What was a rumor last week has come gloriously true today as Sony president Phil Harrison dropped the details of PlayStation Home at this mornings GDC keynote speech.

PlayStation Home looks to be a combination of a Second Life style online world with Wii style avatars and Xbox Live style online connectivity and achievements.

"It's a unique realtime 3D community for the playstation network," Harrison said during his speech.

Each player will be represented by a fully customizable avatar, much more detailed than a Nintendo Mii, but the same idea...and have his or her own fully customizable, private apartment. Things like furniture, wallpaper and decoration can be added. There will be items that come with the system, items that can be obtained through games, and purchased from Sony.

Public spaces will include arcades where players can play casual games, movie theaters for downloading video and a hall of fame: A huge hall featuring "achievments" from the best players and your own personal awards of honor from PS3 games.

The game lounge allows players to interact over casual games, chat through headsets, customize their own "apartments" and otherwise exist in a virtual PlayStation world.

Public Beta begins in April.

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