Over the past few days, there has been feverish excitement from the PlayStation Network (PSN) community about the new PS3 update, which came out yesterday.The 2.40 update is supposed to provide PS3 users with better community tools for the XMB (Cross Media Bar) interface, as well as a trophy system for games, much like the Xbox Live Achievements. We were particularly looking forward to seeing an improvement in what the PS3 really needed -- the community.
The improved XMB lets you send messages and view them in-game, as well as other handy tasks. These would have been great features, as before you had to exit a game in order to communicate with anyone on the PSN -- unlike the Xbox 360, where all these features were accessible at the touch of a button on its 'blades' system.
Unfortunately, we couldn't get the update to download this morning. Going on the Web browser and checking out the update page didn't help either, as it just showed the 2.36 update -- disappointing.
We immediately hit the Internets to see if it was just us, and found out that Sony had pulled the update, due to serious bugs. Our sister site GameSpot reports, "Unfortunately, it appears as if the v2.40 update wasn't available for long. A rash of complaints on the official PlayStation message boards claim the heavily anticipated update caused many PS3s to lock up when owners attempt to load a game... Sony has apparently taken action by pulling the update from the PlayStation Network." Further research led us to a thread on the official PS3 forum. Some quotes from the posters:
"Well, I downloaded version 2.40 put in metal gear solid 4 and i get a black screen forever," complains ASickness. "2.4 bricked my console," moans Frito_Bandito. He goes on, "I was just planning on sitting down to a game of Metal Gear and a nice pop-up blinked on screen....2.4 update required. Did the update. After reboot I get the floaty ribbon thing and nothing else. It just sits there. So I turned off the console and held down the power button to do a reset - now I have a nice blank screen." TERRYxD94 helpfully adds, "good luck you guys cuz your ps3 is most likely goign to be dead."
There's even been a video posted to YouTube, showing how the PS3 bricks after 2.40:
So it seems Sony has badly messed up the update that was supposed to bring them on par with the 360. A post on the official PS3 blog by Sony exec Patrick Seybold says, "We are working diligently to isolate the problem for those few consumers and to identify a solution before we put the firmware back up." -Mykolas Kukulskis
Update: Sony has now released update 2.41, which is apparently bug-free.
