Atari Plans 'Major' Online Community Portal

While the PS3 user community waits for more information to surface concerning Sony's newly announced Home online community portal for the PlayStation 3, a new report suggests that major publisher/developer Atari has plans for a similar service of its own. According to a new report by the online edition of British trade magazine MCV, Atari's upcoming “major new online initiative”, which the company plans to debut this summer, will initially be offered in the U.S., with a later release in Europe likely to come at a later date. “Phil Harrison had this big announcement of Game 3.0 and I think its great that he’s announced that because it will lend legitimacy to what we’re doing. But it goes further than that,” commented Atari Online Entertainment senior vice president Chris Bergstresser. “We feel user generated content is not just something you just let people dabble in, we feel that it is something where you give people the tools to do whatever the hell they want.” Sony's Phil Harrison first announced Home at the recent Game Developers Conference during his 'Game 3.0' themed keynote speech, during which he addressed the importance of social interaction and the ability for users to create their own online content – aspects seemingly central to Home for the PlayStation 3. According to the report, Atari's new service will be offered exclusively to PC users, at least in the beginning, though it notes that Atari could have much bigger plans for the service than it is letting on. “Let’s just say it will be PC to start with,” added Bergstresser on the new initiative. “I can’t and I won’t speak for Europe but presumably if it is a success in the US then yes, it will be coming to Europe. We would quickly open it up to other territories.”