Sony unveils its new 3D universe

Sony described Home as a 3D social networking service

Sony is hoping to replicate the success of social networks and Second Life with a feature called Home.

Playstation 3 gamers will be able to meet, chat and share content with friends inside a 3D universe.

"It's about community, collaboration and customisation," said Sony's Phil Harrison at the Game Developers Conference, in San Francisco.

Gamers can buy furniture and clothes, while publishers and retailers are also expected to offer 3D spaces.

Mr Harrison said the games industry had to learn from the success of the web 2.0 movement

This is not just about Sony brands and Sony games - it's a much wider network of connected spaces Phil Harrison, Sony

"We want to start a movement called Game 3.0. It's about emerging entertainment, powered by the audience at the centre of the experience."

Home is similar to Second Life, the popular 3D universe for PCs and Macs. Gamers can create avatars - online versions of themselves - and buy new clothes and create their own homes.

Mr Harrison described Home as a 3D social networking service.

Dynamic advertising - including high definition video - can be pushed into the 3D universe.

The service launches in the autumn and Sony hopes it will answer critics who feel the firm has been overtaken by Microsoft in the online gaming arena.

Home players will be able to buy clothes and furniture

Sony is hoping companies outside of gaming will want their own spaces inside Home.

"This is not just about Sony brands and Sony games - it's a much wider network of connected spaces," said Mr Harrison.

"There will be individual locations dedicated to game publishers, game developers, and titles.

"Over time it will extend to non-game brands."

Mr Harrison also debuted titles for PlayStation 3 at the San Francisco conference that would leverage the success of social networks such as MySpace and FaceBook.

An online version of karaoke title Singstar will let gamers share video clips of their vocal efforts and leave comments for other players.

"The industry is on the threshold of a new era of creativity, collaboration, communication and commerce embedded into an experience to empower games," Mr Harrison said.

Sony Unveils High-End LCD Displays

Everyone was surprised when Sony killed the Trinitron line of desktop displays-the Trinitron series had long been recognized as some of the best CRTs on the market, regardless of the size. Another shock came when Sony announced that they were ceasing production of all displays entirely, including their modest LCD lineup. It seemed that Sony was out of the display business entirely. Then, this week came another surprise.

Sony's getting back into the fiercely competitive LCD display market with the new Luma series of widescreen displays, and to rise above the competition of the Dells and the Samsungs and the NECs, they've decided to aim squarely at high-end graphic designers and video editors who need some of the features Sony claims the Luma displays will offer. The new Luma lineup sports two 20-inch models (the LMD-2050W and the LMD-2030W) and a 24-inch model (the LMD-2450W). The LMD-2030W is geared specifically towards people doing a lot of video production, and has several inputs on the back of the display, including HDMI, composite, RGB, component, and standard DVI. The LMD-2050W and the 2450W both offer the same inputs, but add on features like side-by-side video, built-in closed captioning, Sony's proprietary Chroma-Tru color processing for accurate colors (a feature that graphic designers will appreciate), and both support 1080P input for high definition video.



The new displays are scheduled to start shipping in May, and no pricing has been announced, but it's clear that these kinds of displays are not aimed at the general consumer or even the home video/photo enthusiast. Expect to see very high prices, but for those in the video processing or graphic design business who might benefit from these kinds of features, it may be worth it to have them all rolled into the same display.