Sony: Home hits 19 million downloads, real-time multiplayer incoming

News by Patrick Garratt Founder & Publisher (Former)

Published on March 1, 2011

Sony's just announced at GDC that PlayStation Home has been downloaded more than 19 million times, Eurogamer reports.

Hopme first launched in December 2008. The 19 million figure refers to instances of Home being downloaded and booted up at least once.

Home director Jack Buser confirmed the figure, saying that the average Home session lasts for 70 minutes.

Virtual items are proving popular, with the amount available growing by 110 percent in the past year

Buser refused to confirm a number of active Home users, but did say that 1.6 million users played the racing game Sodium within six weeks of release in North America alone.

Multiplayer on the way

In addition, Eurogamer's reporting that real-time multiplayer tools are to be given to Home developers, allowing them to create core multiplayer action games.

Version 1.5 of the Home core client is scheduled to launch this spring, and, according to Sony, will allow for the creation of "fast-action" FPS and racers withing the PS3 MMO-lite.

A Sodium sequel, Sodium 2: Project Velocity, was shown today at GDC as an example. It's out this spring.

On the back of the announcement, Buser claimed that Home is @evolving from a social network into a world class gaming platform."