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After around 19 months since its launch in Japan, tomorrow will see the release of PlayStation 3’s Firmware 2.40. The update’s a major software upgrade adding many features the community’s been demanding for years. So. Can we finally consider the PlayStation 3 to be the finished article?
The features added by 2.40 have been met with open arms by the Sony fan-base, whereas if we’re being honest, we all expected these things to have been included “out of the box” in 2006. Of course, it’s a positive sign that Sony has listened to users and invested time and money into making these changes, but the elephant refuses to move from the room: why did the company think PlayStation 3 was suitable for release without these functions all those months ago?
While many rejoice at being able to access friends lists in-game and gasp at fact that you can now play music stored on your console’s HDD – very welcome features, obviously – it seems the most integral fact of console multiplayer gaming has been overlooked: cross-game invites.
Receiving a game invite, pressing a button and being instantly transported to a lobby where your mates are all waiting, has been a Xbox 360 standard since launch, and was actually first realised on the original Xbox with Halo 2. However, with the official Sony word on this matter being, “Cross-game invites are not available in this system software update,” and, “We are evaluating opportunities to expand on the new features delivered in 2.40,” we wonder just how much longer we’ll have to wait.
Another omission is the ability to talk to people while playing other games, as is an in-game private chat facility. Console gamers have had access to these features for almost three years with Xbox 360: surely Sony needs to implement them sooner rather than later? Yet again however we are told, “We are evaluating the opportunity to offer voice chat.”
And it’s not just the games
Games aside, there are still gaps left by 2.40 in PS3’s multimedia functionality. Kaz Hirai remains unbending on the fact that PlayStation 3 is “just a games machine”, and yet update after update adds features such as DivX support and super-mega-Dolby Digital Blu-ray playback.
With that in mind, then, it must be asked why the Playstation 3 is the only high definition console on the market to not include an onboard scaler. The problem was highlighted just a few weeks after launch, and although there’s an 86-page thread on the subject on dedicated Playstation forums, by dedicated PlayStation fans, Sony so far has left it to individual developers to implement 1080i support instead including it in the machine’s software. Why?
Another fundamental feature for a high tech device is simultaneous output of Dolby Digital and stereo sound. When the kids are in bed and daddy can enjoy his games in true surround, he shouldn’t have to quit a game, access around six different menu functions and then finally reload the game. No. Daddy should be able to simply turn on his surround amp, turn down the television and away he goes. This currently isn’t possible. Fortunately, 2.40 has now made it possible to pause the game, access the XMB, and manually change it without having to quit out, which is a vast improvement, but it’s still far from perfect design.
Even the added feature of custom soundtracks has been tarnished, as the recent FAQ reveals that only specific games will support the feature, thus leaving yet another thing for developers to sort out themselves.
As PlayStation 3 owners, we have a lot took look forward in terms of games. We’ve recently been treated to the excellent Metal Gear Solid 4 and the mouth-watering prospect that is LittleBigPlanet is now only months away. However, we remain suitably nonplussed as to why these exclusions to the machine’s infrastructure continue.
While everyone – including us – is looking forward to 2.40 tomorrow, it’s hard to take the new features as anything other than a belated apology from a company who continues to make such basic, glaring omissions to PlayStation 3’s funtionality.
How long will we have to wait? Who knows. As to whether the machine can be classed as finished with 2.40, for the reasons stated above, we certainly hope not. Roll on 2.50.
By Mike Bowden
Viewing 45 responses
Psychotext said:
I suppose by definition these machines can never be finished. There will always be requests for new features… especially when other companies do things differently / better.
There’s still a ton I’d like to see added to the 360, PS3 and Wii. I can only hope that they’re still trying.
Blerk said:
It’s obvious why they released without all that stuff – because they couldn’t possibly have held it back any longer than they did. They’d already handed a significant head start to Microsoft – delaying any further would’ve been suicide.
From my point of view, the PS3 has been a complete shambles. There’s a decent machine just screaming to get out, yet Sony have (for my money) put all their efforts into the wrong areas. Their ’strategy’ (if you can call it that) is all over the place, and their apathy towards both the market and their customers is frankly astonishing – it’s like they expect to win by default so they’re not actually bothering to try.
I’m sure eventually they will overtake Microsoft and finish second this generation. But on current form they certainly don’t deserve to.
The PS3 won’t be ‘finished’ until the damn DS3’s bundled in, anyway. So no cake yet.
Blerk said:
Congrats on getting another whine about your Half-Def telly into a news post btw, morriss!
