The next system software update for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) system will be released on April 1, 2010 (JST), and will disable the “Install Other OS” feature that was available on the PS3 systems prior to the current slimmer models, launched in September 2009. This feature enabled users to install an operating system, but due to security concerns, Sony Computer Entertainment will remove the functionality through the 3.21 system software update.
In addition, disabling the “Other OS” feature will help ensure that PS3 owners will continue to have access to the broad range of gaming and entertainment content from SCE and its content partners on a more secure system.
Consumers and organizations that currently use the “Other OS” feature can choose not to upgrade their PS3 systems, although the following features will no longer be available;
- Ability to sign in to PlayStation Network and use network features that require signing in to PlayStation Network, such as online features of PS3 games and chat
- Playback of PS3 software titles or Blu-ray Disc videos that require PS3 system software version 3.21 or later
- Playback of copyright-protected videos that are stored on a media server (when DTCP-IP is enabled under Settings)
- Use of new features and improvements that are available on PS3 system software 3.21 or later
For those PS3 users who are currently using the “Other OS” feature but choose to install the system software update, to avoid data loss they first need to back-up any data stored within the hard drive partition used by the “Other OS,” as they will not be able to access that data following the update.
Additional information about PS3 firmware updates, including v3.21 (once it becomes available), can be found here:
http://us.playstation.com/support/systemupdates/ps3/index.htm
PS3 owners who have further questions should contact Consumer Services:
http://us.playstation.com/support/ask/
800-345-7669 (800-345-SONY)
testing
I will never update. I have sent multiple letters to companies letting them know they have lost my business based on this move. I’ve asked them all to release games on the 360.
Today I stopped someone from buying a PS 2.5 and convinced them to buy a 360. I will continue to do this.
I hope they are used to their console being in last place. I plan on doing everything in my power to make sure it stays that way.
Has anyone started a database of games that require this update? This should be done so we don’t get ripped off anymore than we have already…
dr DOOM69 – you are not allowed to post anymore until you get out of your parents basement. When you are mature enough to pay for your own things instead of having mommy buying it for you then you can voice your opinion – cause you will know what it is like to be ripped off. Or you work for this satanically owned joke of a company.
Well I updated because I didn’t read the details properly, I was just happy to get an update. So if this ‘custom’ update becomes available, does that mean it will now be worthless to me?
it dosn’t let me download v3.21 so that mean i can@t sign in to PSN HELP ME!!
I’m just hoping they don’t do an update in which they’ll start charging for their online services like Xbox Live network does, that would totally ruin the benefits of having gone with PS3, I really love playstation since the original PlayStation but this is making PS going on a downward spiral to a never ending abyss of wrong choices.
No matter which way we choose to view the situation, we have had something stolen from us.
The advertised ability to install another OS, or the use of any PSN related content purchased or otherwise.
When we are allowed one or the other, but not both it’s STEALING!!!
Even though we’ve paid for a system capable of such features we’re without if accepting such blatant disrespect for the consumer.
Thieves!
The way I see it, someone at Sony owes me some money or my features…preferably the latter though.
…but no refund…HA!
We’ll just see about that.
I’ll be d@mned if I’m gonna stand by idly while we all have money stolen from us.
Loyalty does mean something…and it’s time Sony starts acknowledging it!
…and for those of you who don’t care…shame on you!
Understand the reasoning before you flap your faces!
Even if you don’t require the feature, it’s the principal…and everyone should be against such BS.
Otherwise you’re basically saying this is an acceptable behavior that should be repeated.
We’re the boss’, not them…let’s show’em what’s up!
@ stri 7274
I couldn’t have said it any better!
#7275
The “this feature will not be disabled in future firmware releases” quote is originally from:
http://lists.ozlabs.org/pipermail/cbe-oss-dev/2010-February/007202.html
From the beginning you could use and download YDL, with this distro you could “buy” codes for movie playback.
Question:
If you bought these codecs from YDL and the platform has been taken away, who should refund the money you paid for the codecs?
Dear Sony please ADD to the platform, do not strip it down…
PS3 was more then only a game console….
