Just received the official word from SCEE; PS3 firmware 2.00 is upon us.

I can't verify whether it has actually arrived on the PSN as yet (can you?), but the press release says that it is out now.

New features include:

• Support for PSP remote start - switch the PS3 on with your PSP and go into a Remote Play session
• Build playlists in the music and photo sections of the XMB
• Customisation of the XMB - change colour and brightness of the icons (useful for when you have a bright wallpaper) and apply custom icon themes, very much like the PSP custom theme capability
• Information Board - a new addition to the XMB providing you with the latest PlayStation news (well, it would do if it showed you the PS3 Attitude feed of course!)
• New PlayStation Network category on the XMB, with the much discussed new logo taking centre stage
• Trend Micro Web Security - a free security application for your PS3 web browser, providing parental controls amongst other things (free until end of April 2008, when pay options will be made available to keep it up to date)

All in all, a pretty good update. Of course, many will start shouting "what - 2.00 without custom soundtracks and no in-game XMB?", but the fact is that we're sure these things will be coming in a future update.

SCEA, for example, recently asked the following question in a survey of their Gamer Advisory Panel members:

Choose which XMB feature would be most important to you in a possible
PLAYSTATION Network update:

A) In-game access to PSN messaging
B) Ability to play my own music from the XMB while in-game
C) Larger buddy list and buddy-list features such as categorizing

This is a clear indication of what they're thinking of adding to 2.x.

Some games, of course, already support access to the XMB and PSN messaging (Resistance, for example) so surely this is just a case of the developers making use of the feature set that ships with the current development kit?

Whatever way I look at this, it's still positive news. The XMB customisation is welcome (and reasonably fun on the PSP) but the ability to switch on the PS3 remotely is a must, especially with PlayTV coming early 2008. And how on earth did we get along without music playlists?!

Thanks Sony!

Labels: firmware, news, Playstation 3, PlayTV, PS3, PSN, PSP, Resistance