Whizzo said:
Considering it’s such a major release, calling it 2.40 is a bit odd.
morriss said:
Blerk:
Even Mark Randel of Terminal Reality had the same problem which is why he added a de-interlacer and 1080i support for Ghostbusters!
Quiiick said:
@ Blerk
I couldn’t care less about the DS3. I’m perfectly fine with my SixAxis!
The lighter a controller is, the better!
So, the best controller of all would be voice-input (correctly done that is)
Blerk said:
The lighter a controller is, the better!
Ooh – I absolutely 100% disagree entirely. Heavy == good.
Quiiick said:
@ Whizzo
Wait until you see Firmware 3.0!
Killerbee said:
The thing that still gets my goat about Sony and PS3 isn’t so much the yet-to-be realised potential of the machine; it’s the fact that the machines available today are actually lesser than they were at launch, and the launch Euro machines are lesser than their US and Japanese counterparts.
We’ve had constant uncertainty about PS3 SKUs and release dates and feature lists. Sone things can be sorted by firmware updates, but plenty of others can’t. Backwards compatibility is one; the fact that they sold everyone a rumble-free Sixaxis controller whilst they sorted out some ludicrous legal battle before releasing the Dualshock 3 is another.
I’m in the market for a PS3 right now – but I just don’t know whether it’s “safe” to buy one. Bundles probably won’t contain a Dualshock 3 for a while yet… and what if, contrary to all expectations, Sony do eventually get off their backsides and release the 80Gb model in Europe at long last?
There has never been this situation in the console business before (as far as I can remember). Yes, the DS phat got replaced with the DS Lite and the hardware was much improved, but the old DS still played everything the new one did and vice versa. It’s the fact that currently available PS3s do *less* than the launch ones. Offer us improvements by all means, but downgrading hardware is completely the wrong way to go.
Quiiick said:
@ Blerk
I absolutely 100% disagree entirely. Light == good.
yupyup said:
!
Too light / too heavy = bad. (Sixaxis, original Xbox controller)
CastellanSpandrell said:
Yes but the firmware may get updated periodically. Next question?
Psychotext said:
So you’d consider it finished CastellanSpandrell? You’d be happy if development ended with 2.4?
allen said:
I loved the heavy original xbox controller
. Made the chunky cars in PGR feel right 
.
lelik said:
I’m in the market for a PS3 right now – but I just don’t know whether it’s “safe” to buy one.
LOL you should get an xbox broski i hear they’re 60% safe.
morriss said:
The whole point of the piece is that we’ve had a console on the market for a very long without some of the most basic features known to man.
The question of whether it is finished is a rhetorical one. Of course more and more updates will be forthcoming but that’s not the point. The point is that Sony are still having problems implementing the most basic capabilities that should’ve been there nearly 2 years ago. And we’re thanking them for it.
Killerbee said:
Heh.
“safe” is the wrong word – it’s more that I can’t buy one with confidence that I won’t regret not waiting just that little bit longer to get a better deal when, say, the lineup for Christmas is revealed.
CastellanSpandrell said:
“So you’d consider it finished CastellanSpandrell? You’d be happy if development ended with 2.4?”
The PS3 is a finished product, the firmware isn’t and will continue to be updated. There, clear enough?
“The point is that Sony are still having problems implementing the most basic capabilities that should’ve been there nearly 2 years ago. And we’re thanking them for it.”
At least it’s just the software that’s the problem unlike the 360 and its hardware woes. I’d say that was more of a problem.
morriss said:
The 360 failing is nothing compared to not being able to play games in HD. Have you read any of the 86 page thread linked in the article?
Anyway, I’m not going down this road again. The whole “yeahbutxboxbreakslol” thing is tiresome.
And anyway, Microsoft are next on my list.
Blerk said:
The lack of a scaler is a pretty weird omission, I will admit, but you are coming at this from a pretty skewed angle, morriss. The vast majority of HD telly owners won’t have any problems with the PS3’s HD output.
They missed 60hz output off of the options for SD modes too, so you really should’ve whinged about that as well.
morriss said:
Not now they won’t back back when it was released they obviously did. (again, see thread and engadget article)
And yeah, there are many more things that could have been mentioned like the fact the controllers don’t “auto-off” after a few minutes if you’re not using it.
Again, all basic, fundamental stuff.
Still, I won’t say any more about it now, promise!
lelik said:
The 360 failing is nothing compared to not being able to play games in HD. Have you read any of the 86 page thread linked in the article?
