[Giz Article] PS3's Firmware Updates Punish the Casual Gamer

[velillen]

Really look back one year. Lets see how many updates that are useless there were for the PS3. Now remember, just cause you do not use a feature doesn't mean someone else doesnt!

9/1/2009 (3.0) Big updated changed tons of stuff
9/15/2009 ( 3.01) Fixed playback with some games
11/19/2009 (3.1) Added tons of TV crap for people. Also bug reports for crashed PS3s
12/19/2009 (3.15) Added PSP Mini support. (emulation)
4/2/2010 (3.21) Dreaded Linux removal
4/22/2010 (3.30) Bitstreaming audio. Fixed playback with region free blu rays
6/29/2010 (3.40) Playstation Plus added. Also Deep Color ouput (hdmi)
7/26/2010 (3.41) Added incremental firmware patching for future patches
9/6/2010 (3.42) Anti Pricacy update

Thats 9 updates in a year. All but two are more than a month apart. All added something that someone was happy about. Granted i may not care about PSP mini so that patch is essentially "useless" to me i do know other people have most likely enjoyed it. I think i can live with an update a month at the most even if it takes 10 minutes for it. And with 3.41 adding incremental updating it should get better for the next real patch.

 

[velillen]

Exactly. And another irritating thing about the PS3 is the sluggish as hell XMB. While I'm playing my friend online, I want to check a message someone sent me between matches, and it takes for what seems like FOREVER for the XMB to display completely and then let me pull up the message. By the time it comes up, the match has started and I'm frantically trying to close the XMB, which again feels like forever.

it takes my ps3 slim all of 1 second to open up the XMB in game (MW2) and display. Another 2 seconds to scroll over to the message box and click on message. And it takes however long it takes to press the ps button to close. That really isnt what i would call forever.

Now if you try to do it while loading a game (ie loading a map in mw2) then yeah it is a bit sluggish but that cant be blamed on anything

 

[spaceman]

ditto
its sucks
i have used my ps3
twice in 2.5 months
each time i wanted to play i get a "req" update
that take an half hour
or i can opt to play in offline mode..but w a game w online features..yeah..why would i
ive sporadically owned the 360, dont recall any of this
and they say pc games are a pita lool

 

[RavenSEAL]

ditto
its sucks
i have used my ps3
twice in 2.5 months
each time i wanted to play i get a "req" update
that take an half hour
or i can opt to play in offline mode..but w a game w online features..yeah..why would i
ive sporadically owned the 360, dont recall any of this
and they say pc games are a pita lool

Lol? PC games have like twice as many patches as console games! FPS are always fixing exploits and hacks, MMOs add stuff, adventure games and everything else always fixing bugs, etc. Not to mention windows bugs my ass like 3 times a week telling me its gonna shut down in the middle of my BF2 session.But sure, you don't "have" to download the update, but again, you don't have to either on PS3. Waiting 10 minutes for a patch REALLY ISN'T that hard anyways.

 

[spaceman]

Lol? PC games have like twice as many patches as console games! FPS are always fixing exploits and hacks, MMOs add stuff, adventure games and everything else always fixing bugs, etc. Not to mention windows bugs my ass like 3 times a week telling me its gonna shut down in the middle of my BF2 session.But sure, you don't "have" to download the update, but again, you don't have to either on PS3. Waiting 10 minutes for a patch REALLY ISN'T that hard anyways.

i know that goin in with pc
im primarily a pc gamer and been for more than a decade
i want my consoles when i use them to be push button and play
and that last ps3 update i got was WAY more than 10 min
more like 10 min to dl
then another whatever min to install
reboot/unpack blah
like i said, pain in the ass
might as well just play my pc(which is what i do anyways lol)

 

[DivideBYZero]

it takes my ps3 slim all of 1 second to open up the XMB in game (MW2) and display. Another 2 seconds to scroll over to the message box and click on message. And it takes however long it takes to press the ps button to close. That really isnt what i would call forever.

Now if you try to do it while loading a game (ie loading a map in mw2) then yeah it is a bit sluggish but that cant be blamed on anything

Yeah, I'm calling bullshit on the 'slow XMB', too. It's plenty fast enough, in fact in 9 times out of 10 it's instant.

