Firmware v2.40 FAQ

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Hi again! It’s great to see the positive reaction to the unveiling of system software update v2.40. We can’t wait for you to finally go hands-on with XMB access in-game and the Trophy system – and it’s less than 2 days away. Not surprisingly, a number of you have posed questions both here and on other forums. Here are answers to the most frequently asked questions.

    Will voice-messaging/private chat be featured in 2.40 as well? If not, can we expect to see this feature added in the future?

    We are evaluating the opportunity to offer voice chat, but for this update, we wanted to focus on text messaging as the key priority for communications that our users have asked for.

    Can you use the web browser in game?

    No, you must exit the game before browsing the internet.

    Will In-Game XMB come up during playback of PS2 games, Blu-Ray discs, and DVDs?

    The XMB is an exclusive feature for PS3 game titles. Accessing the XMB during gameplay was the top request from our users, which we focused on for this update. However, we continually engage PS3 owners for feedback and will evaluate the opportunity to offer XMB access during movie playback in the future.

    Can we go to the display settings and change anything there in-game (resolution, input, etc)?

    No, you must exit the game before changing these settings.

    Will it be possible to change in-game the sound output?

    Yes, sound output changes are supported.


    Will we be able to access the PLAYSTATION Store while in-game?

    No, but you can view your downloads in progress.

    Will we be able to stream music (either via media server or USB drive) for custom soundtracks or is it relegated to music stored on the HDD?

    Currently only music stored on the HDD is accessible in games that support this feature. We’d also like to reiterate that Firmware v2.40 merely enables custom soundtracks. It’s up to developers to include this feature in upcoming games (or to patch existing ones).

    Does 2.4 enable cross game invites? Will it down the line?

    No, cross-game invites are not available in this system software update. We are evaluating opportunities to expand on the new features delivered in 2.40.

    Will trophies be mandatory for all games release here on out?

    We are working with developers to ensure that Trophies are supported across the board in the future.

    Where is each player’s trophy stat info held? I am going to upgrade my hard drive and I don’t know if the trophies will still be on my account if I earn some and then get a new hard drive.

    Trophies will be attached to users’ PSN ID. Trophy data needs to be synchronized to the online account on PSN to be transferred to the new PS3 system.

    Will the patch automatically allocate unlocked trophies according to your saved files or would you have to do it again?

    No, Trophies aren’t retroactive.

    Can we view PSN profiles/Trophies from a PC using a Web browser? Will there be an API for web developers to access the PSN data, so online profiles can be created?

    We’re evaluating these opportunities to expand where Trophies can be experienced.

    Can you only compare trophies with friends that are online?

    As long as a friend has a PSN account, you can compare trophies with them regardless of their online status.

    Is there a limit to how many trophies the devs can put set by Sony?

    There’s not a limit on number of trophies, but there’s a value assigned to each trophy. Developers must balance out the trophies that are available to stay within an overall value based on whether the game is considered large-scope or small-scope. Essentially, a user that has unlocked every trophy in one game would have the same level as a user that unlocked every trophy in another title, all titles (depending on scope) have the same overall impact on a users’ level.

    Will new games have a cool little icon on the back saying “trophy compatible?”

    We’re currently working on how Trophy support will be messaged to the consumer on our software packaging.

    When you get a trophy, does it make a noise?

    Currently, no. How quickly things can change – there *will* be a sound effect when you unlock a Trophy.

    What is Eric’s favorite cheese?

    Mozzarella

    Once again, we will continue to evaluate opportunities to enhance the PLAYSTATION 3’s system software throughout the console’s life cycle. Consumer feedback has contributed greatly to the contents of Firmware v2.40, and continues to be appreciated. Don’t forget, this Firmware will be available for download on July 2nd.

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1,729 Comments

  • IM NOT LYING LAUGH ALL YOU WANT HERE IS PROOF… tinyurl.com/3e4k9d

  • Not sure if this was asked but I didn’t see it answered.

    Like we get an alert when we unlock and Trophy.. Will there be an alert when we advance a level.

    Sup with the video or “YouTupe” feature. Eden is including that. Is that being kept as a surprise? :)

    Can we see all games a friend has played that have trophies or only the ones we have in common?

    I agree with the web access to trophies and what not, but I’m not worried about it. I just watch the E3 video from last year where Phil talked about home community feature being accessible on the web. I’m sure we’ll have access to our profiles and friends list online sooner or later.

