Sony’s virtual world, Playstation Home, has been delayed multiple times since it was first announced in July of 2007. But an outreach for beta testers in Japan should give Sony PS3 owners a glimmer of hope here in the US. It’s unclear why the beta testing is being limited to Japan, but hopefuls can apply starting today until August 11. Sony plans to offer 10,000 gamers access to the virtual world in the latter half of August. An open beta test is expected to roll out later this year for other markets. Beta testers will be privy to a suite of Bandai Namco games that include Pac Man.

We’ll see if this actually happens. There has to be something wrong for Sony to have suspended the testing for over a year, right?