Rumours, rumours, rumours. We love them, especially ones focusing on the PS3’s firmware updates – so here’s another from one of our anonymous sources that live under the stairs, occasionally being fed old mouldy Rich Tea biscuits by Peter:  The next system software update, whatever version number it ends up being called, will be with us by the end of the month - we’re guessing on or around the 24th/25th – and its main focus will be to open up access to the PlayStation Video Store for us eager Europeans wanting a slice of the video pie.

Naturally, everyone’s eager to find out more about the PlayStation Video Store (hopefully we’ll be able to tell you lots more in a couple of weeks) and although we’ve not had a confirmed date that the service will start yet, we’re guessing that late November is the time that we’ll be able to start streaming all those cool films we mentioned yesterday.  But no, we don’t have any details on pricing yet – we’ve not been told a sausage – but we’re hoping to get all the details sooner rather than later.

In related news, our same source tells us that the so-called ‘cross game chat’ – the much anticipated but never actually confirmed open voice-chat system – might not be making an appearance in this update.  As usual, please consider all this a rumour until Sony publish the official news – we’re not pulling things out of the air but we’re also not privvy personally to anything remotely official – this news is absolutely unofficial and could turn out to be a steaming pile of nonsense.  You have been warned.

Update: just had further confirmation that the Video Store will require a Firmware Update.