PlayStation social-networking plan rumor sparks blog war

With the Game Developer's Conference coming up next week in San Francisco, rumors are flying fast and furious about what big announcements will be made by the guys who make those little plastic boxes that sit under your TV.

One rumor making the rounds is about a new feature for the PlayStation 3 called PlayStation Home, which would combine elements of the Nintendo Wii's Mii avatars with the Xbox 360's achievement points, creating an appealing social-networking tool. According to popular game blog Kotaku, this will be part of Sony Computer Entertainment President Phil Harrison's keynote address.

As a bizarre aside to this rumor, the blogosphere is now buzzing about Sony's reaction to the initial Kotaku post, which included canceling GDC interviews and freezing the site out from media events. You can find a wide-ranging discussion about this on Kotaku, Digg, Gizmodo, Joystiq, and GameDaily, among other sites.