As expected, Phil Harrison of Sony announced the “Playstation Home” during his keynote address at the GDC today. The videos shown and the features that Harrison detailed caused quite a splash. Sony has finally put down a positive vibe at a gaming expo.

The new feature could rocket Sony back as the number one home console. It seems like Sony figured out that online interaction is the future of gaming (It took them long enough).

Think of it as Xbox Live meets the Nintendo Miis meets Second Life. And it’s all free.

Hit the break for more.

The feature could very well be the Xbox Live killer that Sony has been searching for. It includes user interaction, a 3D Marketplace, a Trophy room, a mini-game (sports) room, and actual 3D avatars. It looks very similar to the Sims, and it’s in the same vein as Nintendo’s Miis. The best part is that you can invite friends to come over to your “home”, or visit your friend’s “home.” The idea of actually traveling to other users “homes” is interesting.

Imagine being apart of a clan and actually having meetings in someones “home” to talk about strategies or to just trash talk about one another. How about throwing a party for the online sports league you run. You can stream the same music or video to any of the other users in your “home.”

The whole concept makes me want to go out and buy a PS3. Oh wait… I forgot about the $600 price tag still. That’s still holding most of us back.

It does seem like a rip off of the “Sims Online” and more noticeably, “Second Life”. But Sony is taking a more social approach. MMO’s typically have some other aspects to them other then visiting other people’s homes, having conversations, then buying things with real money. Sony is making it free, and plans to pay for it with banners and advertisements found throughout your “home.”

Part of me finds the whole thing very creepy though. It has that whole “Matrix” feel to it. I don’t want to ditch my entire social life to go to a friend’s “party” at his “home” and we’ll listen to music, talk about random shit, but never actually physically see each other. If this thing does hit it big, society may be heading down the drain quicker then even the biggest pessimist could expect.

You know we’re going to see childhood obesity sky rocket. Kids will never have to leave their houses now. They can just hang out in their “home.”

And it would probably take the spotlight off of social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook. Pedophiles galore will be buying PS3’s to attack your children. They may even get into your “home.” The Anti-PS3-Home activist groups are already forming. “To Catch a Predator” via PS3’s Home would be a great show though. I’d watch it.

Overall though, Sony finally got the clue. Massive Multiplayer Online games have gotten very popular over the years, but have never been truly main stream. World of Warcraft has 8.5* million users and has many obsessive fans, and Sony wanted to get a chunk of that audience.

The whole networking concept could become the main element of the industries future. It may be the foundation of gaming to come. Gaming 3.0 is what they’re calling it.

I can’t wait to see how Microsoft and Nintendo react. Microsoft specifically, because their upper hand over Sony was always the online features. Sony has finally punched back.

For more information-
*Destructoid.com has a neat little article on the keynote address. And it’s organized via bullet points.
*Joystiq had some live blogging action goin’ on during the keynote.
*TheLassBoss has a bunch of pictures, a video and an analysis of the PS3 Home