12 responses so far ↓

• 1 Keith K // Jul 2, 2008 at 12:11 pm

  I agree with you Yamster. There is no need or excuse for wanting more more more.

  However, as a community, when we see Sony themselves struggling to develop on their own system almost 2 years after its public launch it really doesnt instill confidence in what third parties will be able to accomplish with the system.

• 2 Kiltman67 // Jul 2, 2008 at 2:29 pm

  You’re right about the memory. I remember an IGN podcast last year where one of the editors said that he had actually spoken to someone at Sony who revealed that the reason they didn’t have in game XMB running was that there just wasn’t enough memory for it when a game was being played.

  From what I’ve heard Sony have been gradually reducing the amount of memory used by the XMB over the past few firmware updates.

  I’ve gotten frustrated with the obsession of fans over the XMB for another reason: It seemed to eliminate any pressure on Sony to work on software backwards compatibility. I do think the in game XMB is more important, but the more we focus single mindedly on it as if it’s the one thing stopping us from bowing down at Kaz Hirai’s feet, the more Sony thinks that’s all they have to fix and it’ll shut us up.

  Unfortunately, at the stage we’re at in the PS2 life cycle I’ve given up hopes of it appearing.

• 3 Warzone // Jul 2, 2008 at 3:12 pm

  If Microsoft hadn’t delivered what Sony still struggles to do, I’d say you have a point. But fact is, while Microsoft refined Live (mostly in the previous generation), Sony was stuck between twiddling its thumbs and laughing at how this online thing never going anywhere anyway.

  Sony’s the midwife of its own troubles.

• 4 Yamster // Jul 2, 2008 at 4:34 pm

  It’s completely their own fault for not embracing the market for network gaming when it was truly flourishing (ie, by providing bare-bones online play when the PS3 launched) but to continue that wonderful birth-based metaphor you started (:P) Sony are taking very slow yet steady baby steps to build up the PS3 into the machine it should have been when it was first launched.

  Whenever Home’s finally released and the in-game XMB is tuned to perfection and everybody has a headset (looking more and more possible by the day as SOCOM: Confrontation will be bundled with one and SOCOM 2 was the most-played game online on PS2..) we’ll be able to look back and laugh..but for now Sony are taking a fair bit of flak and it’s unfortunate, as it’s admirable that they’re still trying to claw their way back onto the same level of playing field as Microsoft.

  Taking their sweet time, but they’re getting there. Look at it this way; I’m not gonna be trading my PS3 in for a 360 anytime soon.

• 5 CitizenInsane27 // Jul 2, 2008 at 5:08 pm

  Yeah, I agree with you on this. I think that 2.4 wasn’t the magic dream firmware to fix all the problems, as much as the biggest step in development with the OS since it’s inception. The PS3’s OS is archaic and infantile at the moment, and Sony was pushed to bring forth a strong change in how they can work it, which I am proud of them for, but adding useless features, and as of 5:06pm my time (central US) the firmware has been pulled from the PSN and the PS website, showing that as much as they wanted it to be the miracle fix, it was unstable and needed retweaking. I, myself had no problem getting the firmware, and it works 100%. That is, of course, if I ignore the things I still wished it would do.

• 6 juuken // Jul 2, 2008 at 9:23 pm

  Well said. Every rabid owner out there should read this. That’s why I barely go on the playstation blog. There are way too many people out there who get on as if this stuff is so damn easy to work on. They don’t realize how much effort has to be put into this stuff.

  And when fanatics freak out like this, that’s when anti-Sony and 360 fanatics get their share of Sony bashing.

  Patience is a virtue.

• 7 memo // Jul 2, 2008 at 10:33 pm

  Your right there are system memory issues for adding all these in game features. I could see them adding lots other features in the future and sony does update firmware a lot, but there will never be in game web browsing, instillations, stuff that takes lots system recorses.

  For me personally, I don’t really care about the in game XMB at all and would rather they focus on the media features like support of all kinds of media codecs and containers like MKV and what not. I think a lot of people would really appreciate something like that just as much as the other stuff.

• 8 Meresin // Jul 2, 2008 at 11:14 pm

  Progress is progress. They had an awful lot of catching up to do when the PS3 launched, and I’d say that they’re doing a pretty decent job of it, all things considered. XBL wasn’t built in a day, either.

• 9 GHV // Jul 3, 2008 at 5:30 am

  I thought ps3 had 2x 256mb blocks of RAM

  256MB XDR Main RAM @3.2GHz
  256MB GDDR3 VRAM @700MHz

  I’m sure this is correct.

• 10 Cody // Jul 3, 2008 at 6:55 am

  If I look at the problems they have with 2.4 I think they still need a couple of months/years till the Fans are satisfied but somehow I think its their own fault. When I try to sell a gaming console as a “multimedia center” I should not be surprised when the expectations of customers are demanding

• 11 Yamster // Jul 3, 2008 at 9:10 am

  @GHV: Yes, but one of those chips is for the graphics card (the VRAM @ 700MHz) and hence isn’t used by the PS3 in handling procedures such as games and the in-game XMB; it’s used to render all the graphics in a game.

• 12 instant // Jul 3, 2008 at 1:37 pm

  They need more time.. looks like the bar is set a little high but they’re getting there.. they can make up for the not-so-hot update by throwing in a patch for included voice chat :D.. wishful thinking

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