The Winter Holiday celebration continues this week in PlayStation Home, with tons of awesome new content scheduled to arrive on your PlayStation 3 this Thursday, December 22nd. This week will see the release of some seriously spectacular personal spaces that are packed to the brim with goodies, as well as a massive overload of new items on the shelves in the PlayStation Home Mall (along with some sales you will not want to miss out on). From updates to the popular Winter Holiday Hullabaloo event to a multitude of new videos in the Community Theater (complete with special rewards), PlayStation Home is truly the place to be this Holiday season!

Forget snow and ice, mittens, scarves, and frigid weather. Lockwood Publishing’s new Board Figment Dream Yacht will help you get away from the cold of winter. Spend your holidays like the Home elite, basking in the sun on the deck of your private yacht, or soothe your cares away in one of the two on-board hot tubs. It’s the perfect place to entertain guests, with several lounge areas and exquisite views of your own private tropical hideaway.

The Dream Yacht comes with some beautiful furnishings already in place, but if you spend some time exploring its expansive three floors you may find more things to add that special finishing touch ;) With such opulent surroundings, it’s only natural to dress to impress. Visit Lockwood’s Exclusive Store (only available on the Dream Yacht) to gain access to a variety of elegant fashions that will assure your style is a cut above the rest!

Leap into the future with LOOT’s brand new Space Apartment, a three-story personal space with expansive views of outer space. This future-forward personal space is equipped with highly advanced technology powered by the unique Space Apartment’s Remote Access (S.A.R.A.) system. With S.A.R.A you can:

• View up to 5 different Twitter feeds from a ticker.
• Search for photos from your Flickr account and display them on any or all of the 15 photo screens available throughout the space. Each photo screen even lets you set-up your own slideshows.
• Choose from 8 screen locations to view LOOT EOD (Entertainment On Demand) content. LOOT EOD screens let you watch free full length movies and TV shows from Crackle, listen to live music radio from RadioIO and watch live events powered by Ustream and NASA TV!
• Control your Space Apartment’s retractable ceiling, automated blinds and dynamic lighting options.

S.A.R.A. and LOOT welcome you to the home of the future – available this Thursday only in PlayStation Home!

The first new clubhouse in 3 years releases in PlayStation Home this week. Set amongst the red rocks in the sunny and sand-strewn desert valley, the Desert Haven is a clubhouse that allows up to 32 members a private location to meet up and play games together. That’s not all – those of you that purchase the Desert Haven clubhouse will receive the classic PlayStation Home clubhouse for free! Check out this guided tour from our buddy Sal (he’s been spending time in the desert ever since he retired from the waste management business) and then visit the special public space version of the Desert Haven this Thursday to get and up-close-and-personal look at this awesome new clubhouse.

Ever dream of flying? We all have – which is why we are excited to announce an update to one of the most popular PlayStation Home spaces of all time. Enter Red Bull Flugtag, which has been updated to allow you and your friends to assemble into teams of four and create and launch your very own custom craft. You’ll be rewarded handsomely for your skills, assuming the wind doesn’t blow you over. Red Bull has also made updates to the Red Bull Beach where the latest Red Bull Illume action adventure photography is on display. Pay a visit to the Red Bull MXT vehicle, which is fully equipped with flat screens displaying special videos and speakers that are sure to be pumping some sick beats. Afterwards, make your way over to the Red Bull vending machine where you have to play to get your wings. You’ll see what we mean…

Celebrate Novus Prime’s one year anniversary with a free Personal Lightning Shield item, courtesy of Hellfire Games. Surround your avatar with a crackling energy field and wow your friends. Click HERE for your free personal code, available only from Hellfire Game’s Facebook page.

The PlayStation Home Mall receives yet another huge update this week with festive furniture and clothing items from Juggernaut Games (including four new companions – Mini-Rudolph the Flying Reindeer, Leo, Gertie, and Simon the Chimera, Rocky the Rottweiler, and Spike the Pittbull), nDreams’ Ninjitsu costumes (complete with custom animations) and Name of Lights furniture items, brand new Animated Gold clothing items (ballers and shot-callers only need apply), additional Weird Wear accessories from Mass Media (stylish bags available in His and Hers designs), and new additions to the hilarious Urban Camo line as well as Anime and Gothic clothing (courtesy of Konami). Here’s a look at some of the awesome items coming to the PlayStation Home Mall this week!