Tag
To all who think this isn’t a big deal.Reasearch takes it up the rear from Sony also.From Wikipedia:
“Cluster computing
Clusters of PlayStation 3 consoles are an attractive alternative to high-end systems based on Cell blades. Innovative Computing Laboratory, a group led by Jack Dongarra, in the Computer Science Department at the University of Tennessee, investigated such an application in depth.[49] Terrasoft Solutions is selling 8-node and 32-node PS3 clusters with Yellow Dog Linux pre-installed, an implementation of Dongarra’s research.
As reported by Wired Magazine on October 17, 2007, an interesting application of using PlayStation 3 in a cluster configuration was implemented by Astrophysicist Dr. Gaurav Khanna, from the Physics department of University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, who replaced time used on supercomputers with a cluster of eight PlayStation 3s.[50]
Continued
Subsequently, the next generation of this machine, now called the PlayStation 3 Gravity Grid, uses a network of 16 machines, and exploits the Cell processor for the intended application which is binary black hole coalescence using perturbation theory.[51][52] The Cell processor version used by the Playstation 3 has a main CPU and 6 floating-point vector processors, giving the Gravity Grid machine a net of 16 general-purpose processors and 96 vector processors. The machine has a one-time cost of over $9,000 to build and is adequate for black-hole simulations which would otherwise cost $6,000 per run on a conventional supercomputer. The black hole calculations are not memory-intensive and are highly localizable, and so are well-suited to this architecture.
The computational Biochemistry and Biophysics lab at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, in Barcelona, deployed in 2007 a BOINC system called PS3GRID[53] for collaborative computing based on the CellMD software, the first one designed specifically for the Cell processor”
You can kiss this goodbye too!
“Fixstars Solutions provides Yellow Dog Linux for IBM, and Mercury Cell-based systems, as well as for the Playstation 3.[60] Terra Soft strategically partnered with Mercury to provide a Linux Board Support Package for Cell, and support and development of software applications on various other Cell platforms, including the IBM BladeCenter JS21 and Cell QS20, and Mercury Cell-based solutions.[61] Terra Soft also maintains the Y-HPC (High Performance Computing) Cluster Construction and Management Suite and Y-Bio gene sequencing tools. Y-Bio is built upon the RPM Linux standard for package management, and offers tools which help bioinformatics researchers conduct their work with greater efficiency.[62] IBM has developed a pseudo-filesystem for Linux coined “Spufs” that simplifies access to and use of the SPE resources.
Continued:
IBM is currently maintaining a Linux kernel and GDB ports, while Sony maintains the GNU toolchain (GCC, binutils).[63]
In November 2005, IBM released a “Cell Broadband Engine (CBE) Software Development Kit Version 1.0”, consisting of a simulator and assorted tools, to its web site. Development versions of the latest kernel and tools for Fedora Core 4 are maintained at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center website.[64]
In August 2007, Mercury Computer Systems released a Software Development Kit for PLAYSTATION(R)3 for High-Performance Computing.[65]
In November 2007, Fixstars Corporation released the new “CVCell” module aiming to accelerate several important OpenCV APIs for Cell. In a series of software calculation tests, they recorded execution times on a 3.2 GHz Cell processor that were between 6x and 27x faster compared with the same software on a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo. [66]
With the release of kernel version 2.6.16 on March 20, 2006, the Linux kernel officially supports the Cell processor.[67″
sony bring back other os
Yes, please bring it back, it was a horrible idea to take it away. Enough!
Another unhappy customer
@gregstone if you’re going to use a PS3 for research, you’re most likely not playing video games on it anyways. therefore serious researchers are unaffected.
After this firmware update Final Fantasy XIII does not respond X button doesnt work tryed all my other games its works fine but cannot Play Final Fantasy XIII.
Sony, you have officially forced my hand.
Not only will I NOT be updating to this firmware, but until you restore its functionality, I will not be purchasing any more hardware or software for the PlayStation3, and I will never purchase another Sony product again.
Whether I used this feature before is immaterial. The point is that I was intending on using this feature when I could actually upgrade the PS3’s hard drive to have enough space to employ it. And now you choose to remove it. What next, removing Backward Comaptibility? Disabling USB ports and flash memory slots? Flat out bricking our consoles? Where does it end?
