After announcing plans to shutter its PlayStation Mobile division — a move that will take into affect in July — Sony has followed through on its decision to take down 3D virtual world of PlayStation Home for good today, April 1.
Far from an April Fools Day prank, the Japanese publisher confirmed that the Sims-esque service will be taken down at 12am PT/3am ET/8am BST. First launched in December of 2008 for PlayStation 3, Home offered PlayStation users with a living, breathing world in which to interact with fellow gamers, with a variety of in-app purchases and cosmetics fleshing out the feature.
Those advocates of the service needn’t fret too much, however, as Kovok is currently working on an all-new interactive world that will bear some semblance to PlayStation Home. Entitled Project Nebula, the social world will take advantage of the industry’s bleeding-edge tech, including support for VR headsets such as Oculus Rift and Sony’s own Project Morpheus.
Here’s a brief status update about the project courtesy of Kovok:
We are currently on the process of building a virtual world for the PS4 called Project Nebula. Project Nebula will have the same social interactions as PlayStation Home but with the next generation technology, endless possibilities for avatar customization and we will support Oculus Rift and Project Morpheus. We will start small just like Home did and grow with the ideas, suggestions and creativity of the community. Everyone will vote and decide the progression of the platform. Beta release is scheduled for November of 2015.
PlayStation users will part ways with PlayStation Home today, April 1, for the final time. Tell us, are you disappointed to see the service be taken offline? Let us know in the comments.