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.
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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.
@13
“- Also would really like to see XMB support for when I am playing a PS1/2 title and watching a BLU-Ray/DVD.”
I agree that this would be a good addition…
I appreciate that you guys are finally getting in-game xmb out to the public, but I feel that the restraints that you have put on it are needless and a bit ridiculous. Any ps3 game should be able to use custom music, it should be a standard and a requirement…its part of the reason your other competitor has done well. Leaving it up to the developers is a cheap and easy way to get out of it, and it also gives them an option not to do it…which furthermore makes this feature useless and is not in the customer’s favor. I hope that this feature works ok with ps2 games also, if not I will be disappointed…though I am glad you guys are taking steps towards a more complete experience..even if they are baby steps.
Thanks Jeff and Eric! I do have a couple of suggestions for the next firmware update:
1. Keep the user signed into the PSN when playing Ps1/PS2 games and show what game the user is playing just like with PS3 games.
2. In-Game XMB when playing PS1/PS2 games.
3. In-Game XMB when playing a DVD/Blu-ray or movie from the HDD.
@146
are you crazy? there’s nothing like another update could fix… what you want another year of wait? please
Thanks for the answers
Thank you very much for the updates about FW 2.40 today, including this FAQ. The way trophies will work is simply amazing. It will be so much more fun advancing in levels as opposed to a generic score.
Do you know anything about Uncharted getting Trophysupport? And whats your favourite cheese?:)
I don’t really care if someone wants to abuse the system to get trophies. I just don’t want that all the hours I spent getting the achievements in for example Burnout Paradise were for nothing. I mean damn, they already have the achievements in the game, why couldnt they just be made retroactive?
I don’t know if Burnout will even be patched to support trophies but if it will, I hope there’s a way to make it retroactive. It’s just so frustrating.. all the hours absolutely for nothing. I mean, why even add the achievements into the game if they were just a separate thing in the game? What did I get for them? Same goes for games like Uncharted, Lair, DMC4 etc..
Cross game invites and private chat would have been nice, but clearly this is not the last ever firmware update, so that’s no biggie. What disappoints me is that I won’t have any trophies for games I have already played. You couldn’t pay me to get 100% again in games like GTA IV, Burnout, R6 Vegas 2. MAYBE I would do it in more “accessible” or less 100% demanding games like Uncharted or Ratchet & Clank, MAYBE. But, a little disappointing nonetheless. I’m just glad this update is finally here.
Are there any currently-existing games with soundtrack support?
I hope you decide to add in-game XMB to PSone and 2 games soon, if only so I can see what’s on each Memory Card before Assigning it to a slot.
I have NO problem what so ever playing my games again to get the trophies… if anything this gives me incentive to enjoy playing them again! I wouldn’t have bought them if playing them felt like a chore ;-)
@ Jeff
Forgive me if I am being redundant here but I haven’t been able ot be online much today “I actually went out side for a change” < I kidd… I do… I kidd
Anyways, So games like Uncharted, Warhawk, Heavenly Sword, Ratchet & clank, Resistance and More importantly Motorstorm won’t be able to play music in game, right? Motorstorm is important more than the thers cause it was the worst music I’ve ever heard.
With that said, will all games forward thinking be able to play music while in game? Also, MGS4… it has an ipod, will this allow us to play our music in game off our HDD?
One last thing, is the clock able to be reskined using the PS3theme editor?
Thanks for your interaction.
plz answer:
any chance of allowing both sound outputs?? (HDMI and optical) If not, why is it?
I’m really disappointed in this FW, there isn’t in-game xmb music, it’s just a different menu for the game’s music selector.
“However, we continually engage PS3 owners for feedback and will evaluate the opportunity to offer XMB access during movie playback in the future.”
How can I contribute to this feedback? :) Just keep posting here in the blog? Or head over to the forums? Maybe even G.A.P.?
And also, with the in-game music needing patching.. I’m somewhat of a software developer myself.. just how hard would it be to patch in in-game music? I’d imagine it would just require a trigger to turn off the in-game music. If you plan to answer this, don’t be afraid to get too technical. :P
Thanks for a great update.
Just a word to some of the people commenting here, I play Super Stardust HD and it allows me to play the music already that I have on my PS3 HD. So like they mentioned I think it’s up to the game developers to include it on the game discs.
Jeff Rubenstein
I don’t like how not all PS3 games will support ingame custom music, and how it’s up to game devs to patch it for games that don’t support it.
