Business managers from the world’s leadings companies are set to make use of Sony’s PlayStation Home service to house virtual meetings.

The move is part of a project commissioned by Advanced Workplace Associates, which will see how large corporations can use virtual worlds in reducing travel costs and carbon emissions. Microsoft, Ernst and Young and Merrill Lynch are also taking part in the project.

"We advise some of the world's biggest companies on how to tap into the idea of workforce mobility,” said Advanced Workplace Associates MD Andrew Mawson. “The idea of one-person, one-desk and fixed office space is constantly being challenged by innovations in communications technologies and, more recently, the fallout from the global financial collapse."

“Increasingly we are living in a world without borders where workers need to collaborate on a global scale. Audio and video-conferencing solutions have emerged but the use of virtual worlds may offer the next evolution in overcoming the tyranny of distance - a more realistic and learning-enhanced environment where managers can brainstorm, give presentations, express behaviour and network at a more human level while being continents apart.

“The concept of personalised avatars and immersed realities takes us a lot further than the common conference call."

The PlayStation Home open Beta kicked off last month on December 11th.