As PlayStation 3 owners lament yet another recent, apparently pointless firmware update, perhaps it’s time to look beyond minor bug fixes and ‘security updates’ and – somewhat whimsically and hopefully – look ahead to what Sony are working on for the next major point release: firmware 4.0.
Four’s a weighty number. It seems to warrant a fanciful command, a sense of purpose – but let’s be honest, the PlayStation 3 has been caught in a kind of cat and mouse cycle with hackers and insignificant patches for a while now, the developers seemingly unable to really push forward with the kind of innovation that brought us DTS over Dolby, or proper upscaling, or – yes – the rather backwards removal of OtherOS.
Hey, at least people were talking about 3.21 (the infamous Geohot response that saw Sony strip out Linux, raising a middle finger to those that wanted to keep their alternative operating system and play online) – who really knows what’s happened with the last three or four? Well, apart from you.
[drop2]The first one is obvious – Vita. Sony’s big black hope isn’t that far away in Japan (releasing at the beginning of December) and it wouldn’t take a massive leap of faith to assume that Sony have something planned to coincide with the new portable.What that might be is anyone’s guess, but we’d wager that a shift in the way the XMB (the PS3’s user interface) is laid out to more closely match that of Vita is a given. Naturally there’s no touch screen controls, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see enhanced launch pages for PS3 first party stuff like the Vita has, for starters.
And then there’s the cross platform play, and the ability for the Vita to act as a remote play device. Sure, it’s embryonic just now, but it’s coming – whether or not this feature requires a firmware update on the PS3 side is anyone’s guess.
We’ve heard rumours that there might be an option to skin the Vita’s UI the other way though, to make it more closely resemble that of the PS3’s floaty curves and simple plus-shaped approach. I’ll be honest, I don’t really care much for the bubbles currently messing up the Vita’s fancy touch screen, so if I can change them then all the better.
Some things are a given, though – at some point at least. PlayStation Suite compatibility must be in the pipeline – why would a service that looks set to really ignite Android and Vita skip over the PS3? It won’t, not in my opinion anyway. Cross platform functionality seems key just now in Sony’s plan, so don’t be surprised to see PS Suite games and applications making their way over to the PlayStation 3.
Look out for a new browser, too – well overdue and surely not that big an issue for Sony to finally ditch the tired old Netfront web application and head for something a little more modern and standards compliant. We’d be hoping for something running Webkit but – really – anything will do.
Other things are probably just wishful thinking – we’d love for Trophies to automatically sync like they do on the 360 (which is probably never going to happen) and we’d kill for proper, full game installs rather than the slightly piecemeal and unpredictable amounts we normally endure everytime we throw in a new PS3 game.
But what are you hoping for? PlayStation 2 games on the Store? Dreamcast games?
CdmanJak
better browser crome whould do and make facebook a tab on network and make it so if i get a notification pressing the xmb button shows said trophy/message
Unterred
I would like a much improved way of sorting music on the PS3, including the option to copy multiples of everything and change the Music ID properties of multiple music tracks. A new music visualisation would be brilliant and also I’d really like to see Sony include play music by mood on the XMB.
The life with Playstation play by music by mood really doesn’t work. It only selects music from the last 250 music tracks placed on the harddrive and not your entire music collection when playing music by mood.
I really feel Sony have neglected music functionality on the PS3 as opposed to really giving people loads of extra functions when it comes to photo and video media.
Radboud
My trophies are automatically synced by the way. It is a plus-feature.
I’d like a good new browser though.
Hope they don’t mess up the XMB, I like it the way it is..
anonymus212
I would LOVE a new interface for new messages and trophies in game. The horrible plain grey box that pops up is nasty, I have seen XBOX’s one and it’s about the only thing I prefer. I would like an animated ps3 logo to popup and flip around with a nice marquee-style notification tab.
I would also like a nice trophy gallery, so, when you go into a game’s trophies, they are big icons on the screen that scroll horizontally.
Finally, friend profiles should show SO much more, they show the last few games that have been played and have APPS. Apps could be added into games eg. Modern Warfare 3 which then shows stats from that game on your friends list profile.
Finally, a much nicer design for sending messages, I hate the really plain grey interface the have… some colour (like VITA) would be nice. Like this :
http://playstationlifestyle.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/PSVita-Party-Room.jpg
Origami Killer
The XMB is so simple to use I would be extremely disappointed if it were changed. If it’s not broken then don’t fix it. However, I think it should be far quicker to load up in game and why show certain options on the in game XMB when you need to quit the game to go on them. Happy with the stores content but not the current design on latest content, should be changed back to how it was a few months back. Other than that I’m content with the PS3 :)
MICKY17
Make the in-game XMB much quicker to use by cutting out all options that can’t be opened anyway. Limit it to Accessory Settings, Download Management, Friends list and the Game column. Oh and try to get all games to support custom soundtracks.
Awayze
I don’t think Sony will release another big update for PS3 now, no 4.0 but just 3.X.X’s.
Can’t believe Sony don’t give us new features anymore.
Roynaldo
A browser, not that pile of cat puke that is running right now. The End
OllyBobs
Simple, a new, fast, reliable web browser.
CryptikTim
Here goes:
– Automatic syncing of trophies like you said (although that’s now a PS+ feature!)
– Removal of 0% trophy games
– Changing PSN ID like Japan
– Tidied up XMB
– Ability to organise downloaded games into groups (properly, not the ‘Albums’ that are currently there)
And finally, the most important by far:
– A minimalist, AND FAST, in game XMB (see Xbox 360 for how to do it properly)
My two cents.
Voganlight
You can sort games into groups. Just press triangle over game -> information -> Album. You can enter any name you want. Just copy paste the same name into multiple games and you’re done.
E8_BALL_
Change id, forgot about that one. Would love to see if I could refine my id. That’ll teach me for not buying at launch, eightball would’ve looked so much better.