Since it’s creation, Playstation Home has been virtually nothing more than a world in which advertisements run rampant. And, with the impending release of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, the deal is the same.

What you see above is the movie’s presence in Playstation Home where you will be able to view media regarding said movie. Additionally, once this promotion goes live, you will be able to pick up a bunch of free avatar skins at the Playstation Home Threads Store.

via Kotaku

A while ago we notified you of a 59-foot high Gundam statue that was constructed to celebrate the franchise’s 30th anniversary. Now, Sony has hopped on the same boat constructing a virtual version of the statue and put it on display in the Japanese version of Playstation Home.

Unfortunately, there is no word on a similar statue making its way into the American version of Home. However, this shouldn’t come as a surprise considering the contrast in Gundam’s popularity in the two regions.

Japanese PS3 owners looking to get a peek of the virtual statue better do so quick as it will only stand in Home from July 11th – July 23rd.

Read (Kotaku)

Picture credit to DannyChoo

Does anyone care about Home anymore? Well if you do then check out the recently released 1.10 patch notes below.

I wonder how far Sony is going to take home before they consider it a failure. Then again, with Sony really looking to make a killing in 2009, perhaps Home will take off and prove all of us wrong. I guess only time will tell at this point.

We are constantly tweaking and enhancing various game elements to improve your experience in PlayStation Home. Updates in 1.10 include:

* The speed of the initial log-on process has been improved and a progress bar has been added to provide you with more information about what is happening.
* Items that you have already purchased will now be loaded when you first log-in, reducing the loading time when you enter stores in the Mall.
* Other players’ avatars will now load faster when you enter a space.
* The names of Home reward items will now be shown when you obtain them.
* Download priorities have been changed so that certain graphics and images (like thumbnail images and World Map chips) will download more quickly.
* The inventory system (that stores Home Reward items) has been reworked and made more robust. We have also implemented additional safeguards to help ensure that you cannot inadvertently lose any of your items.
* The Chat log window will now always be displayed on top of any other on-screen graphics, except when zoomed in to a video or poster. When zoomed in, the chat window will no longer display.
* The size of the text box has been improved on message boards in Clubhouses.
* The option to “Block voice chat” has been changed to “Block chat,” which will allow you to block both voice chat and text chat at the same time. Players blocked with this feature will not be automatically added to the block list on your Friends list.

Continued after the break.

* The game camera will now go into attract mode once you have been idle for more than 3 minutes.
* The “Resign sub leader” command has been removed from the Menu Pad. Club leaders will now have to downgrade sub leaders if they wish.
* We have further improved the UI for a variety of systems including Game Launching, Clubhouses and the Store.
* We have made several memory optimizations to improve client stability.
* We have made graphical improvements to particle systems and water effects.

Bug fixes

* Furniture in Personal Spaces will no longer occasionally vanish when you leave lights or lamps turned on.
* Single-seat chairs and sofas can no longer be occupied by more than one person at a time.
* You can now turn lighting objects on/off in your Personal Space.
* Furniture layout issues in Clubhouses have been resolved.
* The “Refresh Club Menus” option in the Menu Pad should now work as intended.
* Dates will now be displayed on Clubhouse bulletin board messages.
* A fix has been applied to the Home Safe Screen reporting process.
* Your screen will no longer freeze if you leave a game session with the game disc ejected.
* Item names and prices will now display correctly in the Mall.
* Wallpapers will now be displayed properly when you invite friends to your Harbour Studio.
* You will no longer be able to make a phone call to players who have deactivated voice chat.
* You should now be able to use two-seater sofas properly.

While the service isn’t even out yet, Sony has begun collecting sponsors for Playstation Home. It was announced today that Red Bull has jumped on as the first major contributor.

Not much is known about Red Bull’s involvement with the service other than the fact that they will have their own zone in the virtual world that will showcase an airplace race-game modeled after their real life Red Bull Air Race series.

Playstation Home is currently in closed beta form, with an open beta expected to launch sometime this month, even though it’s been in development forever.

Read (Joystiq)
Picture via LIWC

Big name Japanese studios such as Capcom, SNK, Konami, Sega and Tecmo are on the list, as well as Western developers Activision, Ubisoft and Walt Disney.

A few examples of content were described by Sony. This includes character dolls from Street Fighter IV, along with content from Capcom’s other projects including Resident Evil 5 and Hot Shots Golf 5.

Hit the jump for the full list of studios.

• Irem Software Engineering
• Activision
• Acquire
• Atlus
• Walt Disney Japan
• AQ Interactive
• SNK Playmore
• Capcom
• Gung Ho Online Entertainment
• Q Entertainment
• Game Republic
• Genki
• Koei
• Konami Digital Entertainment
• Spike
• Sega
• D3 Publisher
• Tecmo
• Nippon Ichi Software
• Paon
• Hudson
• Bandai Namco
• Ubisoft