The much discussed 2.40 firmware update for the Playstation 3 was officially announced today. It will be available for download this coming Wednesday, July 2nd. If you’re reading this blog, chances are you know what a firmware update is, but for anyone out there not familiar with the language, it’s no different than updating your computer, iPod, or Blackberry’s operating system. It cleans up any bugs, improves digital security, and adds new features to whatever device you happen to be updating. The PS3’s firmware update brings a host of new stuff to the system that users have been clamoring for since the system’s launch in November 2006. The improved feature list includes access to the cross-media bar, or XMB, while playing a game. The XMB is the system’s handy row-and-column interface, organized into multimedia (stored video or audio), game saves, and community stuff like a friends list, etc. The update also ups the number of friends you can have on the Playstation Network to one-hundred. The other new feature is Trophies, Sony’s answer to Xbox 360’s Achievements. These are preset goals in games that signify play milestones for a user’s profile (Score a million points? Get a trophy.) The 2.40 update is a big moment for the PS3, yet another olive branch from the once haughty corporation to a slowly growing user base; Sony’s saying they’re listening and delivering.
Firmware updates for all of the current consoles, home and portable, are pretty exciting. General discussion of the videogame zeitgeist in the past year has concentrated on the burgeoning audience of casual players, motion controls, high-definition graphics, and user-generated content, but the malleable nature of gaming specific technology is just as revolutionary. Prior to this generation of consoles, hardware was hardware, and both developers and gamers were stuck with the machine they got until a system’s successor was released. But with this generation of consoles’ built-in internet capabilities, consoles can be tweaked to suit an audience’s fluid tastes. It might sound like a silly thing to focus on, but consider this: if the original NES could have received firmware updates, the infamous lockout chip issues that taught a million players to blow on carts could have been remedied. It’s an exciting time to be a gamer, even more so since these machines can evolve.
Many thanks to Next-Gen for their report on the 2.40 update.