Following last week's unveiling of Home at GDC by SCE Worldwide Studios President Phil Harrison, Sony has posted a new development Q&A that goes over the basics of the virtual community in addition to shedding some light on a few new details. While Harrison simply said that Home was slated to launch this fall, the Q&A specifically states October as the new release date. The service will go live following a 15,000-user closed beta from April to August and a 50,000-user open beta from August to October.

Sony also noted that there is a size limit on the number of people allowed in a lobby. A maximum of 64 concurrent users is permitted, but "a multitude of lobbies can be active at any time to accommodate all users."

Predictably, Home will also become a center of commerce on the PS3, not just between Sony and the consumer, but also between users. "Over time the range of content available to users will expand dramatically. If you consider Home to be a simulacra of the real world then most goods and services found within the real world could theoretically be replicated within Home. Initially all commercial transaction will be via the PlayStation Network (PSN) Store. Eventually users will be able to transact within the Home environment," said Sony in the Q&A. Transactions, as expected, will be handled with the Sony Wallet system that current PS3 owners use to purchase items on PSN.

There's even the possibility of attending (virtually) ticketed events in Home. "...in time Home will play host to many types of event. Bespoke events such as exclusive game previews and developer interviews will be organized by Home and its affiliated content providers. Live events such as sports and concerts may also be broadcast within Home," Sony stated.

Interestingly, Sony noted that a proposed business model is still "under review." That said, the company anticipates that revenue will mainly come from three areas: Content purchases (e.g. avatar clothing and accessories), Advertising, Content Auctions. There's no question that PS3 gamers will be marketed to. "The possibilities for promotion and advertising of products and services within Home Spaces are virtually limitless," said Sony. "Given the initial broad set of functions and features the possibilities are limited only by creative vision. As the native features of Home will be continually growing, the creative possibilities will grow also. The Home Platform Team will also take feature requests to support our partners in their creative endeavors."

Sony, however, has cautioned that it's about the experience first, and advertising second. "Home is primarily a platform for social interaction and the intention is not to create a space for purely conducting ecommerce. Home prioritizes community and entertainment over ecommerce," the company promised. "That said, we believe that there will be ample opportunities for businesses and individuals alike to generate significant revenues from the Home platform."

Sony added, "Advertising is a core revenue source for the publishers who will have to put a lot of resource and money into making the Home experience as fulfilling as it will be. As an offset to having to pay for the basic online service, and being able to enjoy the fundamental Home experience for free, some advertising is entirely reasonable. Advertising will be kept to palatable levels however. It is in no one's interests to cause users to leave Home through excessive advertising."

Other notable bits of information from the Q&A include the promise that Home will be updated with new content on a weekly basis and that the initial download for the service will be under 500 MB. Sony said that "subsequent downloads will hopefully integrate a streaming method that makes them negligible."

Check out the full Q&A linked above for more information.