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PlayStation Home was an online service accessible through the PlayStation 3. It was a social platform in which you controlled a Digital Avatar and could interact with other people and places. The world was divided into several spaces, each with a different theme, based on genres, what you can do there, or which company was sponsoring it. There was a fair amount of customization to be had, from changing your avatar's clothes, to decorating your personal spaces.
It started as a largely social platform with some advertising and light games. However, the games got more focus over time, and some pretty deep ones emerged as a result. It ran from its start in 2008 to its shutdown on March 31st, 2015. The final day was recorded
by Giant Bomb.
PlayStation Home provides examples of:
- A Home Owner Is You: For about 5-10 real world dollars you can purchase many different types of fancy houses to store rewards you unlock. Personal spaces costing 10+ often come with some form of minigame, perk, or other special bonus.
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: Many games and quests will just give you threads for completing their goals. Sometimes, you'll get a shirt or something similar just for entering a space.
- And Your Reward Is Interior Decorating: Sometimes, you'll get a chair, or a table, or a doll, or an ornament, or other furnishings for completing tasks.
- An Interior Designer Is You: You start off with an apartment space and some furniture which you can arrange as you like.
- Big Fancy House: You can buy one of course, but it costs about the same price as a brand new video game if you want everything for it. There are a few milder versions of this trope that are cheaper, though they aren't nearly as cool as the expensive stuff.
- Bragging Rights Reward: An update added some trophies for players to unlock. Most of them are extremely easy to get, but a few can be quite annoying and time-consuming to earn.
- Bribing Your Way to Victory: Some of the games can be unplayable unless you spend a little money for boosts. For some other games, you will only be able to play at certain intervals unless you pay for some extra tries.
- Cross Player: Given the avatars, this is likely.
- Developer's Foresight: By exploiting glitches in some of the personal spaces, you can move furniture out to places that were never meant to be seen. In the default Harbor Studio, where a dock is visible in the distance, there's a plaque in the distance that reads "You really shouldn't be able to read this".
- Digital Avatar: Usually human-like, but there are some accessories that can make you look like something else.
- Emote Animation: There are a lot of choices for these, ranging from signs of approval to dances.
- Fur Against Fang: The theme of one of the Halloween 2013 special events. Players who showed up for it got vampire/werewolf costumes and could play a short minigame to score points for their side.
- Holiday Mode: The main space will be appropriately decorated whenever certain holidays are close, like Christmas.
- Microtransactions: Small payments exist for many things, ranging from clothes and furniture to power-ups for some of the games.
- Mini-Game: Plenty of these, especially in the sponsored spaces.
- Product Placement: There are a good amount of sponsored spaces, where you can win branded clothes to wear and props to show off.
- Purely Aesthetic Gender: Choosing a male or female avatar will make no difference gameplay-wise.
- Temporary Online Content:
- Some spaces will be taken down for one reason or another, meaning that the items within can never be obtained again.
- Some items can only be obtained during limited-time events. If you don't get them then, you usually won't have another chance.
- Virtual Paper Doll: There are many items you can have your avatar wear.