Why couldn’t sony just made it a universal thing where you can play your music while playing any PS3 games.
it’s stupid and sony should fix it in a future firmware update so we can play music while playing any PS3 game, instead of having to depend on game devs to patch it for their games.
Good cheese choice, I love mozzarella cheese sticks.
Will there ever be in game xmb for the PSP, or trophie support? Don’t neglect PSP users, many of them don’t have PS3 and would love these cool features (I use to be one).
You say we have to replay a game to be able to get the trophies… and one of those games was warhawk? but do i really have to replay 200 plus hours again to get those trophies? i would get pissed!
oh and jeff what’s your psn if it’s full you need another
Oh yeah, can we please have PS2 games over Remote Play please?
Thanks, Jeff, for answering my question about the in-game music! It’s disappointing a bit though, to again learn that it’s still up to the devs to support in-game music. Is this something that will never change, because I doubt many devs will support it? :(
But thanks again for keeping us informed, it’s always great to see!
Forgive me if this has already been posted in any of the 2.40 comments section already, but I’d like it if Sony engineers can put this into future evaluation for firmware:
the ability to show the DVD/Blu-ray/music album that we are playing onto the XMB avatar the same way it shows games that are being played.. for those people who like to do their movie/music listening under the radar, a disable feature can be implemented alongside. I think it’s a neat community feature that can get people talking to each other about movies, music in addition to games on the PSN. Especially if the PS Store is going to be offering these for sale soon. :O
Just for curiousity sake, how were custom soundtracks handled prior to 2.40? Was it up to the dev to use their alloted resources to run a music player of some sort? And with this, the resources are coming from behind the scenese thereby making it easier to implement (ie not having to decide between keeping a feature or tossing it just to have custom soundtracks).
ALso since the downloadable version of Warhawk is tied to 1 and only 1 psn ID, how will patching that version work with trophies? We cant exactly reset our stats even if we wanted to, so is that an exception to the ‘no retroactive trophies’ rule?
Thanks for the info, keep up the good work.
Hey Jeff,
Do you have to be online to unlock trophies?
It look like this faqs clear up all my question. I hope Uncharted get patched soon for both Trophies and custom soundtracks along with Heavenly Sword.Good job Sony, Jeff, Eric everyone on the US branch ^__^
I’m a bit disappointed actually… In-game XMB would be cool if it HAD all these features…
Ok so lets see what could make EVERYONE happy.
– Mandatory Trophies support for every future games.
– Mandatory Custom soundtrack support for every future games.
– The ability to use all these features in PS1/PS2 games and in Blu-ray movies/DVD movies.
– In-game private chat with friends for every game.
– Cross-game invites.
– Gamercard (viewable on playstation.com and on the PS3) where you can see your last played games and trophies. Also a “My PS3” place on the playstation.com website where you can see you gamercard and friends list would be awesome.
Sort these things out and the PS3 will finally be the best console EVER.
Some of you guys are really a trip… so you guys don’t like playing your games more than once?!!! I guess… that’s really not a big deal to me. Guess I’ll just have a better Profile Level then you all :-D
Thanks for the info, Jeff.
Hi Jeff, could you please answer the following question;
Will you have to be signed into the PlayStation Network for an unlocked trophy to actually register into the system? In other words, if I am playing SSHD and unlock a Trophy, but I am not online at the time, does this mean the trophy won’t be registered into my PSN until next time I sign in?
Seeing that trophies are tied into your PSN ID/account.
One more question though. Say I just finished downloading 2.40, right. Now I want to go play a game that does NOT have trophy support [yet], like Ratchet & Clank for example. When the game does get trophy support, will it now automatically update? Or does the game have to be patched for trophy compatibility first? I know that may not make sense… But in other words if I replay all my games after 2.40, and get 100% on all of them etc, once those games are patched for trophies, will it be automatic?
PLEASE answer this one Jeff, I beg of you!! If not, then I will not be playing any games that don’t have trophy support, until they do, I wouldn’t want to play it just to have to do it all over again you know.
Thanks bro!
Cheers for answering my question Eric.
not perfect but thanks a lot Eric for answering our questions. Just another quick question though, how long would it take, in your opinion, for game developers to release a patch for in-game soundtrack. Meaning, when should I expect a patch to be released by a game like FIFA 08 or GTA IV, for example. I don’t really know anything about anything specific to these updates but i’m assuming a patch for custom-soundtrack shouldn’t be more than 5 mb. Help me out here. Cheers.
A question all the way from Pakistan!