    I’m so glad to see that now when mult-plat game are reviewed, the other console won’t always be able to get the upper hand just for acheivements. (Hope 3rd parties add it even though they aren’t forced to)

    Long post..

    COD4, Burnout Paradise, MGS4, DMC4, GTA4.. Any chance they can get Tropies added. I’m positive on the idea of MGS4 and Burnout getting it…

    And how about 1st Party??

    I have R&C Future, Eye of Judgment, Resistance, Heavenly Sword, Uncharted, GT-Prologue, Hot Shots… Any chance..

    PSN

    I’ve got all the PSN games except Fatal Inertia (digitial downloading addiction) Interested it which will be patched.

    Would like to see.. Blast Factor, Nucleus, Snakeball, CAC, Tekken, Go Puzzle, echochrome, Rub a Dub, Piyotama, HV Bowling, PJ Racers and Monsters…

    LOL I’m done.. Did I type ok..

    Thanks for the work Sony…

  • Looks like everyone want the PS3 not only to play games but also make them a sandwich and tea at the same time

  • All I want to know is if MGS4 and uncharted will get trophy support.

  • What I can assimulate here is this… The only thing worth pi$$ in a cat dish is/are the trophies, but even they won’t be viable until games are patched or we “BUY” new games… which, again, what new games are worth buying right now?

    MGS4 doesn’t support them.
    Resistance 2 isn’t for 6 more months.
    Killzone 2 is next year.
    Motorstorm 2 is blah and blah again.

    Really, Sony should’ve made better strides to get Naughtydog, Insomniac and others on board with the trophy system. Having super star dust as the only game to support Trophies is pretty damn lame.

    Lame as hell actually.

  • “Method and Apparatus for Creating and Playing Soundtracks in a Gaming System” patented by MS. Just copy and paste the tinyurl the other guy gave. I’d like to see you guys say Ripten is lying.

  • Wow people are now starting to complain when Sony gives you what you want? Jesus people!! What more could you want!? Only ‘negative’ possible thing about this update is the fact there is no voice chat, which I honestly dont really mind much, because it will come later and this will do for now. Seriously, brighten up whiners.

    But I think the real reason custom soundtracks isn’t available across all games, is Microsoft’s patent. So allowing developers to simply press the ‘on’ button for the feature, gets around that obstacle, no?

    I am assuming all future releases will support in-game music though, mainly because it shouldn’t be that hard to incorporate, you know.

  • assimilate*

    Sorry for the spelling, my cubital is acitng up.

  • Update looks good. I do have a question though.

    Say I’m in a game and I haven’t saved for awhile. Then I need to go to the in-game xmb for whatever reason. Should I fear that by accessing the in-game xmb that I have a chance that it will freeze my system and make me lose my progress I made in my game?

    Basically what I am asking is, how stable is this? Am I going to want to save my game every time before using the in-game xmb?

  • Please answer this question!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
    Will mgs4 support trophies?????
    By the way you answered practically all of my questions!!!

    Oh yeah almost forgot. Will you be rewarded for certain things that you do online? (MGO, cod4 online)

  • I just want MGS4 adn GTA4 to get trophies and I’m set.

  • Yeah, and GTA4… not having in game music? Please, that’s going to be lame. We have to wait for R* who is already lazy as it is, look at their engine for GTA, to patch this for us? No way.

  • @204 and everybody else that keeps coming to the conclusion that microsoft have a patent on in game soundtracks. I don’t know where your getting your information from but they did file for one and guess what… It was never accepted. They do not own a patent for in game soundtracks so stop telling everybody they do. You can find the filled patent on google patents and you can also see that the were never accepted. case closed.

  • @ 260, ITS ALL UP TO KOJIMA. if he wants to path it he will. its all up to devs not sony

  • Can I change the PSN account I’m logged in as from within the in-game XMB?? My kids and I like to race on GT5 prologue, but when we swap drivers we have to quit the game, log in as the new user, and restart the game to get to our own accounts.

    It would be so much nicer to change the user from the in-game XMB!!

  • When will the XMB support video playlists?

  • @257 lol, you think developers will just flick a switch to add in game music functionality.

  • 1. Start charging for PSN.
    2. Use that money to pay MS to be able to have custom soundtracks for ALL games the PS3 can play.
    That’s how much I want custom music. Or maybe trade Blu-ray for custom soundtrack? lol

  • There will be more games than SSHD that support trophies. That will just be the first to support them on day 1… I’m pretty sure that by next Thurs we’ll at least see more of the 1st party games supporting them. Warhawk is already confirmed to be supporting them… and those two games alone are enough to keep me busy for at least two weeks unlocking trophies.

