Today Sony announced that it had created a virtual 3D world called ‘Home’ which would allow users to have these things called avatars. These avatar things look like 3D people which users can customize and allow the users to move through and interact with Home and other user just like in the real world. Users will even be able to create or buy and sell things in this virtual world using the worlds own currency which can be exchanged with real live government greenbacks.

Wow, thats a brilliant idea! I’m shocked that no one else ever thought of that first. Oh wait… someone did. Its called Second Life and Linden Labs released it years ago. Once again thank you to Sony for being on the cutting edge of technology by putting out your own proprietary version of technology that others have already developed. Oh yeh, did I mention you have to have a PS3 to play. Sony’s biggest mistake in recent years was shutting down much of their R&D into non-core business related industries like cool robots that can walk on two legs like people. Maybe if Sony still had some of that research going on it might actually be able to create a truly innovative product again like it used to.

But enough Sony bashing (yes, I know its fun but we need to move on). As they say “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”. The fact that a major corporation like Sony is jumping onto this bandwagon demonstrates just how pervasive this technology has become and how much promise it has. Well, that and the 4.5 million users Second Life already has. Second Life was really the next step in the evolutionary process of massively multiplayer online games. Second Life already has numerous imitators anyway. My kids are on webkinz all the time. The biggest benefit I see to a large well established company like Sony getting in on the act is that Sony will bring with it the advertising dollars and interest from other big corporations like Reebok and Nissan (who have already agreed to advertise in Home). Having that type of corporate attention will really help to bring virtual world technology even more into the main stream. It will be interesting to see how this technology begins to have a real impact on the day to day lives of average people (as opposed to us internet geeks who have no lives). Could this be another little step closer to worlds of William Gibson and Bruce Sterling?