TGS: Sony Announces PlayStation Room For PSP

Among Sony's Tokyo Game Show announcements this week was the revelation that it would be bringing an avatar-based social environment, PlayStation Room, to its PSP handheld. Just as with the PS3's Home, a social space for 3D avatars, PlayStation Room lets users build avatars, chat and network with other players in a virtual environment. Screenshots on consumer weblogs like Joystiq show a more cartoonish, family-friendly look for the service, as opposed to the more realistic avatars seen in Home. As with Home, users can also design their own Room spaces and visit those of others. PlayStation Room will come to PSP via a firmware update slated for this Winter, and users can access the service via the Xross Media Bar navigation tool. Sony has always asserted it's pleased with the success of Home on PS3 -- the company has said up to 35 percent of the console's owners visit Home at least once, and has long-term plans for the service as a platform for developers to engage with users around their games. But the service has additional potential for a platform like PSP; there are opportunities for social networking to provide a needed framework of user interaction around the online content library.