Rockstar has issued a blog post on their customer support website to let PlayStation 3 owners know that the latest firmware, version 3.61, is apparently causing “overheating” and “red light” issues.
“We have received some reports of PS3s overheating while playing L.A. Noire or beeping three times before shutting down/turning themselves off, mostly on older 60GB and 80GB fat models,” says the publisher.
“Primary reports seem to be that updating to firmware 3.61 will cause PlayStations to overheat.”
This isn’t limited to just Rockstar games, or indeed even L.A. Noire specifically. “There have been various reports of this on a few different games now,” says the blog, “all reporting their PS3s turning off or ‘Red Lighting’ after having installed 3.61.”
“This can range from games randomly freezing to PS3s turning off anywhere between 30 mins use to 2 hours. We have confirmed locally that multiple games (Rockstar and non-Rockstar) overheat or freeze only when 3.61 is installed. ”
Rockstar say they recommend contact Sony directly to report any issues, but confirm that they are “continuing to test L.A. Noire on all firmware versions.”
Our version of the game, which was running on 3.61, didn’t crash at all in the few hours we’ve played it so far.
Update: looks like Rockstar might have jumped the gun a little – they’ve retracted (removed) the original post and replaced with it one that suggests Xbox 360 owners might be experiencing crashes too.
That said, a support operative in the comments does reiterate the publisher’s original sentiments. “The issues of PS3s overheating appears to be due to the latest Sony firmware update,” it says. “We recommend contacting Sony if your console is shutting off during play.”
Our guess? It’s the game itself, not the firmware. We’ll see tomorrow when hopefully this is all cleared up.
PeacekeeperAlpha
It’s probably R*’s fault, I went through 4 ps3’s when GTA4 came out. 1 60gb and 3 40gb
Jack_napier1318
My PS3 stayed on all night last night. I’ve got play T.V so when I went to sleep and it was still on I just thought I’d set something to tape. When I work up this morning and it was still on I was surprised it hadn’t blown up. When I tried to turn it off it told me that Play TV was still recording. I checked and nothing was recording. I had to stop it by doing the thing you do to turn controlers off. You guys think this has something to do with the update or is my Play TV just messing up?
Foxhound_Solid
Idiotic.