Fans of Sony's PlayStation Home will have to get ready to say goodbye to the virtual world as it will be shutting down in the United States, Europe, and Canada in early 2015.
The move ends a 6-year history of letting users create virtual versions of themselves that could have an apartment, meet up with friends, watch movies, play games and socialize, according to Gamespot. The latest version of PlayStation Home was made for the PlayStation 3, which dashes any hopes of PS4 or PS Vita owners getting to create their own worlds.
The Japanese tech giant's North American and European managers revealed the decision, referring to it as "a shifting landscape." New content for Home will stop being published after Nov. 12th, and users have until Dec. 13th to download content. The service will be completely shut three months later on March 31st, and players with Home will receive some free content (which has not been specified) until then.
Home was launched by Sony's Computer Entertainment studio in London, and was described by gaming site Kotaku as a "one part Xbox Live and one part Second Life," PC Magazine reported.
The virtual social meeting place would launch in 2008 and again in 2011 with virtual TV watching parties, a new Hub, and additional MMO-like gaming options.
The announcement of Home's end follows a month after Sony Computer Entertainment Japan announced the end of the platform's services in Asia, Gamespot reported. Sony stated at the time that it operated Home separately in North America and Europe, and that it would still be available in these regions. However, that will no longer the case, come April 2015.
