The project was initially announced by Kazuo Hirai, president of Sony Computer Entertainment, at Tokyo Game Show 2007.

The company was hoping for a spring 2008 release, but in April this year the Home was postponed once again.

The Closed Beta service started this summer. Home” for PS3 users appears to be a mix of SecondLife and Nintendo's Mii, in which the avatars are very customizable and designed to look like real life humans.

Sony said that players will be able to communicate via voice, text chat (supported by a USB keyboard or a virtual keyboard) and through canned speech and gesture.

The environment looks like a luxury resort and Sony said that every PS3 owner using “Home” will get their own private apartment, which can be customized with almost any media available on PlayStation 3's HDD.

Also Sony has embedded into the game the possibility of displaying custom content on public displays within the virtual world, opening the way to showing advertisements, trailers, and user-created content.

Sony said Home will have a “Hall of Fame,” where the users can display their 3D trophies, unlocked through in-game milestones in PS3 games.

Of course, “Home” is intended to stimulate users into buying and playing new PS3 games, which will lead to the unlocking of different items within the virtual world.

The service, offered in eight languages, will start in Japan, Europe, U.S. and other areas where PlayStation 3 is available. The service will be updated with new games, licensing partners and events including a New Year's countdown ceremony, Sony said.

PlayStation’s Home is the direct competitor of Xbox Live, Microsoft’s service for Xbox users.

Sony officials have also noted that the main purpose is to encourage current PS3 owners to play various games, rather than attract newcomers.