Develop 2009: Up To 35 Percent Of PS3 Users Visit Home More Than Once

PlayStation Home is making money just seven months into its open beta. Pete Edward, director of the PlayStation 3's avatar-based social gaming service, revealed the most recent statistics for the service in a presentation titled "Home: First Term Report" delivered at the Develop Conference in Brighton, UK.

Of the 7 million global users who have used the service since the open beta's launch, 3 million were based in Europe. The average game session length of European Home users stands at 56 minutes and these users have to date downloaded 6 million free and paid for virtual items of merchandise with which to dress their avatars and virtual apartments.

"This is a commercial business," Edward said. "It's up and running, making money and can add significant value to your game IP." In the first month, he said, microtransactions generated $1 million.