Delays are something gamers are pretty much used to in the industry, so it's probably not exactly heartwrenching to find out PlayStation Home will be delayed a third time.

Home is intended to function as Sony's own "virtual world", a place where users can hang out, interact, play arcade games, find DLC. Stuff like that. Users get their own virtual apartments, accessories, electronics, etc., so basically it's a virtual representation of a user's life.

Regarding the delay, Kazuo Hirai, president and group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. said in a statement they need more time:

“We understand that we are asking PS3 and prospective PS3 users to wait a bit longer [for PlayStation Home], but we have come to the conclusion that we need more time to refine the service to ensure a more focused gaming entertainment experience than what it is today."

"Our overarching objective is to provide users with new gaming experiences that are available only on PlayStation Home. Spending more time on the development and on the Closed Beta testing reaffirms our commitment to bringing a quality service, maintaining the PlayStation tradition."

This autumn, the beta will become open. Not too many details revealed, but the company says it will be “built around providing new and fun community gaming experiences, such as connecting PlayStation games with Home and providing places and items from the games.”

Will it be worth the wait? The system has been on the market for a significant amount of time, and it seems reasonable to wonder if this sort of thing is still worthwhile to put out (about two years after the launch). Financially, it will probably be successful and open up a lot of doors in a lot of different ways, now and for the future, in any case, and that can only be good, right? The other thing is that the console marketplace has changed this generation; no longer do we get pretty much a final product right out of the box, now there are downloadable developments, upgrades and content. Will this extend the life of consoles, due in part to this and rising development costs?