PlayStation Home was a virtual 3D social gaming platform developed by Sony Computer Entertainment's London Studio for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) on the PlayStation Network (PSN). It was accessible from the PS3's XrossMediaBar (XMB). Membership was free but required a PSN account. Upon installation, users could choose how much hard disk space they wished to reserve for Home. Development of the service began in early 2005 and it launched as an open beta on 11 December 2008. Home remained as a perpetual beta until its closure on 31 March 2015. Home allowed users to create a custom avatar, which could be groomed realistically. Each avatar was given a personal apartment that users could decorate with free, bought, or won items. Users could travel throughout the Home world, which was frequently updated by Sony and its partners. Public spaces were made for display, entertainment, advertising, and networking. Home's primary forms of advertising included spaces themselves, video screens, posters, and mini-games. Home also featured many single and multiplayer mini-games, and hosted a variety of special events, some of which provided prizes to players. Users could use items won to further customise their avatar or apartments. History PlayStation Home was originally named "Hub", and started as a 2D online lobby for the PlayStation 2 game The Getaway: Black Monday. However, the online userbase for the PlayStation 2 was too narrow and the project was soon ported to the PlayStation Network for the PlayStation 3. Phil Harrison, then president of SCE Worldwide Studios at the time, liked the idea of having a virtual 3D community hub for PlayStation gamers, and transferred the project to what would become PlayStation Home. In a 2007 keynote speech, Phil Harrison used the term "Game 3.0" to describe the service. Home had been speculated since the launch of PSN, when Sony expressed interest in such a service, specifically trophies (known at the time as "entitlements") for first-party titles. PlayStation Home, as a feature, was first publicly mentioned in an interview with NG-Gamer. This was later detailed by Kotaku and finally confirmed by NG-Gamer. It was officially announced by Phil Harrison on March 7, 2007, during his keynote speech at the 2007 Game Developers Conference where it was originally scheduled for a global public release in October 2007. Home was delayed and expanded multiple times before initially releasing. Invitations to the closed beta were offered to winners of a weekly