Sony Computer Entertainment today took the wraps of "Home," a new virtual connected gaming universe coming to the PlayStation 3. Home, along with SingStar and LittleBigPlanet, were detailed today in SCEI Worldwide Studios’ President Phil Harrison’s GDC keynote presentation titled “Game 3.0: Developing and Creating for the 3rd Age of Videogames.” The 3.0 conecpt is a take on the success of Web 2.0 and gives the connected PS3 consaumer a virtual 3D world where they can interact with other players, customize their own personal spaces and play games with friends.

The Home service will enable PlayStation 3 owners to create their own 3D avatar and explore a real-time virtual community, as if they were playing a detailed 3D game - think Second Life with better production values... The service will become available globally this fall. Home is being demonstrated at the Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) in San Francisco.

Home is a real-time online 3D, networked community available only the PLAYSTATION Network that allows players to interact, communicate, join online games, shop, share private content and even build and show off their own personal spaces to others in real time. Home will be available as a free download from the PLAYSTATION Store and will launch directly from XMB (XrossMediaBar) on PS3.

With an avatar uniquely customized according to each user’s preference, users can explore the 3D community that is Home – an environment featuring spacious common areas; custom spaces dedicated to specific games; and personal apartments. Each user is assigned an apartment in Home where they can invite others to join them as they show off their own style in an area they can personalize themselves with furniture, art and other items – even a different view from their windows. They can also show their personal videos, pictures and other digital media content found on their PS3 hard drives in their apartments. Very rich interactive communication with others is achieved through built in text, audio and video chat, along with sophisticated emotional animations for each character.

Sharing continues in the “Hall of Fame,” where users can display new 3D trophies that will be unlocked through in-game milestones for the games they own as well viewing the trophies of other users across the PLAYSTATION Network and for other games they’ve yet to purchase. Home will go into a closed beta test this spring with a full launch targeted for later this year.

For more details on Harrison's keynote, check out our SCEA GDC Keynote Report .