For a limited time only, we’re slashing prices on select games for your personal spaces. Head to the PlayStation Home Mall this Thursday to pick up Chess, Checkers, and Solitaire, all at a price that simply cannot be beat!

Attention Exclusives Collectors: For a limited time, you can get the new Emerald, Ruby and Sapphire bundle at a discount if you own any of the following items: Gold Suit, Diamond Suit, or Home Mansion 1st Floor, 2nd Floor, or Infinity Pool. That’s not all. You real estate magnates can get the Summer House, Lakeside Log Cabin, and City Penthouse for $2.99 and Wizard’s Den for free when you own the Gold Suit, Diamond Suit, Animated Diamond Furniture Collection, Ultimate Diamond Collection, or Home Mansion 1st Floor, 2nd Floor, or Infinity Pool!

The Winter Holidays are in full swing with tons of new videos coming this week to the PlayStation Home Community Theater, including a Xmas Special from PStalent.com, the latest and greatest from HomeCast Rewind, an exclusive Hip Hop Gamer montage, yet another great episode from our friends at Urgent Fury, and the seventh episode from the one-and-only PSXextreme. Head to the PlayStation Home Community Theater this Thursday to watch these excellent new videos made by the PlayStation community, for the PlayStation community (you’ll also get the PStalent picture frame, a stylish Hip Hop Gamer jersey, and LittleBigPodcast antennas just for showing up!)

Last but certainly not least, the Winter Holiday Hullabaloo continues this week in Pier Park. This collection of quests and community activities rewards players with exclusive items and collectibles only available from this limited-time holiday event. Start by going to the Activity Board to start the Winter Holiday Hullabaloo quest; then catch a boat from Pier Park to transport to this chill(y) locale where Snowman and Snow Bear will provide clues that will lead you throughout a vast winter wonderland filled with tons of surprises. Complete all the quests to unlock a variety of special rewards that will leave your inventory bulging with awesome mementos of the 2011 holiday season!

Please note that this will be the last PlayStation Home update for 2011. More content will be published on Thursday, January 5th 2012. Until then, the PlayStation Home team wishes you all Happy Holidays. See you in the New Year!

The holidays arrive in PlayStation Home this Thursday, December 15th with the force of an F5 gust, bringing games, quests, rewards, and plenty of wonderful, wintry fun for all. Beginning in the newly-decorated PlayStation Home Mall, players will find a plentitude of festive items at deals that simply can’t be beat. From free goodies hidden within the stores as a sign of goodwill towards all to special bundles priced as low as they go, ‘tis the season to go shopping in PlayStation Home.

Of course, no winter holiday would be complete without a special event, which is why we have called in favors with our friends Snowman, Snow Bear, and some very special guests for what is sure to be the celebration of the year.

Hosted in a snow-covered Pier Park, the Winter Holiday Hullabaloo is a collection of quests and community activities that reward players with exclusive items and collectibles only available from this limited-time holiday event. Start by going to the Activity Board to start the Winter Holiday Hullabaloo quest; then catch a boat from Pier Park to transport to this chill(y) locale where Snowman and Snow Bear will provide clues that will lead you throughout a vast winter wonderland filled with tons of surprises. Complete all the quests to unlock a variety of special rewards that will leave your inventory bulging with awesome mementos of the 2011 holiday season!

Just in time for New Years, Lockwood releases their Midnight Glade personal space, which lets players unleash a pyrotechnic display against the dark sky. With grassy fields that turn into gently sloping hills, an idyllic spreading oak tree, and a campfire area the Midnight Glade is the ideal spot to ring in the New Year with your friends.

Pick up the Zeus and Comet rockets from the Lockwood Publishing store, choose your favorite colors and then position your launcher (diagrams and details on the back of the launchers which will help make setting up the perfect display easy). Get eight of your friends in the Midnight Glade at the same time to unlock the Supernova Firework reward – you can use the built-in Gift Machine to send them home with a gift or two (and they can return the favor)!

The PlayStation Home Mall receives yet another huge update this week with new Mydeco items from VEEMEE, additions to the popular Drey line from Lockwood, Adidas clothing courtesy of Konami, more Urban Camo costumes (also from Konami), and tons more!

To help celebrate the release of PlayStation Home v1.6 last week (which now allows for up to 100 items to be placed in your personal space), we’ve even put select decorations on sale in the Furniture store. Here’s a look at some of the clothing, furniture, costumes, and companions coming to the PlayStation Home Mall this week – be sure to log in this week and add these items to your collection!

