Firmware 2.80 For Developers Only?
Why the gaming public will have no use for the latest firmware.Published 24/06/2009 at 12:30 by nofi
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Yesterday’s firmware release was an odd one. Without fanfare or much warning (apart from the file being available for debug machines for a little while) and with a tiny changelog promising nothing more concrete than better support for an unnamed number of PS3 games, speculation has started to rise around just what the firmware update actually did.
Well, apart from oddly locking the Microphone level to 3 (you can’t change it now) on the surface it appears the update has done nothing at all. However, a post from Gaming Age’s Jim yesterday suggests that whatever the firmware has updated behind the scenes, it’s purely for developers right now. “It has at least one thing in it that people will want,” he said, “but the feature won’t be immediately useful.”
This had lead to further speculation around the web that the update has allowed developers to start to work on cross-game voice chat, something that everyone has been asking for since we realised the PS3 could get firmware updates – if indeed this is the case then this might explain why, at the time of writing, there’s not even an automatic prompt for the user to get 2.80 – there’s simply no need to. Yet.
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
cc_star | 24/06/2009 12:39
Team TSA: Writer
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Hopefully it’s something that devs will actually use unlike Game Launching or custom background music, I think you can count on one hand the number of titles which support these features
TheDeathAvenger | 24/06/2009 12:42
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It seems like unless Sony make it mandatory to have a certain feature, most devs don’t want to take the time to implement that feature.
Watchful | 24/06/2009 12:54
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Don’t lose sight of the fact that many PS3’s may not have the latest firmware on them anyway, with about a third (according to the last figures I saw) of PS3s sold never having been connected to the Interweb. So it may not be as worthwhile for the devs as you think.
As an aside, do any Blu-ray games have firmware updates on them like UMD titles do? I’ve not heard of it if they do, but does anybody know? Would seem an obvious thing for first party Blu-ray titles to ship with the latest firmware on disc.
yobrenoops | 24/06/2009 12:42
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472 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
Its only really recently I’ve found the attraction of cross-game voice chat. Surely they could set some kind of room aside (like the text chat) where two consensual PSNers can get together, and maintains that room through all games like the text chat is?
DarthSharkey | 24/06/2009 12:44
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Weird how it locks the mic level. Hope it’s something good they can work with.
AJ | 24/06/2009 16:05
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My mic level isn’t locked… I can change it.
rht992 | 24/06/2009 12:48
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it will be some useless update like all the others
toutski | 24/06/2009 12:56
Legend
4164 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
How can you call all the other firmware updates useless?
Watchful | 24/06/2009 12:55
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Maybe the feature isn’t “immediately useful” as we’re waiting for a short spell of PSN downtime for “maintenance” to switch it on? (Just conjecture. Nofi’s more than likely correct.)
Radboud | 24/06/2009 13:04
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I still don’t know why cross-game chat is that important…
I mean, if I play my game and someone else plays another game, than the only things you’ll hear and say is some sort of ranting why you died again and the other party is pretty oblivious to what is happening and you loose concentration (or at least some focus) of the game you are playing yourself.
On the other hand, perhaps I am not social enough for it? I dunno.
I do think it is good that Sony keeps putting in the updates, just to make things in the future possible, although the mic-level-lock-thingy will keep me from updating to 2.80 (as it is not mandatory)
Watchful | 24/06/2009 13:10
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I could count on one hand the number of times I’ve used cross-game chat on my 360. The number of times it’s been truly useful is smaller than that.
The only real reason I can think of that people keep saying they want it on the PS3 is simply because the other console has it. Feature parity is nice but only when the feature’s useful.
matty | 24/06/2009 15:01
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1331 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
when im playing a game im normally online so i am normally talking to anyone that has a headset in that game mostly boot camps also if this gets put in i will have thousands of invites from a very anoying friend and how can i join every ones chat when i get sent 1 from different people i doesn’t bother me one bit that it doesn’t have it.
cc_star | 24/06/2009 13:29
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Good point.
Why when I’m playing FIFA 10 would I want to hear from a mate who’s struggling to get an online game in PES 2010.
Sounds like a pointless feature to me.
XMB voice chat-room meet ups with game launching is needed, but I suppose all the development on that front goes into Home, and that hardly making a breakthrough
toutski | 24/06/2009 13:35
Legend
4164 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
What if you are trying to organise a game with a friend and he/she is currently in a game? It is quicker and easier than phoning, texting or sending a message from the XMB.
Its a feature I used regularly on my 360, and one I definitely miss on the ps3.
cc_star | 24/06/2009 14:06
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But annoying as hell if you’ve just lined up a long sniper shot.
I don’t see why people go on about it
Carl | 24/06/2009 21:32
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Same, this feature doesn’t mean anything to me. I’ll likely use it on the first day, announce how good it is then proceed to never use it again.
Snebjnr | 24/06/2009 13:11
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1612 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
I’ve already updated mines, wish I knew it didnt lock the mic, otherwise I wouldnt have bothered!
Lets just hope that it is cross game chat, that would be handy for such things as TSA boot camp stratagies :S lol
A suggestion?
Radboud | 24/06/2009 13:21
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Uhm…. while playing the game?
Than you talk to your squad (and all surrounding people) and cross-game-which-is-also-in-game chat with your faction to talk to one another, even if right now it is sometimes to hard to hear what someone is saying because there are to many people talking at the same time (lets not start about echo-feedback)?
