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As you read this Phil Harrison is standing in front of a packed auditorium at the Game Developers Conference unveiling what I think is a pretty damn cool new, free application for the Playstation 3.

Playstation Home is essentially a living world inside your console. It's probably a flawed analogy but think of it as Second Life meets the PS3.

The free service, which will go into beta this April and hit consoles this fall, will become a new menu item in the cross media bar.

When you select it you will be dropped into a virtual world peopled by life-like avatars. From what we saw during a press screening, customization of these avatars is incredibly flexible, allowing you to create something that looks as much like you as you would want.

Home starts you out in a central lobby. You use a virtual PSP in this world to access features, but can also just walk around. The main lobby we saw included dynamic advertising on billboards, games you could just walk up to and play, like bowling or pool and even a mini arcade that featured some cool little arcade titles.

You can communicate with others in the lobby by talking, typing, using motions or pre-written phrases.

After walking around inside this home lobby for a bit, Harrison jumped his avatar to his private apartment.


Brian Crecente

The apartment, and there are lots of different types, look very realistic and can be customized with real-world furniture, wallpaper, picture frames that show images from your harddrive, even televisions that stream your own original video content.

The idea, it seems, is that your apartment will become the nexus of your Playstation 3 experience. It is where you can listen to music, look at pictures, watch video, invite your friends over to talk and even go into multiplayer games together to play as a group.

"This could become your clan heaquarters," Harrison said. "From within home you can launch multiplayer games directly. You can then come back into home afterward and talk about it."

Next Harrison showed a more sophisticated apartment. This one had several levels, an outdoor deck and a much nicer design.

Home will also have other public spaces, like the Home Cinema, a sort of virtual movie theater complete with a large front lobby and separate screening rooms.

It's also possible for companies or publishers to create their own spaces. For instance Electronic Arts could create a space that shows off their current and upcoming games in a virtual world that looks more like a mall than a store.

I think this is going to be one of those features that people didn't realize that wanted until they get it. But I think I'll really have to experience it first hand to decide just how well it works. Brian Crecente

Ah, Sony had an ace up its sleeve. Hmm... by the sounds of it, they should scrap the start up menu and replace it with this virtual world. When you start up your system you should be in your apartment.