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?
brown_hayate
I’d be happy with streamlined in game XMB and a new web browser
Mason_Mk
Dont know if mentioned but on 360 i like how patches can be installed onto USB sticks directly, as well as installs and saves. Would love this on PS3, so swapping to a mates house wouldn’t mean waiting hours for things to download just to play games (LittleBigPlanet for example, 30 patches and an install just to try some online UGC levels online), instead just plug in and they are already there :P
Darksidesystems
The option to install all games would be fantastic and would surely help games like Modnation Racers which should be sold with a disclaimer about it’s load times. Another one a lot of people must be missing is enabling audio over bluetooth as the PSP Go & Vita are both capable it’s about time Sony pulled their collective fingers out. Google Chrome is a must or at least a bloody Flash update to make more sites work. One last thing (for now anyways…) is a an option to categorise my 400+ store downloads in some new way other than just purchase order – even a simple alphabetical sort would be nice!
stueeeee
U can put them in folders? I have separate ones for psOne, ps3, ps + and demos!
Darksidesystems
Sorry I should’ve been clearer there. What I meant was there needs to be more organisation in the “view downloads” portion of the store. A combination of 4 years online and PS+ from day one means a lot of stuff to sort through!
stueeeee
Oh yes I completely agree with that! I have a lot as well, not quite as much but it still takes far too much time and trouble to find what you’re looking for!
Foxhound_Solid
Minimise games feature…
rossthebassist
i like the xmb, but clearly making it avalible in game was not really the way to go, before ingame XMB you had the menu for quit game and shut down console etc etc. would have been better if they had just added the message, music, friends and chat options to that, the ingame XMB is not all bad but i think sony have learned from the mistakes they know what online features are needed to directly compete with XBL but these changes wont appear untill the next generation. if there will be a next generation.
stueeeee
Sounds like u might not be aware that If u hold down the ps button for a secon or two during a game it will pop up with that old menu aa opposed to the in game xmb!
rossthebassist
i know that you can still get that menu that was not the point of what i was saying… you still cant check your messages by it, play a song in a compatible game via it, check your friends list, trophys.. all that menu is good for ATM is shutting down the console or quick quitting the game, what im saying is ditch the XMB and re gig that menu to include the features, its a quicker menu than the XMB. and will surley free up memory.
Rocket_345
– Proper auto-synching trophies so it does automatically
– The Blu ray/dvd still singed into PSN that was mentioned above
– Under settings have an option to hide things from the xmb i don’t use. Admitedly its only Pictures for me but it could be more for someone else.
– A new browser is a must. I actually use it alot (writing this on there now) so it would benefit me greatly.
pagrhun
I would really like to see something like support for unity 3 for playing online games.
TSBonyman
I would love a new browser but i think memory constraints might prevent that happening. All the same, i would have expected the ‘Cell Broadband engine’ to perform better in that area.
The firmware footprint is probably completely full at this stage so i don’t expect many new features besides Vita connectivity unless they remove Move or 3D, which they obviously won’t.
Custom firmware might be a solution, where you could choose which functionality you wanted.
I’m a bit sad that we’re not getting a new visualiser what with PJ’s one being turned into a Move game instead.
RudeAwakening
All i want from sony is a working internet browser. Do it sony. Do it now!
Jeebers
Support for a few more video formats to make it a slightly more usable media payer..?