PlayStation.BLOG reminds today that PlayStation Home will enter into open beta, and will be available to everyone tomorrow. PlayStation Home is a 3D social gaming community available on PS3 that allows users to interact, communicate and share gaming experiences. Within PlayStation Home, users can create and customize their own unique avatars and explore virtual community in real time where they can communicate freely through text or voice chat. PlayStation Home users will not only be able to enjoy variety of entertainment content such as mini-games, videos and special events along with their friends, but will also be able to create their own community by starting clubs with other PlayStation Home users who share the same interests. Even purchasing customizable furniture and designer clothes will be possible with PlayStation Home. That's only a fraction of the features that will be available initially, not to mention that this is not a final version and there're still many updates to come. PlayStation Home, available as a free download starting December 11th, will launch directly from the PlayStation Home icon on the PlayStation Network column of XMB (XrossMediaBar) on PS3. After that date, SCE will vigorously promote the service and work with its partners to introduce new services. If you want to know more, hit the source link.

Sony PlayStation 3's online community service Home will not be launched until this fall, Sony Computer Entertainment has announced in just another delay. The service was first announced in July last year and promised to be available globally in the "fall" of 2007 but later it was delayed until "spring" 2008 at the Tokyo Game Show. Now the launch date is being moved to the "fall" of this year. When the time comes, PlayStation Home will be available only as an open beta test service.

We understand that we are asking PS3 and prospective PS3 users to wait a bit longer, but we have come to the conclusion that we need more time to refine the service to ensure a more focused gaming entertainment experience than what it is today, ... Spending more time on the development and on the Closed Beta testing reaffirms our commitment to bringing a quality service, maintaining the PlayStation tradition.

said Kazuo Hirai, president of Sony Computer Entertainment, in a statement. There are no details on when PlayStation Home might launch as a full service.

Sony on Thursday reported that hackers may have penetrated security on the PlayStation network and gained access to some users' personal information. Sony said the security breach occurred at the PlayStation Store, a content download service of the network. "Although unlikely, it is possible that the passwords of a small percentage of PlayStation Network users may have been changed through unauthorized access," the company said. As a result, intruders could have seen users' personal information and used their online "wallets" at the store. However, because the system does not display users' entire credit card numbers, it is "very unlikely" thieves were able to steal them. Sony said it has fixed the problem and security has been restored. The company is now investigating the incident and is directly contacting customers who may have been affected. Sony has also created a support page for subscribers to ask questions and get more information.

Sony Computer Entertainment's UK boss, Ray Maguire, has confirmed rumours that Sony plans to include in-game messaging in one of its upcoming PS3 firmware updates. Sony initially sparked rumours when it uploaded a "Friends & Messaging" icon onto its website, which commented about using a USB headset or Eye Camera to engage in voice and video messaging. Maguire told MCV:

Our momentum will continue with the introduction of in-game communication in the summer [and] firmware update 2.4.

Maguire also revealed that Sony has managed to sell over one million of the consoles in the UK.

After announcing the DualShock 3 controller and the new PSP Remote Play feature, Sony also announced that PlayStation Home will be delayed until spring of 2008. Hirai apologizes for the delay and says the reason for the added wait is to allow further development of the user interface.