Home and Second Life not the same thing - Harrison

Sony's Phil Harrison has denied that PlayStation Home and Second Life are basically the same thing, claiming it's "way oversimplifying" to make the suggestion.

"In Home, you get a character and a 3D world, and that's where the similarity ends," he told semi-official Sony blog ThreeSpeech. "Second Life does some brilliant things but with Home, we're providing a service. Therefore, the tone of voice is what will differentiate it - Home is about entertainment, it has a game focus, and it's about sharing with a like-minded community."

Observers have been drawing the comparison ever since Harrison unveiled Home - an online universe where PS3 users can set up a home and interact with friends and services - at the Game Developers Conference last month.

"We don't give users the level of influence over the environment, behaviour and object definitions that Second Life does - it's as secure as any other PS3 game," Harrison continued. "With some of the operating system protocols that are built into the Cell chip, it's about as secure as you can be on a consumer device."

That's not to say you won't be able to customise your surroundings though, as Harrison explained: "We were discussing how, if you had a great view from the back of your apartment - the perfect sunset across a lake, say - you could get all your friends around, and buy a premium item - a perfect V of ducks flying in front of the sun. So while your view would be the same as your friends', you could customise it in some unique and charming ways."

PlayStation Home will launch in October. You can read more about it in our PlayStation Home preview from GDC.