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   With GDC 2007 now behind us, we can safely say that Sony stole the show with Phil Harrison's keynote. During his speech, Home was announced as a free 3D online service for the PlayStation 3, along with the highly innovative game LittleBigPlanet by Media Molecule. These two alone gave Sony a huge PR boost, just in time for the European launch of their next-gen console; only ten days left, by the way. So now that they're back in the (good) news, they go with the fl0w and reveal even more details about the PS3 Home service.

   Thanks to GI.biz, we found our way to a PDF document titled "Home Development Q&A", uncovered on Sony's developer website. The document answers plenty of pre-emptive questions, some more technical than others, but also several noteworthy for us mortals.

   Arguably the most important bit of info to surface is the rollout schedule for the Home service. The first (closed) beta testing phase will take place from April to August, and will host around 15,000 users. The next (open) beta will allow for some 50,000 users, and will continue from August until October - when the Home service is planned to go live.

   Below, we tried to pick just a few other details contained in the document:
- In time Home will play host to many types of event. Bespoke events such as exclusive game previews and developer interviews will be organised by Home and its affiliated content providers. Live events such as sports and concerts may also be broadcast within Home.
- All transactions will use the Sony Wallet system within the PSN Store, although ultimately transactions will be possible without leaving Home.
- Initially Home will only be accessible via that PlayStation 3, although over time our intention is to enable users to interface certain Home features and services via other networked devices such as PlayStation Portable (PSP) and mobile phones.
- We're aiming for the initial download to be under 500MB. Subsequent downloads will hopefully integrate a streaming method that makes them negligible.
- Your Home user name will be the same as your PSN account ID.
- Currently Home is not a persistent world, so when you leave Home, all of your possessions go with you. For instance, it is not currently possible for other users to visit your apartment while you're not there. We are working on the persistent aspect of Home, and expect to implement it in the long term.
- Ultimately, an auction service will be implemented that will allow users to sell their Home assets and user-created content to other users.    On an interesting note, an MTV interview with Sony Worldwide Studios boss Phil Harrison reveals that Home was actually born on the PlayStation 2, as "a very simple 3D lobby system that could connect a bunch of [PS2] games together". Then they realised the power of it, and thought: "actually this should be a platform initiative and this is something we should bring to all PlayStation 3 games and all PlayStation 3 users". So they did. Or will do.