Sony, Microsoft begin battle of virtual worlds

by Emma Hughes on Oct 10, 2008

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2 comments in this discussion

"Is the XBOX version mentioned in the article the same as the new XBOX dashboard interface that'll be coming out soonish? If I remember correctly, the new dashboard has avatars and such similar to ..."

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Console capers

SONY AND MICROSOFT are poised to do battle in virtual worlds.

The console kids both announced Second Life-style virtual environments at the Tokyo Game Show today. Both games show striking similarities to Linden Lab's creation

Players are represented by avatars which live a virtual life - engaging in relationships, going about day-to-day business. These can be personalised to look as similar (or different) to how the user looks in real life.

Sony's "Home" virtual world for the Playstation 3 will be released on November 19th, after its delay twice already. It will go up against Microsoft's Xbox 360 "New Xbox Experience".

Ryoji Akagawa of Sony said that around 24 game design companies would provide the content needed for Home - but didn't give much else away.

Game expert, Hirokazu Hamamura head of Japanese publisher Enterbrain told Associated Press, "You still can't tell what (Home)'s all about."

Microsoft's John Schappert said, "Our goal is to make the Xbox experience more visual, easier to use, more fun to use and more social...We focused a lot on friends and other experiences outside just playing games."

Let virtual battle commence.

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Comments: 2

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Bill Oct 11, 2008 3:14 AM	Unlike SecondLife, neither of these worlds seems to be about user created (and user owned) content. They've missed the point entirely. Comment made about the PC Authority article: Sony, Microsoft begin battle of virtual worlds? Console capers What do you think? Join the discussion.
Hobo_Joe Oct 12, 2008 10:34 AM	Is the XBOX version mentioned in the article the same as the new XBOX dashboard interface that'll be coming out soonish? If I remember correctly, the new dashboard has avatars and such similar to the Wii. Not sure if it's the same thing though.

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