Sodium2 sees the second part of the Payback Update this week with the introduction of brand new fuel additive and frame upgrades for your velocity racer. If it’s sheer speed you’re after then you can now turbocharge your racer with a selection of new fuel additives. Shave precious seconds of your best Sodium2 run with these indispensible additions to your Velocity racer set-up. And for those of you hankering after the perfect racing line, you can now upgrade your crafts frame to provide previously unmatched levels of stability. Show your rivals who the boss is with these new awesome upgrades – available this Thursday in Sodium2!

We here on the PlayStation Home team are feeling especially festive this holiday season. In the true spirit of giving, we’ve created a special holiday quest that will take you through the stores of the PlayStation Home Mall on a scavenger hunt for a variety of free items (special thanks to the wide community of PlayStation Home developers for donating content to this special holiday quest).

Finally, we wanted to give you all a sneak peek at one of our soon-to-be-released clubhouses – the Desert Haven. Set amongst the red rocks in the sunny and sand-strewn desert valley, this remote property is a shared space that allows up to 32 members a private location to meet up and play games together. Check it out!

See you in Home!

This Thursday, December 8th, we will release the latest update to the PlayStation Home client. PlayStation Home version 1.60 delivers a wealth of improvements and updates to the core client, not the least of which is a doubling of the item placement limit in personal spaces! Here’s a look at what’s coming to you as part of PlayStation Home v1.60:

How to Apply the v1.60 Patch
If you are upgrading from an old version of Home (v1.40 or earlier) then when you attempt to apply the v1.60 patch please wait for the orange “hard drive activity” light to stop flashing on your PS3 before commencing the patching process.

NEW FEATURES

Furniture Placement Limit
• We have doubled the furniture placement limit in personal spaces and clubhouses from 50 to 100 items.
• Standard and active furniture limits have been merged into the same system. Currently all actives take up 22 furniture slots in the new system. Thus you can now place a variety of different combinations:
• 100 standard furniture items or…
• 78 standard furniture items and 1 active or…
• 56 standard furniture items and 2 actives or…
• 34 standard furniture items and 3 actives or…
• 12 standard furniture items and 4 actives.

GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS

Targeting in Personal Spaces
• Targeting in personal spaces has been improved.
• This means you shouldn’t accidentally target furniture items through floors or ceilings any more.
• Although we have made exceptions for wall hangings and lights as these tend to be placed quite high up.
• If you find any items of furniture in places you can’t reach then you can always remove them through the furniture browser and place them somewhere else.

Portable Items and Companions
• We have changed the way that companion portables work so they will now automatically re-activate after you enter and leave a game or relocate between spaces. No more having to put your companion away and take them out again when you do this!

Help System
• There is a new help system to aid new users as they explore PlayStation Home for the first time.

Arcade Games
• Arcade games are no longer subject to the 3 minute inactivity timeout when placed as furniture in Personal Spaces or Clubhouses.

CHANGES

Menu Pad
• We have removed the “Community” section of the Menu Pad. The information that used to be contained in here is now communicated via the Message of the Day pop-up at login and the new loading screens.

Of course, there are plenty more bug fixes and enhancements that are part of v1.60 as well which will help improve your day-to-day experience in the wide world of PlayStation Home. There are also additional tools for developers that will enable them to make better games than ever before possible on the platform are coming as part of this massive update. We’re excited to bring you a bigger, better PlayStation Home just in time for the holidays. Log in this Thursday to check out this upgrade and, as always, please give us your feedback at the official PlayStation Home forums.

In other news, it appears that ol’ Granny Lockwood’s been hard at work again, and this time she’s taken her inspiration from the chilly extremes of the planet the North and South Poles! Pumpkin Pie the Polar Bear and Popsicle the Penguin can’t wait to play with you. They both love to do tricks – be patient and they’re sure to show you what they can do (Granny Lockwood also knitted them some cousins just for the Gift Machine – look out for them – they’re only available for a limited time!)

Midwinter Angel or Burning Desire? This Winter Medusa line brings you the latest hairstyles, perfect for relaxing on a frosty afternoon or heading out to a glitzy evening party. Men have the choice of a new short, mid-length, or long look. The Troy is a side-parted, clean-cut look with just enough tousling to ensure it won’t look out of place with smart or casual attire. For those with angelic tendencies, there’s the wavy mid-length Gabriel, and for those who want a more casual look, The Tropical Dreamer is a long dreadlocked style.

