‘What If…?’ Firmware Edition
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We meet once more this cold winter morning. The rain is soaking through the mould-ridden wood of our dilapidated shed as we plot to conquer… something.
We’ve done the Home Space. We’ve done the retro revival. We have yet to do the firmware update (Dun Dun Duuuuun).
Lock up your children. Keep the pets indoors. Tie up a maiden. Sacrifice a goat. Try to stay sane. For we are about to cross a line that could quickly become a dot on the horizon as we get carried away with possibility and fantasy.
Everyone knows that there are still things needing done as far as firmware on the PS3 goes. But what are the most important features still missing from Sony’s black box? Click through for our thoughts and then add your own…
The most recent Firmware update took us to 2.60 and – as mentioned elsewhere – means that we ought to be well on the way to playing the PS3 v3.o. Does anyone feel that is the case?
There are still huge discrepancies in the XMB and within the games themselves. Notable absentees include cross-game chatting and more game launching support through Home. OK, this isn’t a firmware thing but it’s along those lines.
Personally, I doubt I would use many of the suggestions already seen elsewhere for the big 3.0 jump because many are minor tweaks. I’m looking for something that will really change the way I play games. Like being able to video chat in-game or something. It can’t be that hard, really. Can it? A new XMB icon is always exciting, too…
But what would you add to the PS3 experience if you had the option to do so? Here’s the brief: You have to add one thing to the firmware to a) send the press into overdrive and b) get people switching on their PS3s for.
As always, answers in the comments.
Apart from the obvious things like cross-game chat and more codec support, the only big thing I can think of is … you guessed it … PS2 backwards compatibility via software emulation.
I’m going to step up to the plate and state that I think it’s going to happen. And it’s going to happen this year. Here’s why.
Conspiracy time but … I think if the PS3 can render and animate 200,000 blades of grass then it can play Persona 4 (PS2) using its current electronical guts. It’s 2009 and I’m pretty sure you could send a man to Mars using three PS3s and some liquid nitrogen at this rate.
One reason it hasn’t come is because the PS2 is still selling. The reason it is about to come is because of the economic crunch and Sony’s need to “consolidate”. Shutting down production of the PS2 (and moving its library to digital download) would result in savings for Sony. It might kill the PS2 in terms of its sales but, ensuantly, it would drive people towards the PS3 – which has a higher margin of profit.
This is my big theory of 2009. What PS2 games would you download off the PSN and play on your PS3? I’m thinking of Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, God of War (I and II) and Persona 4 right now. I’m sure I could dream up another 100 that I’d like play also. Just imagine the coin Sony could generate from this endeavour.
I’m sure I’m not the only one thinking of it either.
Aye, PS2 backward compatibility is the big one. I actually wouldn’t mind game launching from home – when us Aussies play, most of the EU and US is asleep, so servers for less popular games can be a little sparse – if there were game spaces in home and game launching, you could go online, find some people who were interested in a game and fire it up, rather than sit in a lobby for 2-5 minutes hoping someone would appear (and, more frustratingly, seeing people pop in and disappear). While people don’t seem to be getting excited about game launching yet, when they do finally get it up and running, I tip that it’ll actually grow into quite a big thing.
Of course, the other biggie is cross-game chat. Although a small update that I’d really like is to reduce the lag on the PS3’s video chat – it works great except for the lag, which makes it like calling the UK back in the early 80s, where you have to wait a couple of seconds at the end of talking to make sure the other person hasn’t started speaking, before talking again!
And a final small thing would be an update that allows the PS3 to sort and order data on external hard drives – I keep all my video files on a plug-in USB drive, and the PS3 can neither move files between folders or create folders to put ‘em in. But can’t see many clamouring for this!
I like the idea of the PS2 backwards compatibility thing. That would cause a media storm, and would get a whole new group of people switching on the PS3 as well as, what, multiplying the games library by about 30-fold?!
