PS3 Firmware 4.0

[Arwin]

Firmware 4.0 is up! Not that interesting, mostly stuff for Vita support and Playstation Plus owners get a nice benefit from being able to configure the autosync better. Also, unfortunately, a stupid health-warning has been added to the boot-up sequence.

A new system software update (v4.00) will be released this week. In preparation for the launch of PlayStation Vita (PS Vita) in Japan, this update will prepare PlayStation 3 (PS3) to serve as a content management device. It will allow users to copy their digital content such as games, music, photos, and videos between PS Vita and PS3, back up PS Vita game games including save data to your PS3 hard drive, and update the system software for your PS Vita system using the network features of your PS3.

Other changes to take effect with this update include:

PlayStation Plus members can now choose to enable or disable each automatic update feature
Game patches
System software
Recommended games and videos
Sync trophy information
New PlayStation Network settings for filtering friend requests and messages

You can find more details after the firmware goes live here. We look forward to your feedback.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Utter poop. Sony have clearly moved on from the PS3. They haven't given gamers anything they've wanted for the past year or more, and a whole version upgrade not changing anything I think underlines the point. There won't be any chat upgrades, browser upgrades, or any upgrades. And the addition of a pointless health warning when the manual clearly mentions that is an unnecessary inconvenience, so they've actually made the experience worse. Anyone with epilepsy living in this day and age should be well aware any and every screen could induce a fit. Hell, even those without epilepsy should be aware of it by now.

[removes angry hat]

 

[Arwin]

Well, non Playstation Plus owning gamers anyway. I'm happy with my cloud saves and auto-overnight patching. I really like that it tells me when I boot up what it has downloaded, updated and synched to the cloud. Particularly with two PS3s that's a godsend. Also, I have this enabled on one PS3 and not the other (last time I checked it was not possible currently at the same time for two PS3s with the same account, and there are obvious risks, but who knows being able to separate things), so I am frequently reminded of how useful it is.

Actual SDK features that are useful for games are usually hidden from our view, until a game uses them. I'm sure that if you are a Vita gamer, there may be quite a lot of stuff in here. But Vita isn't out yet for a few months.

I don't think Sony has necessarily moved on from the PS3 - they just focussed more on Vita this year. I think I've said / predicted the same half a year ago. Once Vita is out I think we may well see some of that energy trickle back to PS3, seeing some of the social features on Vita make it back to the PS3, though I'm sure party chat won't be one just because of memory issues and conflicts with existing gaming infrastructure and bandwidth costs. I reckon we'll have to wait for PS4 for that one.

The browser remains an enigma. I think the problem may be that the current one is used in some games, and can then run in 32MB. I don't think they can manage to get a webkit one boxed in in the same way, and I'm sure they're also far too scared of security leaks, but it sure would be nice if they tried. I'd really love a webkit browser with good move support.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Well, non Playstation Plus owning gamers anyway.

I don't think Sony has necessarily moved on from the PS3

I'd say they have. They are about PSN, PS+ and Vita now. What have they added to PS3 in ages beyond content services like iPlayer and LoveFilm? I doubt there'll be any features that aren't network based from now in (which means from a year ago in). It'll be PS4 that adds whatever service fixes were really needed this gen.

 

[manux]

I'd say they have. They are about PSN, PS+ and Vita now. What have they added to PS3 in ages beyond content services like iPlayer and LoveFilm? I doubt there'll be any features that aren't network based from now in (which means from a year ago in). It'll be PS4 that adds whatever service fixes were really needed this gen.

Proper support for 3d blu-rays including java and hd audio? It's not just about hmm. games They must have concentrated on vita support early enough so devs have time to use those features or we would see vita launch with no ps3 support.

 

[Cornsnake]

So my PS3 crashed again because the webbrowser is all kinds of shit. I switch off the console and restart it. Now it wants to do a check if it hasn't ruined it's own HDD. I can't opt out of this, and it says it'll take another 2 to 3 hours if it finds something. Thankfully it didn't.