For doing this, I HOPE that the console gets hacked wide open, and made just as easy to pirate (if not moreso) than even the Dreamcast was. Until you fix this, you will have lost a customer for life here. And you can be sure that anyone who I speak to will be warned AGAINST buying any future Sony products for as long as I draw breath.
Every day I wake up and hate this company more and more. This isn’t going away Sony.
I am making it my personal mission to make sure as many people as possible to not buy your products.
You steal features you advertised, I’m stealing customers from you.
with all this proof thats coming out i think SONY is in for trouble, i read another coment from them sating that they did not do nothing wrong with the update, but if they said it will never get removed then us all the user have the right to have the options to be put back, SONY you lost this one, give it up already, you dont want to lose money but in fact you already is, from what i have read across the net you are losing a big percentage of the users, i read a coment from SONY saying that it was a small amount of people being afected, thats not all true, SONY knows this but they just keeping their mouth quite on this one
i can’t even update the clock without me having to update the new firmware? are you serious sony?
They can care less they have a F rating at BBB
BBB Rating for Sony Computer Entertainment America, Inc.
Based on BBB files, Sony Computer Entertainment America, Inc. has a BBB Rating of F on a scale from A+ to F.
Reasons for this rating include:
Failure to respond to 57 complaints filed against business.
70 complaints filed against business that were not resolved.
First no PS2 compat because of costs, then strange replacement policies, no decent updates for months and now one of the things that made me choose PS3 in the first place was removed (or on your imagination “updated”) because of … costs.
Not to mention that Europeans were always treated like crap by Sony.
This pseudo-update that destroys the last good thing remaining in PS3 just leaves me one course of action :
1 – Not one single game purchase for PS3 ever again
2 – You can launch a golden “god-gifted” PS4 – I will not buy it
Let’s say its a “cost-saving” approach.
Forget about consoles, you are all mercenaries – sell one thing and later remove it. It’s back to PC world for me and no Sony ever again in for life.
Thanks for nothing …
wow you guys are some real hard-core computer users… and glad to see the comments slowing down…
GIVE ME MY MONEY!!!
Sony, you owe me for every online game / down-loadable content I’ve purchased yet no longer am able to use.
You also owe me for the potential for use in the future.
I spent money for features and I refuse to have ANY removed simply because you are too weak to find a mutually beneficial solution.
I refuse to update for this reason…and in turn cannot use the full potential of the PS3…
…even though I PAID for those features. THEY’RE MINE!!!
GIVE THEM BACK NOW YOU PUNK @SS THIEVES!!!
I’M NOT ASKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
…And eddieMX07:
Keep quiet if you’re going to act like a retard.
The comments should pick-up not slow down.
The principal is more important, and if people like you had even a shred of intelligence, you’d understand that this is bigger than your personal feelings.
Stupid TOOL!
Get a clue!
@ stri #7295
Agreed.
I really hope Sony learns a lesson from this.
#7296
i want a refund for my qore subscription since i am unable to connect to psn
@EDDYMX07
It does not help if comments slow down… I agree with Stri, it should pickup. However we should think towards a workable solution between SONY and the community. Sony has clearly a point if they say we want to protect they system against hacking. Looking at the other side the community has a point where they say we need the linux functionality.
Lets look towards the future, and see if we can help out sony by thinking along with them towards a solution.
We (sony and the community) have 1 common goal, System usage.
everyone in this thread likes the PS3 console for gaming or whatever (otherwise we did not buy it),
If we want the linux functionality back… what should it look like. Same as before or maybe a different solution?
Tag.
What’s a Sony? Sounds like a plague on all of humanity. If I were you, I would avoid it at all costs…
Let’s look at what they’ve said. Someone posted a rather informative article way back about the Slim not having the hypervisor code due to cost concerns.
Anyone research how much time and money it takes to maintain all the drivers and stuff?
And you DO essentially have two PS3 logic architectures out there if you don’t factor in the first gen’s PS2 chips.
You then look at the human and equipment cost to support all that. Manning phones and whatnot.
Not defending Sony here, but if we could shift the alleged burden and come out in force with an initiative….
