Strong, Evolving with a New Major Redesign Page )〕 In August 2014, Sony Computer Entertainment Japan announced that it was shutting down the service in Japan and other Asian territories. After September, users in these regions could no longer purchase content.〔 In September, Sony Computer Entertainment America and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe announced the final closure of Home in their respective regions. New content ceased to be published after November 12, and users were given until December 3 to purchase content, after which, users could no longer purchase content. The official closure of Home occurred on March 31, 2015 worldwide.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Playstation Home Closing Its Doors After 6 Years )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=PlayStation Home Update – September 26, 2014 )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「PlayStation Home」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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