Who the hell thinks of this nonsense? They really are determined to be able to sell it as a PC. They are making just as user unfriendly. I wish I could downgrade it to an earlier firmware version because I can't think any improvements they've made to it over the last couple of year. But can think of several things they've made worse, and things that are still severely lacking.

 

[Rotmm]

I'd say they have. They are about PSN, PS+ and Vita now. What have they added to PS3 in ages beyond content services like iPlayer and LoveFilm?

I don't really understand your expectations here. You complain that Sony haven't really added anything to the PS3, while at the same time listing new content services and PS+ additions (such as cloud storage, etc). They have also further improved the functionality of the BluRay player, added a new GUI control method with Move and performed numerous bug and security fixes via firmware updates.

No, there's no cross-game chat... but there never was going to be due to the memory issue. But other than that, what more do you want that isn't already provided?

 

[Arwin]

It is easy to overlook Home too, imho. Which I guess is unfortunate.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I don't really understand your expectations here. You complain that Sony haven't really added anything to the PS3, while at the same time listing new content services and PS+ additions (such as cloud storage, etc).

The biggest requests from people who bought PS3s are cross-game chat and a better browser. Sony have repeatedly hinted that they'd provide these things, but it's never happened. Now they've gone on record as giving up on cross-game chat. In the past year I've not had a single update that was of value to me. The same goes for lots of other people. There's nothing wrong with adding fringe function like 3D support, but Sony are supporting their other sectors and leaving the core PS3 owner behind. It's at a point where I don't want to update my PS3 because it's a waste of time to download (although I can do that while doing something else) but I have to to use PSN. It's just an inconvenience. And Sony had added to that with the latest startup warning.

Is it really too much to want to be able to look forward to FW updates like we used to because they actually improve our experience? Sony have given up on that. Now they only serve PS+ revenue providers and content providers and people buying new Sony hardware. Fine business practice, but don't expect me to be enthusiastic about that especially when I want to quickly look something up on the years old browser and have it crap out on me!

 

[patsu]

Besides Blu-ray features, they also added PSP compatibility, 3D gaming recently. I think 4.0 also adds privacy setting for all users. Some people have been complaining about spam and hate XMB messages. The privacy setting is supposed to address it.

Anyway, the full list of system updates can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_3_system_software

You can read at your own leisure.



Some say 4.0 is a lawyer's release. Besides the health warning, they also updated the "About PS3" item. It now discloses (all ?) the open source packages used. It looks like PS3 is based on NetBSD. The XMB security patches may be sync'ed with whatever security fixes the community apply to NetBSD.

EDIT: Recent firmware updates also added a slew of video services. These apps are extremely popular. I see equal or more NetFlix sessions than game sessions sometimes.

 

[patsu]

The biggest requests from people who bought PS3s are cross-game chat and a better browser. Sony have repeatedly hinted that they'd provide these things, but it's never happened. Now they've gone on record as giving up on cross-game chat. In the past year I've not had a single update that was of value to me. The same goes for lots of other people. There's nothing wrong with adding fringe function like 3D support, but Sony are supporting their other sectors and leaving the core PS3 owner behind. It's at a point where I don't want to update my PS3 because it's a waste of time to download (although I can do that while doing something else) but I have to to use PSN. It's just an inconvenience. And Sony had added to that with the latest startup warning.

I agree. I speculate that they may have traded cross-game chat away for universal RemotePlay support. They used to say RemotePlay takes up resources, and has to be turned on by the developers. Now they say, it will be available for all PS3 games when Vita is released.

Now if they chose RemotePlay, they might as well make it so that iPad, iPhone, Android, and other devices can be a RemotePlay client. Then it *might* be a reasonable trade off.

Cross-game chat can be added via additional client h/w (e.g., Official headset supporting SIP). That way we can use PSN Cross-game chat on other devices too.

 

[deathindustrial]

In total agreement with SG on this one.