I will no longer drink from the Sony well. It appears they’ve sucked most of the water out of it anyway.
Not defending Sony here, but if we could shift the alleged burden and come out in force with an initiative….
—————————————————————————————–
You can’t defend Sony, I don’t care about alleged burdens or initiatives. I paid alot more money for my PS3 than the new slims BECAUSE it had more functionality!!! NOW IT DOESN’T
I’ve thought of a new slogan for Sony
“Use it today, you may not have it tomorrow”
Lol you guys are still posting? Why bother, its not as if Sony bothers now do they. Same as I no longer bother. A few lost costumers, who cares, as long as we can attrack gamers with our copied Wii device and with the PS3 slim we don’t care, they must think. Well, like Natal it’ll totally fail why? Casual gamers already own something to wave around with a controller and its called a WII…
money
Apparently they are going to start having some 3D games on the PS3. I feel sorry for the customers who buy into that and then have it removed by Sony later on down the line.
This appears to be no different than what Sony did to their Vaio line of laptops by blocking the virtualization capabilities out of the machines back in August. When the Cell BE was developed IBM stated that an open source environment was critical for the continued development of the platform.
http://www.research.ibm.com/people/m/mikeg/papers/2007_ieeecomputer.pdf
Now it appears that the access to the Cell BE is being closed off.
Sony has introduces a device called the ELLCAMI that has the Cell BE inside of it as well (up to 14 of them)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIXJKNIcs_A
The ELLCAMI was introduced on March 31. The firmware came out on April 1. There may be more here than just the Geohot excuse.
For now I have put my launch 60GB way and will not update to firmware 3.21.
Sony can abuse the PS3 slim all they want.
Everyone here should be off topic-ing the hell out of every post on this sight, no one is looking at this one any more.
I for one will do both HerbertFortoon…
I’ll continue to post my anger here, as well as newer threads.
I’ll never let up.
They’re thieves and I would never let someone rip me off without some sort of repetitive retaliation.
Get used to me Sony…if you don’t hate me yet, from all the calls, posts, emails, dedicated websites, letters…
you will…oh you will!
I WIN…you just don’t know it yet.
Okay, my last comment got caught by the filters. Let’s try it again.
#7311
I knew something like this would start happening.
The Play Station Net work Is Under At tack:
ht tp://w ww.ironstar movement. com/pro files/bl ogs/the-play station-net work-is
All Sony did was encourage them.
#7312
Aww, PSN under attack? Good. They deserve everything they have coming to them. What did you think would happen when you turned every hacker and a host of LEGITIMATE customers against you?
This doesn’t effect me in the least – since Sony has removed my ability to connect to PSN. Nice try – I’m still not updating.
Great job guaranteeing you stay in last place this generation.
good thing i cant connect to the psn anymore haha
I really enjoyed Final Fantasy XIII and was looking forward to Final Fantasy XIV.
Unfortunately I won’t be able to go online, so I will no longer be purchasing this game. I have sent an email to Square-Enix letting them know they have lost a sale based on Sony’s behavior. I am encouraging them to release on other platforms and get off the sinking ship that is the PS 2.5 while they still can.
Even if %1 of ps3 users have Linux installed…
Consider how many nerds that is. Not the kind of people you want to upset if you want to prevent hacking.
PS2.5 Under attack by the population of once loyal PS3 Fat owners…
LMMFGDFAO!!!
THAT’S WHAT YOU GET!!!
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahah!
WHOOT!!!
Way to pwn yourselves Sony…
OMG!!! I am laughing uncontrollably right now.
Maybe next time you should avoid alienating the consumer!
I truly hope it gets worse…to the point of permanent PSN failure! Then you may wish you had smarter employees lol.
I’m not online any longer anyhow…won’t affect me…
and I’ll purchase an Xbox before I update!
If you knew where I typically stand, you’d know that’s a seriously outrageous claim for me.
I’ve already lost tons in this BS…It’s nice to see a little karma!
Sony, damn thieves…how does it feel?!
Eat it!!!
I have deleted my credit card info from the PSN site. Won’t be needing that any more so it is safer to delete it.