 

[smackababy]

Yeah, I'm calling bullshit on the 'slow XMB', too. It's plenty fast enough, in fact in 9 times out of 10 it's instant.

My XMB is horribly slow to load. But it isn't like the Xbox Dashboard is much faster. I think my PS3 is slow due to the HDD showing its age, but who knows.

 

[meltdown75]

i borrowed a friend's fallout 3 and made it almost to the end of the main quest and then started goofin around to extend the game because it was awesome. then i gave him his game back and went and bought the same non-GOTY edition. put it in, it had to update, and i lost my saved game. FML

 

[v8envy]

A very famous hacker was able to hack the BCE using linux and sony saw a risk that it could be used to both hack their servers (Which duh, contain the private information of their costumers) and at the same time exploit other aspects of the hardware, therefore, sony saw that this could eventually not only put them in risk, but the people who purchase the console as well. So, if you don't mind your personal information being stolen in order to play little big planet faster, go ahead and call sony.

Really? Finding a way out of the hypervisor sandbox on a local console somehow opened up their remote servers? Really? If this were remotely true Sony's got a lot more problems than removing value will cure.

Also, Sony does *NOT* have my personal information. They have a tiny bit of my public information -- about the same amount found in phone directories and far less than public records.

I haven't updated since the firmware which removes OtherOS (which means no online play, but I don't really care. I have a PC for that). I also gained an Xbox360 which is far less annoying with the constant lengthy updates. However, the two events are completely unrelated.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Really? Finding a way out of the hypervisor sandbox on a local console somehow opened up their remote servers? Really? If this were remotely true Sony's got a lot more problems than removing value will cure.

Also, Sony does *NOT* have my personal information. They have a tiny bit of my public information -- about the same amount found in phone directories and far less than public records.

I haven't updated since the firmware which removes OtherOS (which means no online play, but I don't really care. I have a PC for that). I also gained an Xbox360 which is far less annoying with the constant lengthy updates. However, the two events are completely unrelated.

You might not have ever bought anything from the store, but the other...i don't know...5 millionish people that might have bought some random theme or add on, their personal and credit card information is in SONYs databases.

Going back to the BCE hacking, removing linux/otherOS was a precaution...nothing more.

 

[tk149]

My PS3 downloads slowly too. If it were faster, they could patch the damn thing every week and I wouldn't care. But as it is, it's a PITA when I have half an hour to play, and the Update notification shows up.

Just to vent off-topic: I had downloaded the demo of Toy Home a long time ago and tried it out. It was enjoyable, but I didn't end up buying it (or uninstalling it). Last weekend, I thought that I'd give it another try to see if my girlfriend's daughter might like it, in which case I'd buy it. I started the game demo, but got a notification that it needed updating.

An hour later, the "upgrade" finished. I try to start the game, and get a notification that I needed a license from the Sony store. I click on OK, and it takes me to the "buy the full version" page. I deleted the game, and I will not be purchasing it.

Thanks Sony, for destroying the demo, making me wait an hour to get a new one (no background download allowed!), and then making sure that it didn't work. Fvck you, Sony!

Along with various other reasons related to the firmware changes, I will not be buying a PS4. Sony has lost a customer. Hopefully, the Xbox 720 will debut as a reliable version.

 

[RavenSEAL]

My PS3 downloads slowly too. If it were faster, they could patch the damn thing every week and I wouldn't care. But as it is, it's a PITA when I have half an hour to play, and the Update notification shows up.

Just to vent off-topic: I had downloaded the demo of Toy Home a long time ago and tried it out. It was enjoyable, but I didn't end up buying it (or uninstalling it). Last weekend, I thought that I'd give it another try to see if my girlfriend's daughter might like it, in which case I'd buy it. I started the game demo, but got a notification that it needed updating.

An hour later, the "upgrade" finished. I try to start the game, and get a notification that I needed a license from the Sony store. I click on OK, and it takes me to the "buy the full version" page. I deleted the game, and I will not be purchasing it.

Thanks Sony, for destroying the demo, making me wait an hour to get a new one (no background download allowed!), and then making sure that it didn't work. Fvck you, Sony!

Along with various other reasons related to the firmware changes, I will not be buying a PS4. Sony has lost a customer. Hopefully, the Xbox 720 will debut as a reliable version.