At Gamescom today in Germany, Sony have released details of their upcoming firmware for their Playstation 3 Console, to be released this September, coinciding with the release of the Playstation 3 slim.Adding on to the date and time display in the top right corner of the Xross Media Bar (XMB) will be the Status Indicator. It will now display the avatar used for your account, information on the number of your friends that are on-line and will also have a horizontal scrolling text space that will display news as it happens.
The battery indicator has also been moved which was one of the more annoying, and most requested features of the firmware update.
Replacing the Information Bar that is present in the current firmware will be the "What's New" section. Instead of lines of text with links to websites, the What's New section offers an album art style that will link to either Playstation related news or take you to a section of the Playstation Store.
Your ability to customize the XMB has also been improved, now you will be able to use dynamic animated themes for the XMB. The default theme has been improved to include sparkles that move across the screen, and also shown was a LittleBigPlanet Theme that has Sackboy running across a globe while a night and day cycles on the left.
There will also be a new collection of avatars for you to use for your profile, premium versions of either avatars and themes will be available to buy.
The year old Playstation 3 trophies will be getting an update also; now you will be able to differentiate trophies better between those included in a game, and trophies added in downloadable content after release.
This will let you see the percentage completed for different trophy sections of the base game and any add-ons, this will be included in games that are to be released, but wont affect older games at release.
Other small updates include short-cuts across the XMB for videos, games, etc. that will let you go straight to that section of the Playstation store without having to navigate through to get to your videos or game downloads.
The friends list has also been updated to improve viewing your friends list and profiles and will also show include viewing messages.
The update is reported to go live on the first of September, below you can find a short video of some of the new updates to the XMB.
Yes indeed! Because showing your avatar and the number of your friends online in the top right hand corner is an amazingly original and state of the art feature! Pure awesomeness.
I own a PS3 BTW, and I find nothing interesting in this video at all.
nothing to see here, ... it is a waste of time.
somebody had to say it
somebody had to say it
I would have to agree. I have an XBox 360 and a PS3, but I may sell the PS3. I just find that I use the XBox 360 much more than the PS3. It looks like a decent update, but many of those features were already in the XBox 360 OS...
Should've bought a 360 and a separate Blu-Ray player. You would have gotten a better experience with separate devices. Not to mention you'd have saved yourself a large sum of money too.
Silly billy. You can already have more than 4GB in size files on the PS3. It's the transport medium you're using that is limiting you (your external) as that has to be FAT32. Do it over-the-air instead.
the ps3 would never use NTFS.!
But with a DVD player you can remove the disc, turn the system off... whatever... and when you put the disc back in or power up it remembers where you left off. That's what I'm referring to.
@virtorio: one of the PS3's selling points is that it has a blu-ray drive, and you still want to play DVDs? hmm. Maybe rip your foreign-region DVDs to DivX, or simply decrypt them and remove the region protection, then re-burn them?
Really that again? God.
Bring on 4.0 w/ BC.
It's nothing new, but glad to see Sony include it.
Backwards Compatability for those not in the US who didn't get it at all.
Yes I have owned PS, PS2 and PS3, but I never went back to the PS after I had the PS2 and since the PS3 I've never played a PS2 game....you really want PS2 BC...I have an old PS2 I could sell ya
2. Wireless controllers if you don't have them for PS2
3. Convenience
4. Unlimited free memory cards
2. Wireless controllers if you don't have them for PS2
3. Convenience
4. Unlimited free memory cards
+1
Why would I want to have to consoles, twice the wires, and much more hassle to just go back and play old favorites even some of the new PS2 titles?
This update looks promising at least.
Some people like to complain too much.
:facepalm: Some times I really wonder...
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