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

[hans030390]

I'm not sure why people have a hard time noticing the notification that you need an update. It pops up right away and has a lot more text in the notification than "You signed in" (or whatever it says). It's pretty obvious, to me and anyone else that I've seen use a PS3.

Really, though, if download speeds are and issue for you AND it really bugs you (and we all know how much people love bitching about it), try the fix(es) I listed. They're easy and will save you TONS of time on PS3 downloads. Since Sony hasn't done anything about it, it's the next best thing. As long as I see people complaining about it, I'll be posting this.

 

[JackBurton]

I just noticed an option on my PS3 called "Automatic Download." It looks like it checks and downloads system and game updates at a scheduled time. I thought, "cool, let me turns this option on." It then says, this feature is only available for PSN Plus members. Are you fucking kidding me?! PSN Plus is so worthless they have to include features like this to somehow add some value to it? Fuck that. I'll just download the updates manually. 🙄

 

[purbeast0]

I just noticed an option on my PS3 called "Automatic Download." It looks like it checks and downloads system and game updates at a scheduled time. I thought, "cool, let me turns this option on." It then says, this feature is only available for PSN Plus members. Are you fucking kidding me?! PSN Plus is so worthless they have to include features like this to somehow add some value to it? Fuck that. I'll just download the updates manually. 🙄

heh yea this was definitely one of the top 'features' they were advertising with PSN+.

 

[Aikouka]

If your update speeds are really bad, can't you just download them on a PC from sony, put them on a flash drive and install it that way? I did that once for my mom's PS3 and it worked very easily.

I think the updates take longer than necessary... especially compared to the 360, but I think that's because Microsoft took a Windows-ish approach and simply updates separate files. Sony uses the exact same approach that Apple uses with their iStuff and they use with their PSP... you download an entire firmware and have to write the entire thing... even for a small update.

 

[DivideBYZero]

OK, so based upon this thread I timed how long it took to update to 3.42. 6 Minutes. That's to download (all from PS3 itself), install and reboot to usable again. Unless you were going to play for just 10 minutes it's just not a big deal.

My PS3 is in a DMZ and my ADSL is ~6Mb down, FYI.

 

[smackababy]

OK, so based upon this thread I timed how long it took to update to 3.42. 6 Minutes. That's to download (all from PS3 itself), install and reboot to usable again. Unless you were going to play for just 10 minutes it's just not a big deal.

My PS3 is in a DMZ and my ADSL is ~6Mb down, FYI.

It didn't take 4 hours? Blasphemy!

 

[fatpat268]

OK, so based upon this thread I timed how long it took to update to 3.42. 6 Minutes. That's to download (all from PS3 itself), install and reboot to usable again. Unless you were going to play for just 10 minutes it's just not a big deal.

My PS3 is in a DMZ and my ADSL is ~6Mb down, FYI.

It didn't take 4 hours? Blasphemy!

I believe one of the more recent updates fixed this issue. Before it would download and rewrite the entire firmware, and now, it downloads and installs a much smaller package.

Or so I've been told anyway. Either way, install times of patches (for me) dropped from ~30-40 minutes down to less than 10 minutes.

 

[Kev]

OK, so based upon this thread I timed how long it took to update to 3.42. 6 Minutes. That's to download (all from PS3 itself), install and reboot to usable again. Unless you were going to play for just 10 minutes it's just not a big deal.

My PS3 is in a DMZ and my ADSL is ~6Mb down, FYI.

That's still 20x longer than it takes a 360 update.

Also, usually after updating the firmware, I have to download a game update as well. It's really annoying.

 

[Beev]

That's still 20x longer than it takes a 360 update.

Also, usually after updating the firmware, I have to download a game update as well. It's really annoying.

Really? System updates take the 360 18 seconds? Also, I have never had the latter be true, unless a game was taking advantage of a new system feature or something.

 

[purbeast0]

360 updates take less than 18 seconds.

 

[GrumpyMan]

If it's taking such a long time, download it from the pc and put it on thumb drive?

