Games
Sony Announces Details for Next PS3 System Update
By Eli Green April 2, 2009 - 19:00
Sony
Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) announced the details for the
upcoming Playstation 3 system update today. The Playstation 3 system
software version 2.70, available for download soon, will deliver a
new Text Chat feature which will allow Playstation 3 users to chat
with their online Playstation Network friends. To help this out, SCEA
is adding in enhancements to the Friends list in the XrossMediaBar
(XMB), including the ability to sort friends by their online status.
There will also be improvements to the Playstation Store's video
delivery service.
The
new Text Chat feature will let Playstation 3 users chat with their
friends through three different means – the Wireless Keypad, the
on-screen keyboard, or compatible keyboard peripherals. The new
feature includes the ability to participate in up to three chat rooms
at once, with up to 15 friends in each room. The Text Chat feature
will also be accessible while playing Playstation 3 games (likely
means that it will not work with Playstation 2 games).
The
new Friends list features will now allow users to sort their friends
by online status, likely to help sort the chat possibilities. Online
friends will still be sorted in alphabetical order, while offline
friends will be sorted by when they were last online, with the most
recent being first. You'll now also be able to attach larger files to
messages – the file size limit will be increase from 1MB to 3MB
upon update.
Finally,
the previously mentioned improvements to the Playstation Store's
video delivery service will now allow users to transfer video files
purchased from the Playstation Store to an external storage device
for backup. They will then be able to restore the video files to the
Playstation 3's internal hard drive for playback. Also, videos
purchased for PSP also transferable to Playstation 3 for playback.
Full details on how to update to system software version 2.70 are
available at the American
Playstation site.