Sony Computer Entertainment began accepting applications on Thursday for a closed beta test of its PlayStation Home virtual environment.

PlayStation Home is a virtual world where users are represented by avatars and can meet and interact with other users via text chat, voice chat and other unspecified communications methods, according to Sony. In demonstrations given by the company it looks something like a combination of the online Second Life virtual community populated by personal avatars along the same lines as Nintendo's Mii avatars, albeit with an appearance closer to that of a person and less like a cartoon.
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PC World - Sony Begins Accepting Applications for PlayStation Home Beta