"Finally! After years of waiting, looks like Home is finally to release to the masses. Version 1.00 of the Home client has been released to beta testers. The new Home moves from the "Game" section of the XMB to the more appropriate "PlayStation Network" area.

A slew of changes have hit Home in its 1.00 update. The virtual PSP has disappeared, replaced with an easier-to-use Menu Pad (pictured). Various areas of Home have been renamed. An Online Manual and Tutorial have been added, to make it easier to understand the numerous features of Home. Players will now be able to background download new Home areas -- it was a big hassle having to wait for a few minutes before loading each new area.

One of the big features of 1.00 is the Clubs system. This feature allows players to create clubhouses, where up to 32 players can meet. Although this feature is free to beta testers, it will be a paid service when Home rolls out to the public.

The new 1.00 beta looks like a significant improvement over previous versions of the service. Now, we're going to wait for Sony to officially release the service to the entire PlayStation Network community."

For those of you unfarmiliar with home

PS3fanboy

NXE probably put home development into over drive , better later than never.

MORE NEWS (Thanksmakingmusic476 )

Supposedly hundreds of thousands of invites will start going out tomorrow for load testing, with the beta opening up to the public before the end of the year. Apparently it will never be "officially" released, instead being continually improved over time via patches and updates.

In other words, the public beta is it.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=342757

To clarify the premium charge for clubhouses Over time new premium Clubhouse designs will become available, as will other tools and services to support and personalize your club. Please note that we are currently testing this feature, and clubs created in Closed Beta will be deleted when Open Beta starts. More information on this to follow soon.

MORE NEWS 21 November 2008

WRUP: OMG HOME LOAD TEST edition

A lot of you will be invited into the Home beta tonight. So, if you're one of the many lucky people that are already in the beta (or have just been invited!), we urge you to go online and stress test the beta. If you can be there 9-11PM EST (6-8PM PST), we'd appreciate it! Maybe you'll even find one of the PS Fanboys lurking around, doing a jig near a bubble machine.

• Andrew Yoon - Yeah, I'll be on the Home beta, but most of my weekend will still be on Killzone 2. I'll also be trying to get some Trophies in Burnout Paradise -- so please show up in the stadium!
  
• Jem Alexander - I'm trying to reign in my "one game per console at any given time" rule. So, for this weekend it'll probably be Resistance 2 on PS3, Left 4 Dead on 360 and Professor Layton on DS. Obviously I'll be wandering around Home every now and then wearing my awesome Echochrome suit, too.
  
• Majed Athab - Just Dead Space and Resistance 2. Sorry, nothing excitingly new to share.
• Alan Tsang - Nothing exciting for me either -- Dead Space, Fable 2 and Rock Band.

32 player groups vs 8 player groups in XBL?

Home will almost certainly offer a superior experience to NXE but then it's been in development for years so it's not a fair comparison.

lol...32 people...

Sony likes their number games. "Oh yeah...well we got it too...except more..."

Do most of you have 8 freinds you would like to "party up with" let alone 32? I didn't thnk so...

I've been waiting so long for this... I remember when the release date was set for October 2007 LOL

But seriously Sony...please let this come out soon...p-p-p-please

Not really, but does it hurt to have the ability to?

I hope they release this bitch before the end of 08.

They are going to need to milk this for al it's worth, seeing how they're currently somewhat struggling.

What about meeting up with your Resistance clan? Or your Killzone 2 clan? Or more than eight people from VGChartz?

I think Sony made it 32 to match up with Killzone 2. Take your clan into Home, talk game, play test tactics perhaps, have a training match, or just a skirmish for fun.

It matches pretty well with R2 as well, as you can take 30 people on one side of a match.

I think the real question here is, will you ever have a time where it seems like a bad idea for you? I didn't think so...

Edit, double thought stricken out...

Number's wise I'm sure Sony absolutely will love touting 32, versus 8. From experience I can say more is not always better, as I had 6 friends in a party last night and getting 7 people to talk about one thing coherently was trying.

Regardless, I'm not trying to slam Home, I hope it works out great for the Sony faithful. I wonder how much of the functionality in home will be "paid content" though (as this is listed)? Sony has to defray their sunk development costs somehow, right?

Same.  It'll probably be like those free mmo-games and second life and such.  Free to run around in and the basics are free, but to get cute new things, pay up.

Understandable, as you said they need to get back their development costs AND hopefully for them make a profit too.