Ladies can opt for up, down, or somewhere in-between. Up is The Burning Desire, an exquisitely complex do incorporating pinned waves and plaits, while down is The Eve, with gloriously long waves. The Midwinter Angel offers the best of both worlds, with pinned back sides and long loose locks. If you’re not sure which look to go for, the Medusa’s Winter Hairstyles Packs are available for both Male and Female – mix it up for each party!

Those of you that visit the new PlayStation Home Mall this week will also find awesome new items like VEEMEE’s “Devilrobots” companions and “Smug” furniture line alongside Mass Media’s latest additions to their Weird Wear series and various other items including new animated emoticons, companions (who doesn’t want a peacock?), new items in Threads (such as the Hollywood Celebrity line) and furniture (like the Star Projector)! Log in this Thursday to add these items to your collections! I hear there are going to be some freebies scattered throughout many of the shelves in the Mall this week as well…

The PlayStation Home Community Theater is updated this week with new content from Gamer Indepth—ShoutOuts, episode 20 and Luge Control, episode 3. In ShoutOuts, the team covers recent holiday community events, and showcases some of the spooky content releases, and Luge returns covering her first experiences in Home’s newest game RC Rally.

Lastly, our friends over at nDreams are excited to give you a sneak peek of their new War Room Clubhouse, coming soon to PlayStation Home. Check out this early screen shot from nDreams:

For those who may not know, PlayStation Home Clubhouses are unique private spaces where users can invite dozens of their friends to be members of the club, and anyone on the members list can come and go from the space, even when the owner is not present. These are excellent for building and sustaining gaming groups, clans, brotherhoods, sisterhoods, etc. because of this very flexibility and access as an invite-only space.

In addition to all the standard features you’ve come to expect from PlayStation Home Clubhouses, the War Room has a very unique social feature that helps club owners or team leaders get their message across during club meetings or discussions. It also includes a special access point allowing users to teleport from the War Room to other set locations. We’ll have more info regarding this awesome new Clubhouse soon – keep your eyes on this Blog to stay in the loop!

See you in Home!

Attn: Sodium 2 racers! PlayStation Home’s exclusive hyper-speed futuristic racing game will receive a huge update this week with new rewards, rivalries and explosive launch boosts. Beginning on Thursday, November 24th, players will be able to unlock up to 28 unique rewards by reaching new XP levels in Sodium 2 (those of you’ve who’ve already made it to the top of the game will also be rewarded these items upon entering the Sodium 2 launch grid). We’re also excited to introduce the new Rivals system, which expands your multiplayer experience by allowing you to go head-to-head against any other player in the scene as well as the last 20 players you’ve challenged in multiplayer mode – no friends list required. Finally, we’ve added another way for you to gain an advantage over your opponents with the Sodium 2 Launch Boost system. Time things right and you’ll receive an explosive boost off the starting grid allowing you to surge ahead of your competitors and seize the lead!

The final phase of the Turkey Chase game will be released in Pier Park this week. This classic game pits players against a horde of wily turkeys in a cat and mouse chase complete with brand new rewards. Catch them all, you will unlock Thanksgiving-themed rewards that are sure to make you an object of envy amongst your peers. Celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday in true PlayStation Home style with this ridiculous(ly fun) game!

Become the star quarterback with the Lockwood Lions Football uniform (or get the crowd fired up by shaking those pompoms in a bright Lions Cheerleaders outfit). Think of it this way – it’s a great way to burn off that Thanksgiving dinner you collect by playing the Turkey Chase game in Pier Park! You can also show your team allegiance by picking up the Milton the Lion mascot portable item, which will follow you wherever you go. These items (and more, including the new clothing packs from the high fashion Drey collection) will be available from the Lockwood Store in the PlayStation Home Mall on Thursday, November 24th.

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Those of you that visit the new PlayStation Home Mall this week will find some excellent deals with the Konami Holiday bundles and the 100 Item Super Bundle (available at a discount for Exclusives collectors). That’s not all – VEEMEE releases their latest line of TOVS clothing and furniture items, and we even have a new boom box for all you metalheads with tracks from one of the underground’s finest labels, Prosthetic Records.

The PlayStation Home Community Theater is celebrating LittleBigPodcast’s 3rd birthday with a special episode and an even more special reward courtesy of the LBPodcast crew and the PlayStation Home Community Management team. Afterwards, be sure to check out Luge Control, where the Tester star returns with a tour of the newest PlayStation Home spaces and tears into Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Hardened Edition.”

See you in Home!