Wed, Jun 18, 2008 | 12:51 BST

Sony officially confirms in-game XMB and Trophies for Firmware 2.40

Sony’s admitted that the upcoming PS3 Firmware 2.40 will contain in-game XMB, talking on its US blog.

“We’re… happy to officially report that the 2.40 system software update for PS3 will include ‘XMB’ access in-game,” said PSN operations director Eric Lempel.

“The update will also include ‘trophies,’ an exciting new feature that we’ll be providing more details on soon, as well as some other new enhancements. We’ve talked about some of this on the blog previously and know that many of you can’t wait to get your hands on these features. You can expect us to share all of the official details shortly.”

So there we are. Guess you can trust some rumours, hey?

15 comments

#1

Rhythm
18/06/08, 8:02 am

Pfft! Give us something useful – couldn’t care less about trophies

#2

Blerk
18/06/08, 8:25 am

WHAT A SHOCKER!

#3

morriss
18/06/08, 8:41 am

Hurry up Dark Alex!

#4

DrDamn
18/06/08, 10:50 am

Well structured Trophies (achievements) can actually add a lot to a game. It’s not about gamer points, its about adding value to a game.

#5

G1GAHURTZ
18/06/08, 11:06 am

I thought it was about living

#6

Rhythm
18/06/08, 11:09 am

Balls to that, DrDamn. They suck on 360 and they’re going to suck on PS3 too.

#7

Psychotext
18/06/08, 11:14 am

I love achievements on the 360 and I’m going to love trophies on the PS3. =)

#8

morriss
18/06/08, 11:15 am

I’m addicted to ‘em. I’m sure one of the (many) reasons I liked Uncharted so much was the trophy system.

#9

Blerk
18/06/08, 11:17 am

Achievements – good. Gamer score – bad.

#10

patlike
18/06/08, 11:26 am

I don’t watch my Gamerscore any more. There’s a real MMO mentality to it. A bit scary, I think.

#11

Psychotext
18/06/08, 11:27 am

Yeah, what Blerk said too.

#12

DrDamn
18/06/08, 11:34 am

The only use for Gamer score is to give you a good idea of the relative difficulty of the achievement within a particular game. I.e. 5 GP = minor achievement compared to 50 GP for something else. Only within the context of a single game though, as there is obviously no consistency across titles.

#13

SplatteredHouse
18/06/08, 11:47 am

I agree with Blerk’s view also. All value in gamerscore was lost when developers were given free reign, there was no reference point, and it was progressively made an utter pig’s ear of. It’s just a bunch of numbers, now. I think that Trophies will probably have its own “thing” though (beyond “just” recording footage of your playing, and putting the clip on display for all-time prominence, lol)

Brilliance should be rewarded with virtual statues :D

#14

G1GAHURTZ
18/06/08, 12:22 pm

Well…

The PS3 takes another step closer to becoming the gaming console that the 360 was from day 1.

Now all they need to do is get an online community that’s comparible in size to LIVE’s.

#15

mightyhokie
18/06/08, 7:22 pm

I’ve been waiting for trophies. My primary console is my 360. I do have a decent gamerscore (11+k) but that is not my main thing. I love the achievements. It adds a lot to a game. I usually play through the game as I normally would, then go back to get the achievements that I didn’t get through regular play.

When ever I try playing a PS3 game it feels sort of like ‘a waste of time’ because I am not getting achievements. I know it isn’t about getting the achievements, it is about the greatness of the game. But once I started earning achievements on the 360 I never looked back. Now games don’t seem whole to me without that reward system.

For example, I finished GTA 4 on the 360. Now I’ve added hours upon hours of gameplay hunting pigeons and jumps and trying to get all the ‘stuff’ in the game.
Achievements are brilliant. I’m glad Sony is finally coming out with Trophies. It will help us 360-primary people feel like we are getting more out of the PS3 games.

If you don’t believe me, just wait until they come out. Once you earn a trophy and your friend does not, or visa-versa, you will see what I mean. =>

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