Say what you want about PlayStation Home, but the fact that it is capable of doing things unique in itself is great. For the average PlayStation 3 gamer who isn't the type to frequently visit PlayStation Home, they probably aren't aware that Home does things right now that our PlayStation Network doesn't and while we know that the capabilities for PSN are still growing and making fantastic strides (Go Go, 3.0!), there are just a couple of tiny features that Home can do but aren't yet present on PSN...
3. Inviting And Following
If you enter PlayStation Home's virtual world while a friend is already in there, you can connect to him/her in a number of ways. Our first being the Invites or the Following (known as "Go To") feature. With a few button presses, you can invite your friends to whatever space you are in, as long as it is a public space or your private space. When following friends, the same amount of effort applies, only you're the one doing the traveling. With a feature like this, PlayStation Home feels like a true community, except with out the voice chat feature, which is due to come back sometime in the future.
2. Game Launching
PlayStation Home will soon have the ability to Game Launch from any PS3 game when the v1.3 update comes in September. For anyone who's experienced Universal Game Launching in the Closed Beta days of Home, you would know that it won't take you to the online lobby of your games like it does now. There is a big possibility of re-introducing the same Game Launching that was there before, but we aren't 100% sure on that. Either way, it's a welcome comeback, but it would be very impressive to see Game Launching on the PlayStation Network. Imagine taking part in a voice/video chat with five of your friends. Someone else from outside of the chat room just got Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and needs some friends to get some practice in with. Simply by setting up a match from the XMB, a notice pops up saying you've created a game, and a Game Launching icon pops up where the Game icon does when you play a game. By viewing your profile or selecting the options, your friends can join in on the game, with a notification popping up acknowledging you of the people interested in playing Uncharted 2 with you. The rest would work like PlayStation Home's launching does, with a countdown to launch and perhaps a shortcut straight into the online lobby.
1. Chatting Around
While we aren't pushing this feature towards Sony's PlayStation Network team as something that we can't live without, there is no hiding the fact that this has been one of the most requested features by the fans since In-Game XMB access. The PSN team is working on this more likely than not, or else a Text Chat that can be accessed during games probably would not have been put in through a previous firmware update. Currently there are a number of websites and forums discussing a rumor floating around the internet about this cross game voice chat coming in a PS3 firmware 3.06. Whether or not this is true is anyone's guess, but a feature like this will really make the PlayStation Network complete and an utter nightmare for those who still want to defend a yearly $50 online fee from other consoles.