    The third party games are the ones that will probably take forever (if ever) to support them. Plus Bioshock, Little Big Planet, SOCOM, & Resistance 2 aren’t that far away.

  • @ 263 before you talk, would you please go to this website so all of you who dont believe me can shut up….. tinyurl.com/3e4k9d

  • Infinity Ward won’t even patch COD4 to include rumble…the chance of them going back to include custom soundtracks is ZERO.

    In fact, I’m guessing that the vast majority of developers will not go back and change their existing games. There’s just no money in it for them.

    This implementation of custom-soundtracks is just baffling.

  • In game voice messaging, cross game invites and being to use the XMB during bluray, ps3 games and dvd play back are needed in the next update.

  • Hey, first time poster, long time reader. I had to sign up because this site just keeps getting better and better. I love how the guys are so informative and Jeff answers so many of our questions. Thanks for everything Sony and I hope we see some killer things in the future.

  • cool. when can we get a list of compatible games using trophies like we did with the dualshock 3 compatible titles list?

    also…very cool update. thank you guys for paying attention and giving the people what they want. i know some people want the ps3 to fly and burn cds and tivo their favorite show all while they play flow and chat with their friends with a headset but i think the system has come a long way and look forward to the things yet to come.

    ps: cheddar is better unless you’re talking about italian food.

  • @Scarslasher he is lying and if you actually bothered to read the details of the patent you would notice there is no issue date and it was filled some years ago. The patent is redundant, unless there is an issue date(been accepted) Microsoft have no legal rights to it.

  • Can Eric or Jeff confirm why we had in game music in the 1st video and now we don’t? That’s what is just blazing my brain cells right now.

    Why not cut that part out of the video, rather than get everyone’s hopes up or even try to make it look like we could access the music in game.

    What we have is no reason to have xmb in game unless you want to message your friends. It’s almost as if this update was just about “texting” your friends messages and in order to make it sound bigger and better they tried to lie and slap up othr features that are not even present in the update for us.

    We have to wait on everything still.

    Trophies are cool, I’ll grant you that but what are they if we can’t get them on more than one lame ass game? Face it Star dust isn’t near as good as Novastrike or Everyday shooter. It’s just not.

    I’m getting more and more eside myself on this whole thing. I bet we can’t even listen to our music in Home, either. Wait and see.

  • @ tretle, how can i be lying, the patent issue was on most videogame websites long ago. if you are such a gamer to read the blogs here, why dont you do a little research so you can see MS does own the patent for in-game music

  • Seems they have just done the bare minimum they could do. Just basic functionality and only releasing any real information just a few days before it’s due out.

  • To you guys talking about the MS patent. Sony found a way around it. It’s simple really. It’s like Jeff said “game developers can build that functionality in, if they so choose.” Notice the “if they so choose” part? By leaving it up to devs to implement in game soundtracks and not forcing them to do it like MS is how they got around the patent. I imagine Sony made implementing BGM pretty easy so that it’s not much of a hassle. One of those on or off type things. This way devs will do it because it isn’t a big hassle. I’m sure it’s not as much trouble as the old way (High Velocity Bowling).

  • @ 269

    So more games will support trophies, huh? How will we know? Hell, we don’t even know if and when we get trophies cause they don’t even make a sound when you get them. This whole thing is reeking of cheap and shallow. Rush job is what it is.

    As I said, 2.40 is a glorified Text messaging system. What a piece.

  • “Currently only music stored on the HDD is accessible in games that support this feature. We’d also like to reiterate that Firmware v2.40 merely enables custom soundtracks. It’s up to developers to include this feature in upcoming games (or to patch existing ones).”

    > I have High Velocity Bowling and SSHD and both have the ability to play custom soundtracks. I thought I’ve also read that this feature has always been there for the devs but your quote above makes it seem like it was just turned on.

    > Is it just the way you activate in-game tracks thats changed?(XMB vs in-game menu)

  • What!? It wont read game saves!? That is BULL!!!

  • @ Jeff Rubenstein

    I have one simple question that I would love to know.

    Does adding custom soundtracks to PS3 games take away memory from the developers for games? Kinda like how it use to be with older games. Where it would cost developers memory for their games when they were implementing it. Does implementing custom soundtracks via in-game XMB cost developers any memory?