Sony seems to have forgotten that the hardware belongs to the customer and not them. While I initially signed up for a gaming + multimedia system I am seem to have ended up with a hybrid ad serving kiosk which Sony views as their's to do with what they like. Similar to how the movie studios seem to view blu-ray (which is why the format is going to die much sooner than the studios would like).

 

[patsu]

There are also speculation that 4.0 is released to plug a timing hole recently discovered in 3.73. The vulnerability was leaked publicly 2 days ago. I don't know if Sony is that quick, but the hackers are trying to see if 4.00 patches the hole for good now.

The movie studios want purchase model to stick around, so they will play with pricing more to keep BR attractive. I saw like 30-40 movies @ $9.99 in Target just now. Nonetheless, the manufacturers who nickel and dime the BR specs have gimped Blu-ray's software future.

The "What's New" ads are out of the way. I don't usually see them. You can set the startup icon to be something else: Turn "Display [What's New]" to Off.


EDIT: I wonder if Vita is also NetBSD-based.

 

[patsu]

Perhaps this is why the health warning was added:
http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/05/11/36487.htm

[stolen from GAF]

 

[Shifty Geezer]

There are also speculation that 4.0 is released to plug a timing hole recently discovered in 3.73.

Why does it warrant a 4.0 nomeclature though, and not a 3.8?

As for the Oblivion complaint, on what platform? Every game I've seen for the past 10+ years has warnings that they can cause seizures, but I don't think the PC has those warnings. I don't see how Sony aren't already covered without needing another flippin' warning!

 

[Phil]

Perhaps this is why the health warning was added:
http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/05/11/36487.htm

[stolen from GAF]

This is frightning. I'm not sure how high the risk is of getting seizures in the general gaming population, but perhaps game-developers should take care not to provoke such things when going overboard with strobelike effects etc...

 

[Shifty Geezer]

This is frightning. I'm not sure how high the risk is of getting seizures in the general gaming population...

The same as prevalence of photosensitive epilepsy in the general population. I've been to movies that have strobe lighting and there are no warnings. TV mentions flash photography and similar when these are present. But if you've never had a seizure before then a warning is no use. I'm guessing this guy has watched plenty of TV and played other games without having a seizure, so thought he wasn't at risk, and then he got hit by a freak occurence and is now trying to blame someone else rather than his own wonky brain. A quick google explains this :

Most people with photosensitive epilepsy are sensitive to 16-25 Hz, although some people may be sensitive to rates as low as 3 Hz and as high as 60 Hz.

Are we to have games designers remove all flashing effects between 3 and 60 Hz just to be on the safe side?!

The guy's got a medical condition that cost him his job, and as he can't sue God or Evolution, he's going after the only tangible target. And as a result the response is disproportionate to the risk.

 

[tuna]

Has anyone timed the bootup time in 3.X and 4. It felt the same to me. Also, maybe now they can remove the health warning before every game!

 

[Arwin]

Has anyone timed the bootup time in 3.X and 4. It felt the same to me. Also, maybe now they can remove the health warning before every game!

Yeah, the message doesn't seem to have slowed anything down. And yeah, it would be nice if that means they don't have to do it in every game anymore, but I'm not sure that'll happen.

 

[patsu]

Why does it warrant a 4.0 nomeclature though, and not a 3.8?

As for the Oblivion complaint, on what platform? Every game I've seen for the past 10+ years has warnings that they can cause seizures, but I don't think the PC has those warnings. I don't see how Sony aren't already covered without needing another flippin' warning!

4.0 was already underway before the hole was discovered. One wonders what other changes are in. Since Shuhei talked about universal RemotePlay support, and this release supports Vita, there may be other OS level changes behind the scene.

Vita won't be released until 17th Dec in Japan, they can release 4.0 a week or two later.

The game has the warning but not the platform holder. That's probably why Sony got hit successfully. But I think perhaps they can give the developers the same warning that cover both the developers and Sony together for online risks, seizures, and accidents due to motion gaming.