Sony has delayed its Playstation 3 virtual world, home, for the second time. Kazuo Hirai, president of Sony Computer Entertainment, said that the work is not completed yet for the much anticipated project.

"We understand that we are asking PS3 and prospective PS3 users to wait a bit longer, but we have come to the conclusion that we need more time to refine the service to ensure a more focused gaming entertainment experience than what it is today," said Kazuo Hirai.

At Tokyo Game Show 2007 in September last year, Hirai said that the launch of Home, the virtual 3D gaming world, was postponed for spring 2008. This was the first delay for the project announced in mid-2007.

What this second delay means is that more users will have access to the now Closed Beta service starting this summer, but at the same time, there’s no chance of seeing a PlayStation Home release in 2008. The company didn’t provide any precise release date so far.

Sony's "Home" for PS3 users appears to be a mix of Second Life and Nintendo's Mii, in which the avatars are very customizable and designed to look like real life humans. Harrison said that players will be able to communicate via voice, text chat (supported by a USB keyboard or a virtual keyboard) and through canned speech and gesture. The environment looks like a luxury resort and Sony said that every PS3 owner using "Home" will get their own private apartment, which can be customized with almost any media available on PlayStation 3's HDD.

Sony has embedded into the game the possibility of displaying custom content on public displays within the virtual world, opening the way to showing advertisements, trailers, and user-created content.

Sony said Home will have a Hall of Fame, where the users can display their 3D trophies, unlocked through in-game milestones in PS3 games. Of course, "Home" was intended to stimulate users into buying and playing new PS3 games, which will lead to the unlocking of different items within the virtual world.