Sony PS3 Home delayed again

And it gets delayed. Again.

Sony’s PS3 Home community was supposed to come out last fall in a open beta for everyone, but currently has been pushed back to this fall. From here, the perspective seems pretty bad for Sony. While I’ve been a fanboy for a long time and will continue to do so, coming out with the online community last out of the next-generation consoles is not really the placement where Sony would want to be.

In fact, this means that not only with Microsoft’s Xbox Live Marketplace continue to firm up its grasp, but it also means that Nintendo’s WiiWare arena will now have a chance to solidify its placement also when it releases. And while the entire hoopla about it looking like a nice Second Life was interesting when it first was leaked… it’s losing its spark quickly. This means that the community online interface MUST have a superior wow effect to gain back interest. Having seen some of the closed beta things, it seems to be pretty mild mannered.

That alongside the current downturn of SL type gaming might spell a negative consumer market coming for Sony Home. Let’s be honest. The amount of VTOR authors that play SL have dwindled. And with that, the novelty of virtual life outside an MMORPG arena might actually have lost the momentum that it could have had if Sony had released this beta when it said it wanted to previously.