Sony has insisted, time and time again, that the open beta for PlayStation Home will launch before 2008 is over. Well, if you hadn't noticed, that time is rapidly approaching, so all journalists and gamers everywhere are on pins and needles awaiting the announcement...

From the inside information that we have, which may or may not be bogus, we'd like to say we know for a "fact" that Home will release within the next two weeks. To reinforce this theory, it seems the Times Online UK website has said the open beta will launch within "the next 10 days," which is only slightly more specific than our two-week estimate. Knowing Sony, it'd be pointless to ask if either of these reports are accurate, primarily because the "we don't comment on rumor or speculation" reply is just plain irritating and we hate seeing it in our inbox. But here's some speculation for our valued readers: if you check your calendars, Christmas Day falls on a Thursday, which, coincidentally, is the typical day for PlayStation Store updates. In two weeks, it will be December 22, although if it falls within the 10-day spectrum, our theory is broken. But if we're only talking about semi-rough estimates, wouldn't it be a proper holiday gift from Sony to all PlayStation 3 owners to deliver the open Home beta on Thursday, December 25...? I mean, that sounds like good marketing to us, but then again, perhaps it's just a terrible idea.