Anyway, I’m not going down this road again. The whole “yeahbutxboxbreakslol” thing is tiresome.
And anyway, Microsoft are next on my list.
are you talking bout the ps3 or xbox not playing games in hd? cuz my 46 inch samsung says otherwise.
most games made by sony are 1080 like they said. anything sony will be at least 720p. 3rd parties make sub hd games. upscaler isnt neccessary unless your tv is ass.
klanger13 said:
Nooooooooooooooo. Don’t get him started again.
Blerk said:
I dunno about “most” Sony games being in 1080p. A few are, but it’s far from comprehensive.
Robo_1 said:
I think the differences between 360 & PS3 comes down to a fundamental difference between MS and Sony. MS is a software company, Sony is a hardware company, so both play to their respective strengths.
The community features of Live don’t interest me much anyway. That’s not to belittle them, as obviously many people are heavily into online gaming, and Live does a fantastic service to this market.
I’m what you would call, a casual online gamer, so Sony’s approach works better for me, in that online gaming is free (and wireless is standard), but the trade off is that the feature set is more basic.
Either way, 2.4 is going to be a great bonus for PS3 users, and even if there’s no getting away from the fact that it’s mainly playing catch up with where 360 was on launch, at least Sony are addressing these issues, and have clearly said they’re not finished yet, so there’s hope that voice chat, and invites are still coming.
In truth, I get the feeling that Sony were positioning Home as their version of Xbox Live but have since found that it’s not going to be the solution gamers are looking for, and Home has been re-positioned to become a Face Book/Myspace style portal for PS3 users, which I imagine they’re hoping will hold wider appeal than a more closed system such as Live.
Daniel Plainview said:
I’m happy
morriss said:
“I think the differences between 360 & PS3 comes down to a fundamental difference between MS and Sony. MS is a software company, Sony is a hardware company, so both play to their respective strengths.”
Although no simultaneous audio output and no hardware scaler…
wz said:
Seeing the unbelievable feats Sony pulls of in other areas, it’s a bit strange that they fail to provide such basic “home entertainment” features as the simultaneous audio output.
The technology is definately with them, so there’s no excuse here, really.
(Sony’s A/V receivers are awesomest to the max. I just had to mention that.)
Shatner said:
I look forward to the complementary Microsoft and Nintendo pieces when they do their system updates later in the year.
I’d like to request a journalist with a similar sentiment/relationship to the hardware platform under review as morriss has with Playstation when the other articles are written.
That’d be great, thanks.
ecu said:
Never quite got the fuss over cross game invites. I’ve never invited someone to a game that they’re not already playing. And if I’m playing GTA and someone invites me to a game of Halo 3, well.. fuck off! I’m playing GTA, if I wanted to play Halo 3, I’d bloody well play it, wouldn’t I?!
Psychotext said:
Ecu: There’s plenty of times I’ve said to someone “I’m playing x game, give me an invite when you’re ready”. Or I’ve been having a go on a single player title when someone comes on and invites me for some multiplayer.
ecu said:
Then surely a regular message would suffice? Which can be done on PS3, can’t it? Hell, even when I’m playing the same game as I’ve been invited to, often by the time I’ve closed my session and joined, the invite has expired.
Psychotext said:
Suffice? No, probably not. As a bare minimum it will do though. On the bright side at least you’ll be able to swap between PSN games fairly quickly now.
Shatner said:
I’ve never seen the draw.
“Hey, stop playing that game you’re playing and play with us so we can shoot you in the face and cast slurs against your ancestors”
Fuck off. When I want to play with you, I’ll see if you’re online, see what you’re playing and hop on. Otherwise I’m quite content thankyouverymuch.
Robo_1 said:
“Although no simultaneous audio output and no hardware scaler…”
I’m not saying either Sony or MS are bullet proof in their respective areas (360’s dash is pretty messy and sluggish compared to the XMB, and Live fell over pretty bad at Christmas) but I think things like that fall by the wayside when you look at the bigger picture.
Live is great and Sony are playing catch up, PS3’s are well built, whilst 360’s failure rate is legendary.
Psychotext said:
Shatner: Umm… I like the people on my friends list. If they want a game with me I’m usually more than happy to oblige.
Why would you have random dicks on your friends list?
ecu said:
“Suffice? No, probably not. As a bare minimum it will do though. On the bright side at least you’ll be able to swap between PSN games fairly quickly now.”
