Yesterday a post appeared on the Rockstar site advising gamers that, in their opinion, the PS3’s latest firmware version (3.61) was responsible, at least in part, to the overheating issues consoles were experiencing when playing L.A. Noire. We wrote about it here, look.
After that, a few things happened. The original post was taken down from the Rockstar site, and another FAQ was added in its place without further explanation. However, community support posts in the comments still alluded to the firmware being the main issue.
Today though, the story has developed further. Sony have said that it’s not the firmware at fault – 3.61 is widely assumed to simply be a placeholder firmware to enable users back onto the PS3.
“As with the release of any System Update,” said a spokesperson for the manufacturer, “we will invariably see a very small number of users whose console has failed following updating their console, which is an unfortunate coincidence.”
“Rockstar have now updated their FAQ on the matter,” Sony continue, “have admitted that it is a fault with their latest title L.A. Noire and have offered a work around. It should also be noted that the issue with this title is not PS3 specific and is also affecting other consoles.
We reckon it’s probably down to HD consoles having to render in black and white. Tricky, that.
toutski
I can’t help but think Rockstar handled this badly. Surely they should have contacted Sony before releasing the incorrect information to the interwebs.
The fact that they have now had to backtrack just makes them look even worse.
bunimomike
Very badly. Very unprofessional. We’ve seen this countless times too. I can’t quite believe they even issued such an initial statement.
enroene
It makes one wonder how they came to the conclusion that its the firmware.shuold have taken time to analyze the problem properly.
cc_star
Not only unprofessional but they specifically said they’d tested numerous games on different PS3 firmwares and found 3.61 to be at fault. in other words a big fat lie to hide the fact they’re releasing a buggy game that not only freezes but actually red-lights PS3s (their words)
Ben
Very badly handled, won’t do much good for R*’s reputation.
Charmed_Fanatic
I agree, like a school ground spat, should of got all there facts right first time round
Darksidesystems
I guess it’s just easier to blame Sony for anything and everything that goes wrong. Existance of hackers? Sony. The game you just released crashes? Sony. Bad weather? Pretty sure that it has something to do with PSN logins or something…
cubehouse
Don’t forget when the media contacted Sony who were apparently responsible for the Portal 2 adopted joke.
Mick939
Is it confirmed at killing slims then? So the game generally breaks consoles?
Watchful
Very doubtful. It’s just people looking for causal links when there are none. I imagine that over the last couple of days it’s pretty likely that a YLoD will be seen on a console that has just been upgraded and is playing L.A. Noire, simply because most consoles had just been upgraded and it’s the big new game.
Reality Check
As if SONY needed anymore bad news lately on the internet :-/
Thanks Rockstar for giving the haters on the internet more false news to use against SONY. So now i will give L.A. Noire a miss.
Samiro05
Will you really? Just give it a preowned, I think that’s worse than a miss, you get the content of the great game without supporting the company who made it. But really you should get it if you wanted it, only if everyone thought like this would it make a difference
KeRaSh
Your username sais it all. You need a reality check.
False blame is everywhere. If you would stop buying products because someone falsely blamed another company you would live in the streets.
fattyuk
Hahahahaha you’re gonna miss out on a fantastic game just because of a few Internet posts!
Yeah seriously… You need a reality check
Mwhahahaha
Samiro05
It is a massive game, with all that tech behind the disk I reckon they should’ve spread it out to two blu-rays. Make it an epic first time that has had to happen. I hope it’s patched and fixed by the time I play it. I find it great how Sony have responded to Rockstar’s claims and funny how it turned to 360’s being the same and then Rockstar thinking.. oh cr.. maybe it’s us? Nah let’s just still blame Sony even for the 360 overheating, oh okay that sounds like a plan :p
MadBoJangles
Lol, I’m hopefully picking it up on Friday, I’ll post back if my slim goes into meltdown :P
Bilbo_bobbins
morons, what is it with devs/publishers at the moment thinking no one can touch them.
R* should try making a game that doesn’t break for a change. LA Noire = GTA rehashed….again.
fattyuk
GTA?
Lol obviously haven’t played it!
enroene
take responsibility for your actions.They knew that the 360 was having the same issue and still blamed the firmware update.Does Sony do 360 firmware?no.
Forrest_01
In fairness, that’s probably Sony’s fault – They did release the slogan “it only does everything”, so Rockstar probably thought that they did do the 360 firmware! :p
JesseDeya
This kind of tit-for-tat, editing original comments and ‘publish first, check facts later’ attitude is really very disturbing.
As I’m sure most of you reading this would agree, we depend heavily on the internet for ‘teh info’. The problem with these kind of releases is that they get reported on by every big (and small) gaming media outlets in a heartbeat. No one lets the dust settle because on the internet if you wait for clarity you’ve missed the story and 100,000 hits.
Case in point, Eurogamer reported on this about the same time TSA did – but their original story has NOT been updated to correct the facts. Instead, they have posted a second story (kinda like TSA have done here). The problem is that Google doesn’t care about the second story. When people look for evidence of Sony firmware causing problems down the line, stories like Eurogamers (here – http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-05-18-firmware-3-61-causing-ps3s-to-overheat) will be one of the major hits, yet is massively misleading.
I have little respect for this kind of knee jerk reporting, but at least TSA have the balls to update their original post to reflect the latest info.
nofi
Yes, EG’s second post this morning seemed odd to me when it could have just been updated.
fattyuk
ESP when it ends up on radio news!
Sony playstation users suffer more delays and failed consoles due to recent hacks
WTF are you on about lol
eirekun
Rockstar certainly made a mess of this. Can I ask the TSA reviewers – did LA Noire review copy do this?
Youles
What’s the work around then?
Tuffcub
Buy Portal 2