I hope heavenly sword gets trophies…….and resistance, gta4, cad4, mgs4…oh and thank you guys, I know it was unintentional but the firmware update is released on my 20th birthday, woohoo
Jeff i have a question.
Will the PSP ever get these features that are in 2.40 in the future?
I feel like the PSP is being neglected by Sony
I dont have a PS3, but i love the update and your overall commitment to Playstation, but i feel as though the PSP doesnt get the same features the PS3 gets.
Please respond, its a simple yes or no answer
Thanks!
Can you release information on how big the patch will be??
Hi Jeff :)
Is there any chance this update will give the PS3 better support for Xvid? And also add .MOV support?
what bothers me is the fact that its all up to the developers to put in custom soundtracks and trophy support! we all know how picky and stubborn they are when it comes to patching stuff! i mean look at infinity ward they wont even release a patch for COD4 so us ps3 owners can have rumble its pathetic! so honestly i don’t know how well this 2.4 is going to do!
I have a question! You say it is going to be released july 2nd but is that july 2nd at 12:01am PST or later on in the day? because I do not want to be staying up to 2am CST if it is going to be released later in the day
Should we delete all our saved game files on our systems?
jeff, im sure some devs are going to want to patch their old games. will you provide us with a list on dates once you get your hands on them?
I just would like to know if the update is going to be released July 2nd 12:00am midnight Pacific or Eastern in the USA?
Hang on i do have one question.
Warhawk is already tied to PSN IDs, so does that mean we will have to earn these medals again aswell?
Although i guess you can’t do it for one game without doing t for all of them…
Oh well :D Warhawk FTW
A question I’d like answered is dependent on another question.
So first, will there be an on screen pop-up notifying you that you received a trophy?
If so, will there be a way to disable this (I’d also like to disable other notifications during gameplay or video playback)?
Trophies are a great idea, but some of us would prefer to not be broken out of the game to see “Trophy unlocked” at the top of the screen in a grey box.
Good FAQ other than that question, though.
Excellent stuff, love the new features. It’s no problem that one or two aren’t there yet (e.g. private voice chat), it’s most important that the foundation for in-game XMB is there. I’m looking forward to future updates regarding this.
However, concerning the trophy system; will older first party or third party exclusive titles be patched soon, better yet right away? I’ve been looking for an excuse to re-play Folklore and Heavenly Sword recently and this will be it, if I can get trophies for it.
Hi Jeff
I am very satisfied with the work of sony, and a little disappointed, satisfied with the side that Sony has responded to consomateur especially with the XMB In Game, and a little disappointed because not all games will be compatible, and could have an access to XMB during a party line, same step in a lobby, it is a pity, is this-that another firmware is being prepared?
Dax1tar from Algeria !
ok i have a really big question say uncharted there are things you find in the game treasures if you beat it allready how would you find them even if u replay the game there not there even if you found them will i have to delete the whole save
@176 nope, I’ve played all my games atleast 3 times if not more. I’ve beaten COD4 on Veteran (Mile High Club as well) Uncharted on Crushing, Resistance on Superhuman, Gotten every skill point in Ratchet and Clank. There’s no way that I’ll be replaying these games just for a trophy. I was hoping that I’d get some kind of accomplishment for the work that I’ve put into these games. Sony’s making alot of people very unhappy and unless they change there thinking they’ll be losing alot of fans.
What would you guys do, if after say one week, apart from those games listed, no other games support either trophies or in game music? Would you guys then force them to release a patch because that would really get frustrating for us gamers if we had the features at our finger tips but couldn’t use them in the games we love playing.
Thanks
Great news, one thing sort of worries me about this though… So lets say games developers patch a game to work with 2.40 trophies and in game music.
You say that the playstation development team are looking into cross game invites and voice/video chat but does that mean that in 8 months time developers will face the problem of having to patch backdated titles again and users will face the problem of not having a games library with a coherent set of standardized features?
So, will leveling up our PSN IDs with trophies have any benefits?
“Yes, any currently released games would need a patch for in-game soundtracks. Moving forward, game developers can build that functionality in, if they so choose.”
Umm..how is this a new feature? The developers already had this oppertunity. Look at Super Stardust HD. It has custom soundtracks. AND IT’S THE ONLY GAME THAT SUPPORTS IT! So what makes SONY think developers will use the XMB soundtrack? You just wasted energy on a feature only a few developers will take advantage of but the community is screaming for. :(
I’m still wondering whether Killzone 2/MGS4 will support trophies. :(