Tomorrow's PlayStation Home relaunch detailed, pictured

By Robert Purchese Published 2 November, 2011

Can you resist it?

PlayStation Home relaunches tomorrow, 3rd November.

The European PlayStation blog says maintenance will begin at 7am BST. Presumably it means GMT. There's no word on how long PlayStation Home will go down for.

In PlayStation Home, the new one, Home Square has been revamped and districts related to game genres added. The whole focus of the beast is now more squarely on games - a social gaming network.

The four new districts are Action, Sportswalk, Adventure and Indie Park.

In the Action district you'll come across free-to-play game Bootleggers '29. Set in prohibition era America, this pits cops against criminals - who will Capture the Cask first? There's vintage weaponry, and you can use your Home avatar as your character.

In the Sportswalk district there will be games like pool, darts and PlayStation Home Hold 'Em - a poker game. Also, PlayStation Home Sports Trivia, which boasts 10,000 sports questions and prizes for those people who get them right.

The Adventure district will be taken over, at relaunch, by Uncharted 3. A "total game integration" Fortune Hunter event will offer a third-person, partial recreation of the Yemen level from Uncharted 3 multiplayer. Cover-based shooting and familiar weaponry will be on offer. Intriguing.

The Indie Park will collate loads of smaller games. To begin with, these will be Espionage 9, Gnome Curling and Los Penguini. Here's where fledgling developers will show off their wares.

In addition to those four districts, the new PlayStation Home will offer social spaces like the Boardwalk, where you can play a game of Cogs. Oldies like bowling and chess return, too.

The US PlayStation blog mentions a Pier Park where you can play carnival, puzzle, outdoor and arcade games like PC Rally. The US blog also talks of a PS Home Theater and Mall. There's no mention of these on the European blog, and regional content has, historically, varied.

We'll find out tomorrow.

The new PlayStation Home.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (23) Latest comment 7 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • wizlon #1 7 months ago

    This sounds just a little bit intriguing, never tried Home before but this might sway me to at least give it a go.

  • andromeda #2 7 months ago

    or alternatively, go outside.

  • Bahumet #3 7 months ago

    I'll try it, just to say that I have, but I doubt it'll keep me interested for long. Skyrim is coming...

  • gooner77 #4 7 months ago

    FFs I have to download all that shit again ???

  • Ferral #5 7 months ago

    Currently never use Home, created my avatar a while ago and used it to watch E3 other than that havnt been interested. If what we seen in that video is anything to go on though it looks like it may be worthwhile vivisting a bit more often.

  • slippysloppy #6 7 months ago

    In the words of a Tribe Called Quest..
    Can you resist it? Yes I can

  • TheBrotha #7 7 months ago

    +1 Ferral

    Totally hear you on that sentiment. Last time I used it was for TGS. Its great for that kind of stuff. I'll definitely be checking out the revamp tomorrow, hopefully there is a dramatic improvement.

  • nickthegun #8 7 months ago

    Have they added any extra crotch thrust animations for me to do at every female avatar?

  • Lucodeath #9 7 months ago

    That will be another 25 minuets of download/install then. Ace job sony cant wait.
    (slow clapping)

  • jaguarwong #10 7 months ago

    Hmm... this is odd... I was just at idiomsite.com looking up the meaning of 'throwing good money after bad' and the link brought me here...

  • jonfon #11 7 months ago

    @Lucodeath
    A one-off 25 minute install and you're giving out?

    Pah! In my day it took 5 minutes just to load any game at all. And while it was doing it the TV would make screechy noises at you and attempt to induce epilespy with hideous flashing red and green and yellow and blue borders. And then your little sister would nudge the powerpack and the damn thing would reset.

    Kids these days... mutter mutter ... 25 miles in the snow, uphill both ways... mutter mutter .. whole family lived in a shoebox without a lid.... 25 hour working day...

    *shambles off looking for his dressing gown and slippers*

  • jonsaan #12 7 months ago

    Any mention of getting round the utter tedium of constant loading?

  • Lucodeath #13 7 months ago

    @jonfon
    25 mins on top of the fact its crap. Free or not its crap.

  • hosedoctor69 #14 7 months ago

    Home is fun when you're drunk

  • cheeky_BILLY #15 7 months ago

    I love my PS3 but Home to me appears to be a total waste of time and money by Sony.

    However, this trailer has sparked a little interest so I may have a look if I can leave BF3 alone for 5mins.

  • Bigglesworth #16 7 months ago

    @Lucodeath
    What the fuck are you talking about? If you don't use it, as you're so eager to tell us all, you don't have to download a thing. Stop whining about nothing.

  • Lucodeath #17 7 months ago

    My opinion, dont get upset.

  • Snake_2011 #18 7 months ago

    Lucodeath must be nice being so happy.

  • makeamazing #19 7 months ago

    or alternatively, go outside

    @andromeda - you mean like you - posting ramblings on an internet forum... i guess you could do with some fresh air also.

    Home generally isn't for me, but its nice to see that Sony is still adding to it and making it better. Which is good, because it could evolve into something that i do want to use

  • Widge #20 7 months ago

    Opinion usually based on knowledge. You've not been hands on with this so your opinion is a bit bobbins isn't it?

    SLOW CLAP.

  • markyHD #21 7 months ago

    @Lucodeath

    Your opinion is welcome of course, as is everyones. But, I don't get why you would even click into a link about something that completely disinterests you, and take the time to comment several times?

    Are you the kid who is mean to girls you fancy? :)

    Looks very interesting anyway. I've only really used it for the games conference events myself, but will certainly have a look later on, if I can pull myself away from BF3 :o
    Edited by markyHD at 03/11/11 @ 09:08

  • jonfon #22 7 months ago

    @EddieMink
    I'm interesting on how you're generating these figures. You're basically saying the PS3 is somehow throttling download speeds to 10% of every other console / PC.

    Does that sound logical to you when put that way, or are you just randomly flinging verbal poo at the PS3, for some reason?

  • Arwin #23 7 months ago

    Everyone complaining about the speed, you don't know what you're talking about. You can basically have Home downloaded, installed and running in about 5 minutes.You can say about it what you will, but Home has come a long way - load times for spaces are very fast, there's lots of stuff to do, and the interactions between players have really been taken to the next level. And you can do all that while having 'cross space' party chat for up to 8 people too.

    If I were a regular online gamer, I'd definitely be using Home with my friends to hang out and start our games from. It's a shame that not all games support launching straight into an online party, but other than that it works very well for this, you can see what someone is playing, launch to any game on HDD or BD from Home and return to Home again automatically, and that works pretty well for going from game to game with a bunch of friends.

    Regrettably having a family I don't have that much uninterrupted time for online gaming anymore these days. :(

    Anyway, while Home could always be better, it's a very good freeby, and I think Sony is going to benefit from the experience in the coming generations too.