Sony Computer Entertainment has announced that the PlayStation Home beta service will be available as a free download to all PS3 users from tomorrow, December 11th.

“PlayStation Home is a ground-breaking 3D social gaming community available on PS3 that allows users to interact, communicate and share gaming experiences. Within PlayStation Home, users can create and customize their own unique avatars and explore the virtual community in real time where they can communicate freely through text or voice chat. PlayStation Home users will not only be able to enjoy variety of entertainment content such as mini-games, videos and special events along with their friends, but will also be able to create their own community by using the “Club” feature to create clubs with other PlayStation Home users who share the same interests.”

‘Themed virtual environments’, also known as ’spaces’, will also be available to explore “allowing people to discuss the specific games, plan strategies and access content and clues that will enhance the gaming experience.” A Far Cry 2 space is said to be available to European users from tomorrow, with spaces for Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Warhawk, MotorStorm and SOCOM following very soon. SCEE also confirmed that Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Midway, Sega and Atari are also working on themed environments.

SCEE also announced the first partnerships planned for the open beta, including Diesel, Ligne Roset, Red Bull, Paramount Pictures, Hexus TV and Eurogamer that will offer residents virtual clothing for their avatar, virtual furniture for their PlayStation Home apartments, exclusive video content and a virtual flying challenge: the Red Bull Air Race. Check out a video of that at the bottom of the post.

“PlayStation Home is truly a promising network community service on the PlayStation platform, made possible with the powerful combination of PS3’s overwhelming computational power and PlayStation Network that covers many countries around the globe,” said Kazuo Hirai, President and Group CEO, SCE. “We are committed to providing PS3 users with exciting gaming experiences with PlayStation Home and together with our partners and users, expand the new world of interactive entertainment as we move forward.”

Talking to VG247, a SCEE representative told users to expect the service to launch in the evening.

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