When I first walked into the Esplanade Ballroom at the Moscone Convention Center Wednesday morning for the Sony keynote, I though I had my days mixed up and I was actually at Nintendo's keynote for the next day. The stage was decorated with a giant soccer ball, a huge orange and other cartoonish looking oversized items. And as the crowd came filtering into the venue, members of the GDC staff tossed some of the enormous, fluffy soccer balls into the crowd. It was like being at a baseball game and watching the crowd pound beach balls back and forth.

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Was this really the Sony keynote? Indeed it was. Phil Harrison, president of Sony Computer Entertainment's Worldwide Studios, came out on stage and quickly began talking about the "game 3.0" revolution, which he likened to the Web 2.0 revolution. Game 3.0, Harrison said, "is all about the connected device" and involves "dynamic content powered by active communities built on open standards."

I began to suspect we were going to get more market-speaking and over-hyped promises at this point. It felt like Harrison's keynote began to slip when the demo of the PlayStation Home service stalled (Harrison was actually using the wrong PlayStation 3 on stage, an honest mistake). But Harrison and Sony quickly corrected themselves and proceeded to intrigue the audience with PlayStation Home. For those that hadn't heard, prior to GDC several rumours were reported about the forthcoming service (leading to an ugly, public spat with public spat with gaming blog Kotaku last week, which was ultimately resolved). Sony's new feature was said to be a combination of Xbox Live achievements and Nintendo Miis.

It turns out PlayStation Home is more than that. Much more. Sony rolled out a rich combination of Second Life, Xbox Live achievements, MySpace, "Cribs," and more. PlayStation Home is essentially a digital domain on the PlayStation Network that PS3 owners can access and inhabit with their personalized 3D avatars. And these are simple avatars - they're full-bodied, walking and talking characters with customizable wardrobes and detailed personalized features that reflect facial expressions.

A demonstration of PlayStation Home during Sony's GDC 2007 keynote

So what do these avatars do in the PlayStation Home world? First, you have to get an apartment. Then you have to decorate the living space and trick it out with gadgets like big flat panel TVs, which can actually play real video like movie trailers, and decorations like your own digital photos or customized wall paper (I'm not sure anyone is really going to want to past Resistance: Fall of Man all over their walls, but still, it's a nice feature). You can invite friends over and converse with them through text chatting or even audio/video chats.

In addition to your apartment, you can take your avatar to common areas and play billiards or go bowling. Sony, in fact, is enabling third party companies to set up their own spaces within PlayStation Home and create mini-games like sports or arcade games. Lastly, Harrison showed off the "Hall of Fame," which is an extensive digital trophy case that players can decorate with their various achievements. "All of these things are really simple, really easy, and really powerful ways to build a community and socialization within a game," Harrison said.

The PlayStation Home service will be free for PS3 owners to download. The public beta test will begin next month and the service is expected to launch in the fall.

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