In wake of Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement that Facebook Inc is being rebranded as Meta – attracting a lot of criticism in the process – folk are noticing the similarities to between the social platform and PlayStation Home, Sony’s ill-fated PS3 virtual hub that closed in 2015.
Sony launched PS Home back in 2008 as an Open Beta, and served as a massive social networking platform where users could meet each other in the digital world, with players represented by customisable avatars.
The service also allowed you to not only mingle with fellow PS3 gamers, but also take part in various mini-games, grab exclusive cosmetic items based on popular games, explore themed hubs (for example, PS Now was kitted out to look like Resident Evil 5’s Public Assembly), and more.
https://twitter.com/simonparkin/status/1454013679645626374?s=21PS Home’s main attraction was, unsurprisingly, your own virtual home, which could be decorated with purchasable items. Even big name brands like Red Bull got in on the action.
Zuckerberg said that the rebranding is part of his efforts to build a metaverse, which is where users are able to game, work, and communicate, with VR also factoring into these plans. While PS Home didn’t use VR, the rest of the concept is strikingly similar, albeit on a more ambitious scale.
People have also compared Meta’s use of NFTs to Home’s implementation of microtransactions.
It’s also worth pointing out that there have been rumors that PS Home is somehow being revived, as Sony recently reneweed the trademark until 2028 in Europe. Nothing has been announced yet, but the timing is pretty interesting.
With PSVR 2 on the horizon, one can’t help but wonder if Sony is going to integrate the technology wiht a revived PS Home, which would put it very much in the same space as Meta.