And if you mean before the game starts, than it is also not handy, coz you need to switch the cross-game-chat on and off depending if you are playing or not…. this could get confusing….
matty | 24/06/2009 15:08
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1331 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
wouldn’t it mean that we can’t shout at the person who killed you because your in a chat out side the game like on the xbox if you are in a chat people in game can’t hear you also if we all went into a chat we would know what the other team was saying. also as rad said it would turn into a big squeek because some one had their TV on too loud
SleepMachine | 24/06/2009 13:18
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209 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
i noticed that the update increased the character limit on messages in the XMB-Chatrooms from 32 to 64. Much better
The word-filtering is still as annoying as always tho.
Join the unofficial TSA XMB Chatroom!
http://www.thesixthaxis.com/forum/general-chat/ps3-chat-room-feature-tsa-room/
Pixl1983 | 24/06/2009 13:23
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491 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Thank god! That’s much appreciated. Anyway, keep working on that XMB Sony, get that ram usage down so you can finally have enough power to move that battery indicator.
Hodgi92 | 24/06/2009 13:55
The Thumb
1058 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Oh good, I might actually use that more now.
I might even join the Unofficial TSA chatroom
matty | 24/06/2009 15:09
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1331 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
ooo final the tourney chat room will make some sense in sted of having to pick out what one person has said inbetween all the rest saying some thing :d
Soild_Nat | 24/06/2009 13:21
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804 TSA Points | Member since: Apr 2009
This would make sense, and its intriging why they have locked the mic level. If cross-game chat is coming then this might be something they need to control. Personally i have never noticed any difference changing this setting!
As for its usefulness – When playing on the 360 its great been able to come online see what your friends are playing, and either talk to them to see if you can join the game or its about to finish, how long they on for etc or invite them to your game. It leads to lots more spontaneous gaming sessions rather then be here at x time for x game. I often make plans to join games with my clan mates but something crops up which means i cant make it, i can leave them a voice message etc. Yes i could send a text message but who can be bothered typing all that out!
Another thing to remember is that with each Firmware update they give more memory back to the developers so they can implement new features or make better use of the systems power.
TheRook21 | 24/06/2009 15:12
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584 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2008
They should use some of the HDD for virtual memory (if they dont already)
This would give them extra memory to make up for some shortcomings relating to XMB RAM usage during games etc.
I’d gladly give up 1gig of HDD space for the battery to move from over the clock
Kevling | 24/06/2009 15:15
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2032 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
No no no no no… Anyone know how slow a PC runs when it has to use HDD space as virtual memory because it doesn’t have enough RAM?
PrettyVacant | 24/06/2009 13:28
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86 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
They do have the ability to release firmware to just dev units though. Devs got 2.40 and in-game XMB several weeks before it was released to the masses. So I’m not convinced this was only for them.
It’s more likely this was just an updated device driver or something. Possibly firmware support for an EU movie store to be launched at some point in the future (Gamescomm?). I don’t buy the 3.00 cross game chat idea at all.
I expect the microphone thing is a bug and we will soon be seeing 2.81.
Kevling | 24/06/2009 13:52
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If they are permanently taking away our mic volume setting, why leave it there but locked, why not just remove it from the screen?
My guess is that 2.80 includes some sort of analysis tool to feedback to Sony on Voicechat performance. It has locked everyone’s mics to 3 to keep consistency while the measure takes place, and will be unlocked again in a future update… The results of the study will then feed into the cross-game voice chat feature, to ensure it is optimised for “real world” performance…
Or, possibly, I’m just reading too much into it.
gnipper | 24/06/2009 14:02
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709 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
you think about things too much
But actually you are also a swine!! You nicked my idea
was going to post a long speil about the very same thing and you beat me to it!! CURSE YOU!
Kevling | 24/06/2009 14:06
Member
2032 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
Actually, I posted it earlier but it’d didn’t go through
(my work PC + Firefox + TSA is not a happy combination for some reason)
Hodgi92 | 24/06/2009 13:55
The Thumb
1058 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
I can change my microphone level :s
I think Sony loves me the most
Jas-n | 24/06/2009 14:00
Folding With TSA Co-ordinator.
1227 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
Me too… random
Kevling | 24/06/2009 14:07
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2032 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
That’s it, fine, blow my theory straight out of the water, with some measly facts. Pah.
ADPolicenaut | 24/06/2009 13:59
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Firmware doesn’t interest me too much, I just let them add what needs to be added and let them get on with it.
3shirts | 24/06/2009 14:00
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2487 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
Typo alert:
“everyone has been asking for since we released the PS3 could get firmware updates” – I assume you mean “…we realised the PS3…”
Pookinator | 24/06/2009 14:17
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Don’t you mean that he meant to put ‘we released’ because thats not what he meant
markglynne | 24/06/2009 14:18
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“everyone has been asking for since we realised the PS3 could get firmware updates” – I assume you mean “…we released the PS3…”
I think that is what you mean
Kevling | 24/06/2009 15:20
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2032 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
3Shirts was right, and Nofi has corrected the article.
Turn the sentence round and you’ll see it makes sense.
“Ever since we realised that the PS3 could be updated with new firmware, cross-game voice chat is something everyone has been asking for.” i.e. no-one was asking for it at the beginning, because we didn’t know about the firmware updates.
Ross | 24/06/2009 14:06
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197 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
I can change the mic volume level, also the character limit in text chat has doubled, but if its for the devs and its text chat wouldnt that mean that it would be like trophies and only a few games would have this ability which would be bollocks and would ultimately mean me giving up on PSN.
Kevling | 24/06/2009 15:21
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2032 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
Trophies are mandatory now…