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When Japanese architect Kenji Ikemoto was tapped to create a virtual public square notwithstanding the Sony PlayStation 3, he invented a chic online community

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The gaming rooms are filled by old-fashioned arcade machines for such games as Dig Dug, Pac Man, and Galaga.

By Kenji Hall

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Back in July 2007, architect Kenji Ikemoto got any unexpected requisition from a contact at Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony’s (SNE) video game one. Was he interested in artful an online virtual globe for the company’s PlayStation 3 gambling console? Ikemoto, 37, was intrigued. The founder of Jota Associates had worked on residential and commercial buildings around Tokyo, if it be not that had not any experience in video games and not any clue why Sony would want to hire a real-world architect for like a project. The offer began to make meaning at the time he met with officials at Sony Computer Entertainment’s office: They wanted to create a virtual cityscape rivaling hip areas of Tokyo.

When PlayStation Home launched on Dec. 11, after more than a year of delays and months of testing, PS3 users in Asia finally got a glimpse of Ikemoto’s Home Plaza. He had designed a split-level plaza surrounded from one side four buildings on each island. Off in the distance, beyond a body of water, tall buildings sat at the foot of a vast eminence range. If it were in the real world, the plaza would cover 5,000 square meters (54,000 square feet). "Everything in Home can actually be built if you spent the coin," Ikemoto said.

The PS3 has trailed Microsoft’s (MSFT) Xbox 360 and Nintendo’s Wii for more than two years, and Home is Sony’s latest essay to give its machine a leg up on the competition. The online 3D world is section social network, part multiplayer online game, and it’s a free download through Sony’session PlayStation Network for the in greater numbers than 17 million PS3 owners. For now, Home isn’t a great deal of more than chic apartments, a mall, a bowling walk, an arcade, a movie theater, and a cafe. So it’s no surprise that in the greatest degree of the reviews have been either mixed or critical. "For many of us, Home simply isn’t anything we want," wrote Ben Kuchera on tech news site Ars Technica in mid-January.

And Sony has other, bigger problems. On Jan. 22, it forecast a $2.9 billion year-book operating loss—its first in 14 years, and a significant downward revision from its previous fore-announcement for profits.

Sony has recruited Electronic Arts (EA), Ubisoft, Red Bull, Paramount, Diesel, and others to set up their acknowledge shops and mini-game venues. Users quick spring by creating a digital character, or avatar, picking outfits, and furnishing a commencing apartment. Once outside, they can roam the complex. Red Bull hosts airplane races and Electronic Arts will soon have card tables, golf, and go-kart racing. "Our goal for Home is to give users a fun place to form communities," says Junji Shoda, Sony Computer Entertainment’s vice-president in employment of Home.

Tapping Ikemoto in the place of the project wasn’t the original plan. In at the opening of day 2007, Shoda’s team in Tokyo received the template from Sony’s studio in London and worried that it wouldn’privately pack off in Asia. One subordinate part of the Home team in Tokyo conception they should get a real architect and recommended Ikemoto. After he signed in continuance, members of the Home team told Ikemoto they wanted a rolling landscape for Home Square. The rest was Ikemoto’s call. "They told me: ‘Here’s a grass-grown area. Now build something,’" he said.

Ikemoto had nothing to compare the experience to. Typically, architects have to think about cost, availability of materials, and local building codes, and can spend up to two-thirds of a project in on-site meetings with the builders and other contractors. With Home, none of those things mattered. It was as if a developer had written Ikemoto a disconcerted bridle and freed him from the usual limitations. Ikemoto was stumped. "Without those considerations, it’sitting harder than you might deem," he said.

Sony’s team in Tokyo was also in unfamiliar territory. Many of the team’s members had experience creating games and were accustomed to giving office of the christian ministry to programmers and designers. "We had to do the opposite this fit season," said Home producer Yoshikatsu Kanemaru.

Using scale architectural CAD software called VectorWorks, Ikemoto condensed exclusive months’ work into a few weeks. He pulled all-nighters to achieve a blueprint and kept up the frenetic pace during his Friday meetings at Sony’s offices, where programmers and producers transformed his ideas into computer-generated 3D images.

Original text: http://rss.businessweek.com/~r/bw_rss/asiaindex/~3/521049440/gb20090123_837565.htm