Sony revealed Home's event venue but not sure about its release date

Sony unveiled the event venue of 'Home', its interactive virtual world,last week to the selected members of its Home beta test. The company recreated Play Station Day 2008 in Home’s Media and Events Space. The space created will be given to the companies for displaying their advertisements and event. Wired.com reports:

"As well as looking great, the Media and Events Space is flexible and user-friendly - it’s a real focal point for our virtual community," said Home producer Martijn Van Der Meulen. "This was a very exciting first event and we’ve already received plenty of great feedback."

I appreciate Sony showing off new features as much as the next guy, but I've been waiting since Home originally debuted (Game Developers Conference 2007, almost 15 months ago) to actually get to play around with the thing.

Home is a virtual world created by Sony where its gamers could meet and chat; just like Second life. Sony unveiled the program in March 2007 at the Game Developers Conference. The main problem is Sony has not been able to launch it on time. According to David Reeves, president Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Sony’s original vision for home to include non-gaming applications and sponsors diverted its attention away from the gamers. Reeves also said that if Home’s Fall release had been postponed it will be definitely launched in autumn. On the contrary, Sony President Kazuo Hirai said that Home will not be released until he is happy with the final product.

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Sony does not think Microsoft or Nintendo as competitors

In terms of handheld games Sony thinks that it does not compete with either Nintendo or Microsoft. PS3 News:

“I think that PS3, PS2 and PSP are all entertainment platforms so I feel that our competition is not Microsoft or Nintendo, but basically any form of entertainment that is competing for the consumers’ attention,” SCE president Kaz Hirai said in an interview with MCV.

“So we need to make sure we offer the most compelling entertainment – not videogame but in in general. I can’t speak for their strategy but I like to think that we’ve got a very well balanced portfolio with PS3, PSP and you can’t discount the PS2.”

Sony is proud about the fact that their Play Station 3 has taken the lead from Xbox 360.

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GT Academy : The ultimate challenge for Gran Turismo gamers

Are you a Gran Turismo fanatic? Well, here is a life time chance for you. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and Nissan Motor Company Limited (TYO:7201) has launched a program titled GT Academy. Under this program, the European Gran Turismo gamers will compete among themselves in video games and real life racing tracks for eight months. The winner will receive a four month training to earn his/her racing license. Not only that, the winner will also participate at 24H endurance race in Dubai with the Nissan racing team. Daily Tech reports:

Sony and Polyphony Digital have given Gran Turismo, its flagship racing game series, the title of being “the real driving simulator.” Anyone who took that line to heart now has the chance to prove just how realistic Gran Turismo truly is, at least in Europe.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and Nissan unveiled earlier this week a special program called the GT Academy. Gamers will be able to participate in an eight-month, pan-European competition composed of a series of elimination-based competitions on and off the racetrack, which will start at a national level with an online GT5 Prologue tournament hosted on PlayStation Network.

The winner at the end of the competition will be awarded a four-month training program to earn their racing licenses, followed by a real-life race driving a Nissan 350Z as part of the Nissan team at the 24H endurance race in Dubai in January 2009.

According to Sony Computer Entertainment Europe’s President David Reeves, Gran Turismo is one of the most successful gaming franchises of the last decade. He said that the GT Academy program brings together the virtual and the real world of racing.

Truly, this is a life time experience. Playing racing game can be exciting but no matter how realistic it is, driving a real racing car in a racing circuit is all the more different and difficult. Let’s see who is the lucky winner of GT Academy program.

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