 

[Thraxen]

360 updates take less than 18 seconds.

Not for the big updates they do in the fall. That involves 2 downloads and 2 reboots. Turn on 360 get notified of an update -> Say OK -> Download for a few seconds -> Reboot -> Boots into some sort of update UI -> Longer download period -> Reboot -> Done.

 

[Narmer]

I believe one of the more recent updates fixed this issue. Before it would download and rewrite the entire firmware, and now, it downloads and installs a much smaller package.

Or so I've been told anyway. Either way, install times of patches (for me) dropped from ~30-40 minutes down to less than 10 minutes.

I think rewriting the entire firmware is a smarter and simpler method. Patching software can be hit or miss. The problem with Sony is that they update too many times. 3-4 times a year should be enough.

 

[BenSkywalker]

OK, so based upon this thread I timed how long it took to update to 3.42. 6 Minutes. That's to download (all from PS3 itself), install and reboot to usable again. Unless you were going to play for just 10 minutes it's just not a big deal.

I did the same, 2:18- RR Cable, 20Mb down. Actual DL was under 60 seconds.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Simple solution: Don't connect to the internet. As consoles progress into PC territory, it's only going to get worse because:

1. They want to milk any profit they can
2. They want totaly control of your console.

I actually would prefer to go back to the old days before firmware/software updates on consoles. They don't belong there.

 

[smackababy]

Simple solution: Don't connect to the internet. As consoles progress into PC territory, it's only going to get worse because:

1. They want to milk any profit they can
2. They want totaly control of your console.

I actually would prefer to go back to the old days before firmware/software updates on consoles. They don't belong there.

Yeah I'd love to go back to the days where if I wanted balancing or two new characters I had to buy SFII again... Remember those glitches that were annoying and couldn't be fixed? They can now. I shutter to think what Darksiders would have been like with all that screen tearing. The internet has revolutionized not only gaming, but the world. To even suggest you'd like to go back to the time without it is pure idiocy.

 

[ImpulsE69]

You missed the point. You can't really use graphics as your reasoning for defending it as I'm pretty sure having internet access on a console has nothing to do with graphics tearing. That's called in house QA. (Or laziness for lack thereof). You used to see much more of that on the PC side of things (which gasp! I do use the internet on). You used current games as well as your reasoning, however, that still comes down to QA.

Sorry, I don't really use internet on my consoles. Doesn't seem to bother me in the least and don't really miss it. But then again, a little graphics tearing doesn't really annoy me. As for glitches, yea I suppose that's an arguement, but glitches were few and far between back in the day(granted games coding wasn't nearly as big but quality control was much better).

Consoles being hooked to the internet isn't for quality control, that's just an afterthought. (PSPGO anyone?). It's really not even for multiplayer even though they are smart enough to know that's what people want. Ultimately it is for control and to push new "purchasable" content to the consumer which helps with impulse buys. It's where they want to take the industry. It costs them much less than distribution to retail.

No, I was not bashing the internet. I'm not even bashing PS3. All consoles are headed there (pretty much already there).

 

[Dumac]

360 updates take less than 18 seconds.

Mine took over 30 minutes

 

[Malak]

I disagree actually. I find the PS3 as an option, which is a good thing. Downloadable games, movies, add-on content. They aren't pushing anything, they are only making it available. Not connecting your console to the internet is just stupid. If you aren't playing multiplayer, you are doing it wrong.

 

[Malak]

Oh and not to mention the wonderful firmware updates for the PS3 so it can continue to play new bluray movies. Can't argue how useful that is, made original bluray players piles of junk if they couldn't connect.

 

[smackababy]

You missed the point. You can't really use graphics as your reasoning for defending it as I'm pretty sure having internet access on a console has nothing to do with graphics tearing. That's called in house QA. (Or laziness for lack thereof). You used to see much more of that on the PC side of things (which gasp! I do use the internet on). You used current games as well as your reasoning, however, that still comes down to QA.

