After news broke last week that the average PlayStation Home session is over 55 minutes long it may be a relief for some to know that PlayStation Home may have something a little more interesting to fill your time with in the coming weeks, months and years.

The more observant guys and girls out there may have noticed some strange graffiti that has been appearing on the walls of home square. Well it turns out that is your link to Xi – nDreams and Sony’s latest attempt to gather some momentum (and interest) with Home.

So what is Xi? Well we sure as hell didn’t get any clear answers from the teaser trailer. Thankfully the US PlayStation Blog has shed some light...

 “The world’s first console-based Alternate Reality Game starts today in PlayStation Home.

Called Xi , the adventure takes place in a series of secret areas in Home – and beyond – changing day by day, week by week, in real time. Anyone with a PLAYSTATION 3 can join in the fun for free.

To discover the mystery of Xi, simply log on to PlayStation Home and look for the graffiti on the wall in the main square. Find that, and all will be revealed….”

Xi is available right now in both European and American regions so go fill your ‘Alternate Reality Game’ boots.

This courtesy of PS3 Fanboy:

Did you hear? The Home open beta starts today. The client has been patched up to version 1.03 and the servers are down while Sony does various jiggerypokery behind the scenes. TedTheDog states that the service should be back up, along with the launch of open beta, "early PM UK time," though he adds that he can't be more specific than that, thanks to the nature of the global updates.

Ted also confirms that the Home icon will appear on the XMB as soon as the final switch is pulled, though people who are using their PS3s at the time will need to restart. In case you're wondering, it's already past Midday in the UK, so it could go live at any minute. We'll update this post as soon as that happens.

It's been a long wait, but we're finally all going Home. SCEE has announced that the service will be available to everyone starting tomorrow. From the looks of it, there'll be no firmware update involved. The Home icon should simply appear under the PSN section of the XMB after a system reboot. As for what content you can expect to see once the open beta begins, there'll be plenty more than in the current closed beta, with more coming soon.

The Far Cry 2 game space will make a return and new content, such as clothing from Diesel, furniture from Ligne Roset and the Red Bull Air Race space will appear. Game spaces for Uncharted, Warhawk and SOCOM will follow "vey soon." Watchmen movie content has also been announced via the press release, including "an exclusive video greeting from Watchmen Director Zack Snyder as well as the latest Watchmen trailer. A selection of virtual Watchmen merchandise e.g. T-Shirts with the smiley face logo, Doomsday clocks and character statues, will also be available in the New Year, ahead of an exclusive Q & A event where cast and filmmakers will meet selected press and competition winners fans within the Watchmen themed environment. "

Check the PS3 Fanboy website for more information... It might even get you excited about the service all over again.