SCEJ Reveals 24 Home Licensees

At a recent presentation, Sony Computer Entertainment Japan announced that 24 developers and publishers have so far acquired licenses to create content for its PlayStation Home virtual world. Since its open beta launch in mid-December, some 3.6 million PlayStation 3 owners have downloaded Home. The community-based service enables users to create customizable avatars, decorate apartments, interact with friends, view promotional content, and purchase virtual goods -- like furniture or clothes -- with real money. Several third-party companies previously revealed that they would produce content for Home, such as Ubisoft, which released Far Cry 2 "spaces" that allowed users to play African board game Mancala and socialize in replicas of the first-person shooter's in-game environments. Electronic Arts also recently detailed an "EA Sports Complex" for spring, promising an area where users can access EA Sports trailers and content, play Home-exclusive multiplayer games, interact with other EA Sports fans, and compare against one another with various leaderboards. The full list of PlayStation Home licensees, posted on Japanese site Game Watch and translated by game weblog Kotaku, follows: Acquire Activision AQ Interactive Atlus Bandai Namco Games Capcom D3 Publisher Disney Interactive Studios Electronic Arts Games Republic Genki GungHo Hudson Irem Koei Konami Nippon Ichi Paon Q Entertainment Sega Spike SNK Playmore Tecmo Ubisoft Non-gaming related operations are also invited to establish a Home presence, as shown by energy drink company Red Bull, which sponsors a space in the virtual world offering a Red Bull Air Race mini-game.