IGN has dug up a rather interesting Sony trademark application for an online service called BigFest, that sounds as if it could be the platform holder’s next version of PlayStation Home.
The BigFest trademark application — which was original filed on February 6, 2012 with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and was finally “published for opposition” on January 1, 2013 — is described as follows:
“Hosting on-line web facilities for interactive game play; hosting web sites of others for video and computer games or parts of video and computer games created by others on a computer server for a global computer network”
“Introduction and social networking services, namely, introducing video game players to each other for the purposes of playing multiplayer games online, participating in online games communities and competitions, and online player networking and social introduction”
BigFest‘s application lists the owner as “Sony Computer Entertainment Europe” and gives the company’s London office address. This seems to further tie BigFest to PlayStation Home because it was SCE London who originally developed the online service for the PlayStation 3.
The report also points out that bigfest.com is registered to Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, and the site currently redirects to the PlayStation UK’s official site.
As is the case with all trademarks, this could end up being nothing more than the application itself. However, it is interesting that the timing of the publication came just weeks prior to yesterday’s Wall Street Journal rumor that claimed the PlayStation 4 will launch later this year. The WSJ report specifically noted that Sony is looking to “incorporate more social gaming aspects into the [PS4]”, which is in line with the BigFest trademark description.
With the PlayStation 4’s official debut rumored to happen at Sony’s February 20th event, it should not be long before we get official word on if BigFest is the next generation PlayStation Home. If any additional details pop up before the announcement we will update this story.
