PlayStation Home

London, 17th December 2009: Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) today announced the launch of Sodium One, a new and evolving multiplayer online game space now available within the ground-breaking 3D gaming community, PlayStation®Home. Since the beginning of the open beta in December 2008, PlayStation Home has dramatically expanded the amount of content available, now offering gamers a multitude of casual games to play, over 50 spaces to experience, and hundreds of virtual items to collect. With the launch of Sodium One, exclusive to PlayStation Home, the service further evolves into a true social gaming platform, complete with both snack-size mini games and extended gaming experiences, to share with both existing friends and new friends met within PlayStation Home.

“As we pass the one year anniversary of PlayStation Home, it is clear that the platform has evolved beyond recognition,” said Darren Cairns, Head of Online Marketing, SCEE. “Today we take this evolution to the next level with the launch of PlayStation Home’s Sodium One, the first self contained, multiplayer space. Sodium One, not only leverages the power of PS3 to deliver a truly unique, and visually stunning gaming experience, but is also a perfect example of how social interaction and gaming can combine in a way that cannot be replicated on any other platform.”

Starting on 17th December, PlayStation Home users can access Sodium One from the World Map and be transported to a futuristic, action-packed social gaming environment. In Sodium One, a new technological era has dawned bringing with it interstellar travel, rapid colonisation of the galaxy, inexhaustible energy, advanced Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) and the power to travel between quantum realities. This new age has also brought a host of new challenges where players must battle for harmony with their environment and sometime survival.

Sodium One, developed by Outso and published by Lockwood Publishing, starts players in a social hub located in the Nevada desert. Players must check in with A.I. life-force “VICKIE” to obtain their objectives, and then battle through multiple levels for a spot on the leader board, either in individual combat or as a multi-player experience, while earning credits and rewards to be redeemed in within the game. Sodium One features objective-based meta-games, full arcade-style games and community events. During the first section of the game, “Salt Shooter,” players must hunt self-replacing robots with tanks in order control their population. Gamers can play through the first five levels of “Salt Shooter” for free, or unlock additional levels and experiences with the purchase the virtual items, ranging from €0.99 to €4.99.

By leveraging the power of PS3, Sodium One delivers awe-inspiring visual graphics and rich gaming social experiences only possible on the PS3 platform. Due to the flexibility of the PlayStation Home platform, the genre-defying Sodium One space will continue to evolve over time. Players can look forward to new games, community events and virtual items to be added, further revealing the story and offering new experiences and challenges.

As with all PlayStation Home spaces, Sodium One enables PlayStation Home users to interact, communicate and share experiences. Players looking for a more social experience can become a bartender and serve virtual drinks to friends at the ‘Sodium Hub”, or compete with friends in mini games. PS3 owners can customise their PlayStation Home avatar with Sodium One gear while exploring the virtual community in real time, and communicating freely through text.

Sodium One is one of more than 50 spaces within PlayStation Home. Game publishers continue to recognize the value of directly interacting with the gaming community to increase and extend consumer interest in their game titles via new mediums of game play. SCEE has many partners developing virtual environments and game-specific content for PlayStation Home, including to Activision, Electronic Arts, Capcom Entertainment, UBISOFT, DoubleSix and others.

PlayStation Home has also garnered growing enthusiasm from the PlayStation community, connecting millions of PS3 users to each other and to unique interactive experiences. To date, 10 million users around the world have visited PlayStation Home to play games, attend special events, watch videos, listen to music, meet new friends, and launch into multiplayer PS3 games, averaging 60 minutes per visit. With new users, entertaining new spaces and virtual items added regularly, PlayStation Home offers new thrills and opportunities to connect gamers with every visit.

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

For more information, please contact your local PR manager.

About PlayStation®Network

PlayStation®Network is an entertainment network that unites people and innovative entertainment to deliver captivating experiences worldwide. In addition to offering new and original forms of entertainment, PlayStation Network supports free and community-centric online gameplay, communication tools, and PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) and PlayStation®3 systems connectivity. PlayStation Network has more than 33 million registered accounts worldwide.

For more information contact:

SCEE Press Centre

Email: scee_presscentre@scee.net

Tel:+44 (0)20 7859 5000

About Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE), based in London, is responsible for the distribution, marketing and sales of PLAYSTATION®3, PlayStation®2, PSP™ (PlayStation®Portable) and PlayStation®Network software and hardware in 99 territories across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Oceania. SCEE also develops, publishes, markets and distributes entertainment software for these formats, and manages the third party licensing programs for the formats in these territories. Since the launch of PLAYSTATION 3 in November 2006, over 16.8 million units have been sold globally and continue to be sold at a record level. Maintaining its position as one of the most successful consumer electronic products in history, PlayStation 2 has sold over 137.7 million systems worldwide. Since its launch at the end of 2004, over 44.5 million PSPs have been sold globally, highlighting the importance of the portable entertainment market. With the huge increase in interest and accessibility of network applications and network gaming, over 13 million people have registered to PlayStation Network, the free-to-access interactive environment, and over 236 million items have been downloaded.

More information about PlayStation products can be found at http://www.playstation.com or visit the Virtual Press Office at http://www.scee.presscentre.com.

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