To be honest that is the last big thing for me. Other than that, I simply want to see things speed up a bit. The XMB feels sluggish – at least on my machine. The in-game XMB doesn’t seem to play very nicely with games running in the background.
And then there is the whole friends list thing – you click on a friend and then you have to wait a good 20-30 seconds for the widget to show. That is a bit poor, in my opinion. I know it is only a few seconds, but it shouldn’t be so hard to see how your friends are doing. As it is, I prefer to jump onto Playfire and see what is happening over there on the trophy leaderboard.
Imagine a friends list leaderboard built into your XMB? Wouldn’t that be great? Some kind of mechanism to reward people for being the best of their friends or for moving up a level or something. Supposed it was just a cap you could wear in Home or a tee-shirt or something…
“I’m the best among my friends and all I got was this lousy tee-shirt”. That would be great! Then, when someone beat you, you wouldn’t have the tee-shirt and they would. I think that’s an interesting idea, and would certainly get people playing and interacting more.
You should also automatically be able to choose your own music for any game from the HDD Music that you have. That should be the case anyway. The fact that some games have it and others don’t says that it can be done, but game devs aren’t bothering with it as much. They won’t either, until they realise that it is something that is really wanted by the masses.
PS2 compatibility would rock, but not too much for folks like me who have the original 60gig. But for a massive chunk of the PS3 masses, this would be a big thing. The ability to play anything with a Playstation logo on? Awesome.
I personally would like to see the ability to transfer my photos from my phone via bluetooth. I mean.. for a machine with built in bluetooth I find that a bit strange. Especially since I own a Sony Erricsson.
With regards to the XMB and friends lists… give us the ability to have custom avatars please. Or at least, update the ones we have. I mean, there aren’t even any Sackboy ones yet!
I won’t even bother going into Home as that’s as unfinished as the M6, but what I’d like to see? Being able to launch the game I’ve got in my drive at the time. That way my friends could pick a game in Home, then just pop the disk in and go.
I think I’ll finish there.
Since I have a launch 60GB model backwards compatibility doesn’t affect me much. However, it would be a nice feature for all those without.
Personally I’d like to see the profile section improved. It would be nice if the profiles were similar to Playfire pages. Like Phreaky I also use Playfire to see what other players are up to, trophy stats, etc.
I’d also would like if I didn’t have to change the audio output settings from HDMI to optical every time I decide to use my surround sound system. (I have HDMI to my TV and Optical to my Receiver) It’s minor, but still annoying.
Of course Cross game chat, and better data management. After completing Dead Space I had 125 save files. I had to delete the ones I no longer wanted(121) one at a time. (I also had a similar situation with Fallout 3) And to backup Save Files you cant copy multiple files either.
I guess that’s all for now.
Personally i think the point of PS2 backwards compatabillity is irrlevant.Chances are,these PS3 owners have a PS2 somewhere in their house anyway,and if not go out and buy one.Software emulation BC isn’t the best I have ever seen and even the hardware is apparently not brilliant,Playstation2 games should be played on a PLaystation 2.However I will say that Playstation 2 games for download on the Playstation store would be a welcome addition as far as i go.
Otherwise I agree with most of the minor annoyances (profiles,in game xmb,xmb itself,game chat etc).
I would be interested in an overhaul of the system’s XMB,it’s possible and in theory could be brilliant however I myself do not know what would be put in it,just saying it’s an option for Sony.
The music isn’t a big issue for me,but videos would be a nice feature to implement.I have a a youtube account and actively upload videos every few weeks (www.youtube.com/JedidiahRose),although the XMB has a video section,the amount of use it gets is sparce as far as i go,mainly because it’s not very well implemented,it doesn’t find the videos on my memory stick/phone/external HD’s and I would like this problem to be rectified.Also in Halo on the 360 you can save entire games,a recording feature exlcusive to the game,but it would be brilliant if Sony could implement this feature in the PS3 itself and you could record anything,in any game.
anyone agree?
And then a direct link to a site like Youtube or a site of your own so you could upload these recorded videos.That would be a feature that would stir up the media.