Arguably, SOE’s virtual world/meeting place, Home has been a bit of a dud. It’s had a rocky road thus far, but it looks like there might be a glimmer of hope on the horizon. To be fair, Sony has always stated that Home is a testing ground for a number of future projects. It looks like this holiday season and early 2010 will see the first true realization of these behind-the-scenes- projects.

While Sony counts approximately 27 million gamers on it’s flagship platform the PS3, they’re currently just shy of have 50 percent of these users involved with Home (appox. 10 million). And even though these numbers seem paltry when set next to figures such as Zynga’s, Sony has a unique market, as they’re playing in a closed room, but now trying to open the doors to play with others. To this end, Sony announced today that a new game, quite different than Home players are used to will launch within Home’s virtual world. Typically, Home’s offerings are nothing short of an ‘average’ Second World experience. 3D avatars, wandering around, playing a mini-game here or there, etc. With the launch of Sodium One, all of that is about to change.

Not only will Sodium One give players a completely new experience with Home, it’s also a stepping stone to an even larger ambition SOE has in store. Following the lines of a traditional MMO, Sodium One is a virtual world within the virtual world of Home. In premise, the game is a simple action/pilot/shoot type game. However, any worries about the title’s ability to stand on it’s own within Home have been quickly dashed, as early reports state that the 3D art and animations are on par with today’s standards. I mention this, as Home’s standard wander around action is relatively slow, often begging the question – is there something wrong with my console?

As with a number of features within Home, Sony also plans on taking advantage of users’ willingness to pay with RMT’s to distinguish themselves. The first five levels are free, but after that, players have the option to unlock more xp through microtransactions ranging from $.99 to $4.99.

PlayStation Home director Jack Buser comments that this in only the beginning of a virtual goods business model in Home. “We’ve evolved Home into a true social gaming platform,” Buser said. “We are poised to take a leadership position in social games with Home.”

And as we predicted, 2009 has truly been the year of the free-to-play. Sony may not have been first on the spot, but that’s not to say they’re too late to the game. They’ve quietly been building the back end processing, currency, digital objects, and development and infrastructure to open the doors for developers to create virtual goods to be sold within Home.

Sodium One, developed by Nottingham, UK based Outso is only a first piece of a much larger full scale MMO developed specifically for Home. Halli Bjornsson, CEO of Lockwood Publishing, the firm behind Outso’s development work, said that Sodium Two will launch early next year with additional multiplayer combat options. Launching the title piece by piece allows Outso to tweak the game to users’ preferences as they move through the development cycle, and thereby reduce risk of non-acceptance.

As it stands right now, Sony’s outlook for Home is twofold: one piece will continue to expand the virtual content within the complete world of Home, while the other piece continues to develop tools for outside developers to create immersive 3D gaming experiences for Home users. Buser comments that around 30 game developers have already signed up for the process.

And to top it all off, Home’s numbers have been on the rise. October of this year saw 8 million users, while only two months later, Sony has capped the 10 million user milestone. 2010 already looks interesting and promising for Sony.