Sorry, I don't really use internet on my consoles. Doesn't seem to bother me in the least and don't really miss it. But then again, a little graphics tearing doesn't really annoy me. As for glitches, yea I suppose that's an arguement, but glitches were few and far between back in the day(granted games coding wasn't nearly as big but quality control was much better).

Consoles being hooked to the internet isn't for quality control, that's just an afterthought. (PSPGO anyone?). It's really not even for multiplayer even though they are smart enough to know that's what people want. Ultimately it is for control and to push new "purchasable" content to the consumer which helps with impulse buys. It's where they want to take the industry. It costs them much less than distribution to retail.

No, I was not bashing the internet. I'm not even bashing PS3. All consoles are headed there (pretty much already there).

I used both a newer game as well as an older game for examples. There were six or seven versions of Street Fighter II. The community was calling for changes and Capcom kept delivering. However, these updates cost full price and added what most outside of the competitive fighting community viewed as minor updates.

As far as quality control goes, your argument there is laughable. Have you ever coded? Because I do for a living and no matter how much testing you do, there will always be bugs. It is completely unfeasible to test for every possible thing that could go wrong. The internet has revolutionized the way software can be repaired with patches and updates. With this, yes, comes the ability to sell more. I see no problem with a company spending time and money to develop extra content for games and selling it to me. I'd rather pay $10 for those new characters rather than $60+ for a new game to get them.

 

[uli2000]

Firmware updates are fast for me, but updating games holy crap. Day one patch of BBCS took long enough for me to drive 20 minutes to a store, buy something, and drive 20 minutes back and then wait 10 minutes for it to finish...

This. I remember when GT5 prologue had a major update, I had to let the update run all night. first 2 times it got to 90% and stopped. It took me 3 days to get the damn update. And to top it off, I had the Japanese version of the game, so all the error messages were in Japanese and I had no idea what the hell they said. It may have been on my end for all I know.

 

[tatteredpotato]

OK, so based upon this thread I timed how long it took to update to 3.42. 6 Minutes. That's to download (all from PS3 itself), install and reboot to usable again. Unless you were going to play for just 10 minutes it's just not a big deal.

My PS3 is in a DMZ and my ADSL is ~6Mb down, FYI.

I'll try to update mine soon, haven't turned it on for 3 months so it'll be a good test (and I don't have an internet bottleneck now).

 

[Terzo]

I've loaned my ps3 out to a friend, but I'll time the update when I get it back. Assuming he hasn't updated it yet.

Oh and not to mention the wonderful firmware updates for the PS3 so it can continue to play new bluray movies. Can't argue how useful that is, made original bluray players piles of junk if they couldn't connect.

As a counterpoint, they can remove features as well. Those people who running linux were forced to choose between linux and continued capability to play new games and blurays.

 

[ImpulsE69]

I used both a newer game as well as an older game for examples. There were six or seven versions of Street Fighter II. The community was calling for changes and Capcom kept delivering. However, these updates cost full price and added what most outside of the competitive fighting community viewed as minor updates.

As far as quality control goes, your argument there is laughable. Have you ever coded? Because I do for a living and no matter how much testing you do, there will always be bugs. It is completely unfeasible to test for every possible thing that could go wrong. The internet has revolutionized the way software can be repaired with patches and updates. With this, yes, comes the ability to sell more. I see no problem with a company spending time and money to develop extra content for games and selling it to me. I'd rather pay $10 for those new characters rather than $60+ for a new game to get them.

Yes I've coded and I could debate the QA bit of this since it revolves around a console, but I suppose this isn't really the thread for it. One thing you bring up where we are clearly different is the "I'd rather pay $10 for new characters than $60+ for a new game to get them". I just wouldn't get the new game(or the new characters/addons). I know I'm probably in the minority there.

Someone said something about if you're not playing multiplayer you're doing it wrong? You do realize a majority of titles console/pc are single player right? And a good portion of ones with multiplayer have a pretty crappy MP tacked on at that.

Anyway, my original post wasn't intended to debate internet on consoles. More about the reason behind it(and thus the firmware updates).