Still not seeing the appeal of it though. You’d have to drop the game you were playing, go root around for the disc of the game they want you to play, wait for it to load. I don’t see why a cross-game invite is needed for this. It’s really quite a useless feature. It’d work better if everything loaded off the HDD in an instant. Usually by the time I’ve managed to join something I’ve been invited to, they’ve already started anyway.
Psychotext said:
Well… I suppose given I spend most of my time playing downloadable games it works particularly well for me. That’s the beauty of it, accept invite and you’re in the game nearly immediately.
morriss said:
“I’d like to request a journalist with a similar sentiment/relationship to the hardware platform under review as morriss has with Playstation when the other articles are written.
That’d be great, thanks.”
Thanks for that, and yeah, I own both the Wii and 360 and will (hopefully) be writing those articles too.
morriss said:
Anyway, just because some gamers don’t see that need for cross-game invites, there are plenty of others that do.
It’s not a deal-breaker, that was never the point, it’s just a bog-standard feature that for some reason isn’t there.
mightyhokie said:
I have all three consoles.
The Wii is a wasted with the exception of Wii Fit that my fiance likes so much. That being said, I’ll leave it out of the equation.
I primarily use my 360, and by ‘primarily’ I mean ‘almost exclusively’ when it comes to actually playing games. The 360 impresses me almost every day and I can honestly say that Microsoft got it right. The stupid RROD has not happened to me but has for one of my friends. It is a bit unfair at this point to bash MS for the RROD since they have gone out of their way to make it right by the customers. Still, if you must throw stones then whatever. Xbox has a superior Live community, a vast wealth of games that kick ass, and the ability to download movies, tv shows, DLC, etc in an easy and fairly intuitive way. They also have many free informational elements under the ‘xbox live’ button that gives you previews, reviews, etc. Sony has none of that. I was never a Sony hater, but I wanted to see the 360 succeed so at first I was happy that Sony had some issues. No longer.
A month or so ago I got a PS3 for a wedding present from my fiance. I scroll through the XMB and think ‘wow! this looks cool’. I see how easy it is to download cool themes, to even make your own themes, that the game changes things as time and date change, the visual style is pleasant, the browser is nice (although flawed), and so many other things make me say ‘wow’. However, I almost never use it because I bought it for Blu-Ray and that is almost all it is good for. THere are some games on it. I like Pixel Monsters, I have Uncharted and Ratchet and Clank and a few more I borrowed from a friend when I first got it, but I can’t make myself play them. Mainly because the lack of achievements. Now they have the trophy system coming out and I was excited, then pissed when I saw the screens of the trophies, thinking ‘this looks like N64 crap!’, but was excited again to see the demonstration on the web (Sony reallllly needed to have those real achievement icons or many 360 people would never have converted). If you haven’t played a game with achievements you are missing half the fun. They don’t make me play differently, they just make me play the game multiple times in order to get the achievements/trophies.
Sony is starting to shape up, and Home looks really, really cool (who of us doesn’t like to have their own ‘tree house’?. It is just a shame that Sony has waited until they are literally dead in the water to come out with what should have been the system at launch. It is ridiculous and I feel sorry for the Sony fanboys that refuse to give Microsoft it’s due. While they have been looking at a system with potential 360 fans have been having a blast. I’m glad I own a PS3, and I see lots of potential for it…I just want to see it reach that potential.
Competition is good, you know.
absolutezero said:
Pc has no cross game invites.
Neither does the Wii.
In fact neither do any of the handhelds.
So it seems that the 360 is the only one with this feature, making it not really bog standard.
ecu said:
It’s a nothing feature tbh.
As for Sony, they seem like such a badly managed company. Well, the gaming division, anyway. It seems like they really don’t have a direction or a goal. Or a clue. I don’t think this firmware changes anything, and I bet those working at Sony know just what a mess the place is in.
Shatner said:
No problem morriss. As I’ve seen it (and others, it appears) when you objectively dissect your criticism of a system “missing the most basic features known to man” it appears that, actually, they’re not that basic, that many other systems lack them and that they’ve not actually been around for very long at all.
So, remaining objective, a lot of the criticisms you’re choosing to selectively direct at one single system appear to apply to most systems. And most systems don’t appear to be making any effort to remedy the situation. So I’m a little puzzled as to why such severe appraisals are being directed at the one that is.
Which is precisely why I’m looking forward to the complementary articles covering all the other gaming systems. I’d expect to see consistency in the list of features being scrutinised rather than some ad-hoc list of features that don’t relate to one another.
If such articles are to be worth anything, I don’t think that’s a lot to expect.
morriss said:
Ok. (y)