Hosts: Evan "Vampt Vo" Minto, Mitchell "MitchyD" Dyer
Topics: Playstation Home beta and Christopher Handley's manga obscenity trial

As if last episode's mind-bending advance recording didn't confuse you enough, this episode was recorded a full twelve days ago. That means that we're not even thinking about Christmas or our end-of-year top-10 lists, because this was recorded on the 14th. We manage to have some pretty focused discussion in this episode about PS Home and Christopher Handley, so have a listen. For next episode, we might just be doing a big end-of-year episode with Mitchy, Max, and Karl.

Show notes and links can be found after the break.

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[0:00:00] Intro (this link is for people who are about to ask me who Walter Amos and Rob Fenelon are)

[0:00:10] Opening Song: "R.O.D Theme" by Taku Iwasaki (R.O.D. OVA opener)

[0:00:21] We couldn't find a specific topic, so we decided to talk about the latest posts on the blog. This meant that we pretty much just discussed the Playstation Home beta and Christopher Handley's manga obscenity trial.

[0:00:42] Evan does the whole introduction thing, then pimps an episode of the Anime Jam Session podcast. Our very own staff member and occasional podcast host Uncle Yo appeared on episode 20 of the AJS podcast, where he performed a bit of his comedy act. Apparently the AJS site is down at the moment, but when it's working again you can find it at this link.

[0:01:35] What'cha Been Doing? We've been reading Black Jack, watching Gurren Lagann and Appleseed, and playing Far Cry 2 and Valkyria Chronicles. This segment also contains Battalion Wars and unintentional video game racism.

[0:16:55] Break: Clip from Battalion Wars 2 cutscene. Engrish ensues.

[0:17:26] Discussion. We start with the Playstation Home beta launch, and Mitchy talks about how much he is bored by Home. Then I talk for a few minutes about the viral marketing campaign for F.E.A.R. 2. Next is a long rant about Christopher Handley, manga obscenity, and why the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund needs to change into the Comic Book Legal DEFENSE FORCE.

[0:46:46] Break: "Kaeshite! Knee Socks" by Hirano Aya, Katou Emiri, Fukuhara Kaori, & Endou Aya

[0:47:26] Links of the day: Right Now, Someone Is Reading This Title (Evan) and Katamari on your iPhone (Mitchy)

[0:53:09] Ending Song: "WORLD END" by FLOW (Code Geass R2 second opener)

Links:
Anime Jam Session podcast
Playstation Home open beta to launch this month
PS Home beta launches amid... no hype whatsoever
Urgent Message from "Case Man"
Carl Horn, Jason Thompson respond to manga obscenity case
Right Now, Someone Is Reading This Title
Katamari on your iPhone

Earlier this week, we announced that Sony's Playstation Home beta would be released at some point this month. Two days later, Sony let everybody know that the beta would be launching... the next day. If a Sony executive is reading this, allow me to direct your attention to a certain console that used a similar strategy a couple of years ago. Perhaps you will notice how stunning its sales were.

As such, the Playstation Home launch was also plagued with problems. Until 10PM on December 11 (around six hours after the official launch), very few people were able to download or log into Home due to unknown errors. By December 12, most of the bugs were sorted out, but by that time the hype around the launch had already faded. Sound like another high-profile Sony release? At this rate, it looks like Home will also go "the way of the Sackboy."

Regardless, if you're a Playstation 3 owner with some time to kill, make sure that you try out Home. Ineffective release or not, there are people to meet, games of Warhawk to play, and victims to quincy.

[via Joystiq]

As hard as it might be to believe, Sony Computer Entertainment of America's Playstation Home director Jack Buser confirmed today that the open beta stage of Sony's Sims-esque social interface - Home - would be launching on the Playstation 3 this month. Nope, he didn't say "this month, next year" (i.e. December 09), he actually confirmed that Home is on its way by the end of the 2008 calendar year. Disgruntled Playstation 3 owners (or soon-to-be-owners come the holidays) will undoubtedly be delighted to finally be able to try out the feature after over a year of delays and broken promises from Sony.

While there is definitely a lot to celebrate about for Playstation 3 players, it's still rather troubling that the open beta stage is the furthest that Sony has gotten so far. Home was originally announced in March of 2007 with a rough launch date of October 2007. It has been over a year, and the OPEN BETA (not the final version) is just reaching us right now. If anything, the development time was likely lengthened both to improve Sony's lacking online infrastructure and to combat Microsoft's Xbox Live updates in the New Xbox Experience. Sony will certainly need to do something to quell Microsoft's sizeable grip on online gaming.

Perhaps Home will be just the weapon to defeat the Xbox Army, but count this blogger among the skeptics.

[via Joystiq]