    That’s all I want to know. I hope you don’t skip this question!! Thanks!

  • TO EVERYONE WHO DOESNT BELIEVE ME HERE IS THE ACTUAL PATENT FROM MS…. tinyurl.com/5mgjeg

  • @ tretle [263]

    Lol, well OBVIOUSLY it isn’t that easy, but it is way easier than it previously was, which required them to actually put an option in the game to do so.

    Now it is much simpler, and would not require but a quarter of a developers day to slap in their game. Honestly, are they THAT busy? Please.

  • So, there’s no visual or audio indication when you’ve received a trophy? You just find out by going to your list after every time you play a game?

    That can’t be right. Am I missing something?

  • Nice! PS3 is looking better and better each day.

    I hope the In Game Music feature will be improve to reproduce music stream from a Media Server or from an external storage device.

  • I LOVE CHEESE AND 2.40!

  • @Theossie, you’re a fine human being… and obviously a hard core gamer! Not enough PS3’ers have CaC, care to drop your PSN ID so I can add you to my friendlist?!

  • Jeff

    Will there EVER be a chance to just play your music “EVEN” if the developer doesn’t patch the game.. like in COD4, i usually have to lower the tv to listen to my own music from my pc.

    But it defeats the purpose of my surround system that i invested in in order to know where enemies are coming from..

    WIll there EVER be an option for this or should i just stop wishing now..

    Because only one game supporting this is not what any of us were expecting..

  • @ Venomx

    you wont’ get a response on that. What I can tell you, from my experience in hardware and such is this.

    Ps3 has 256 mb of ram + 256 mb of ram = 512. 1 is for the os and the other is for the RSX. Only the Cell can grab from both sets and only if it is programmed and told to do so.

    Now what I’m going to ask you is this. Have you ran your computer, played media player and surfed the Internet on a 256 mb stick using VistA?

    No. no you haven’t and no you can’t.

  • If that was an earlier build of Firmware 2.40 and worked without a game patch why can’t we have that build? So it works across all games?

    Still loving the prospect of In Game Voice Chat and Cross Game Invites.

    The PS3 is so powerful I can’t wait to see everything it accomplishes over the next few years!

    Love my 60GB now 250GB and soon to be 500GB!

  • @ ED

    Yes, that is exactly what’s happening.

  • the ripten link, that story came out on march 31st. *cough* april fools *cough*

  • will you guys be looking into in game web browsing at anytime or is it just a no

  • Still waiting to see if Trophies will have more than just bragging rights attached to them.

    I mean, it would AWESOME to get a free gift or a discount on DLC for a game you got the Platinum Trophy for.

  • I’m just happy to not have to back out of my game just to reply to a message.

    I’m hoping that custom soundtracks really start picking up on new games as well as patched for already released games (mainly GTAIV, cause I’m pretty bored with all the music in the game except Bob Marley ;P)

    I also hope you guys at Sony can add in voice messaging as well as update the flash player on the PS3’s internet browser.

  • @ Shibbs, dude look this is the actual patent… tinyurl.com/5mgjeg

  • Oh yeah, and I’d love to see alot more PS1 classics added to the PSN store. You guys realize how much money can be made if you put more content on the PSN store?

    I know I’d buy more considering some stuff is hard to get a hold of as a physical copy.

  • Kinda disappointed that you can’t just select what you want to hear and listen to while you’re playing from the in game xmb. I’m sure there’s a tonne of games that won’t be updated to support custom tracks. I mean, there is no way in hell that The Orange Box will get patched to have custom soundtracks. With the current track record of each revision to the game making it worse I don’t think EA will wanna touch it.

    I must say I’m a little dumbfounded you’re promoting this as a new feature when really you’re just masking an old one. Custom tracks have been available in a number of games for months now and I was hoping this update would do away with the developers having to implement it on their own. I hope to god it was a copyright infringement or something that kept you from implementing this properly.

    I guess I’m just really confused. The video you put up showed the xmb in game and the playing of an audio track while you were gaming. The only thing it seemed you had to do was turn down the in game music in the sound options. The whole thing didn’t seem to be connected to the game that was running at all, being a separate operation that required nothing of the game but those audio adjustments. THAT is how it should be, and why I thought we’d be getting proper custom soundtracks instead of the fiddly playlist options in games that currently support it.

    Anyways, thanks for continuing to improve the ps3 experience. Even if by one small step at a time.

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