Hi everyone, we’re adding some great new features with the next PS3 firmware update (v2.70) that will continue to enhance your connected experience on the PS3. The 2.70 update brings a new Text Chat feature that enables you to communicate online with your PlayStation Network friends. Now, you’ll be able to chat with up to 15 online friends using the Wireless Keypad, on-screen keyboard, or other compatible keyboard peripherals. Not only can you chat with your friends instantly, but you can also access Text Chat while playing PS3 games and even participate in up to three chat rooms at once.
In addition to Text Chat, we’ve added a few more enhancements:
Friends list on the XMB (XrossMediaBar)
- Sort your friends via their online status
- Attach larger files to the messages you send to your friends (file size will increase from 1MB to 3MB)
Video delivery service on PlayStation Store
- Video files you’ve purchased from the PlayStation Store can be backed up to an external storage device and then restored to PS3’s internal hard drive for playback – so you can clear up space on your hard drive and then restore the video anytime in the future
- Videos you’ve purchased for PSP (PlayStation Portable) system can now be transferred to PS3 for playback
For a quick preview of Text Chat and some of the other 2.70 features, check out this video:
The 2.70 update will be released soon, and as always, we look forward to reading your feedback.
nice update go Sony!!
thanks for the pile of crap
Thank You Sony! but i’m still waiting for Audio Chat That would be very Helpful! And listening to music while playing
lol alot of you guys are upset because you got played lmao i told you guys in september that those features wont be in the next fimware update but you didn’t believe me . then some of guys started hype up a untrue rumor last month that it would be in 2.70 update lol stop blaming sony and blame yourself for believe a lie. like i said before over and over agin sony will have these features but they will be a paid feature they won’t be free how many of you guys will paid for those features ? those features wont sell x amount of console so stop the lies about this is why 360 are selling more then ps3 lol they had a year head start and a price drop and as of right now they have a eight million console lead to the ps3 lol give me a break no one at sony is crying over that and panic by it to make dumb moves like most of you guys want them to do.
I’m happy with the way my PS3 is now. Xtra stuff is cool ;) But Chat stuff? I got my PS3 to play GAMES, and that is what i’m doing ;) PSN will turn into MSN(like xBox LIVE) No thanks. Nice update SONY anyway ;)
Okay I’ve been testing out this text chat. Very handy also ingame, only 2 comments Eric.
1 – Messages you can type are too short. Maybe next with next update a little longer perhaps?
2 – I appreciate the fact that Sony world wide protects us from swearing people, but I can’t even use normal words in my own language (Dutch) as being seen as some bad word in another language. Not even the word Jesus. What if we just discuss religious perspectives instead of swearing? All you see are dots marking the word, haha.
Bunch of babies in this community…
Look, you want Voice Chat? Pick up a freakin’ cell phone and call whomever. If you have internet friends and don’t want to give out your number, then lol to you.
Good first step… next step is obviously cross game audio chat!
Okay what I just came across is really silly, I can’t even use the word “sentences” in my language which means “zinnen”, or you only see the final “n” and the rest is censured. Sorry, but then I better use PM instead as in there normal conversations aren’t being censured.
Well played Sony!
Surely this must be an Aprils Fool update to have a bit of jolly fun in the community.
A text chat feature where you can’t write a full sentence (unless you are, I Japanese guess. As Kanji don’t use as many characters). And even if you could it seems that half of the words in the English language has been censored with no option to switch it off. Wouldn’t that be a parental option if censoring should be done?
Also the clock is still getting blocked by the controller power display *sigh*
So get on with it. Let’s have the real update so we can all have a good laugh.
Too bad because I really love this text chat thing. Its a lot easier, but not if normal language is being marked away.
Yeh,sort my friends via their online status. Why not you make an option instead to sort the music by directories, not album or year or type,just simple by directories where the mp3-s are in.
Great Stuff… thx…
Is there a plan for more options in the file system handling? for example copying files to external drive and put them in a directory! or more than two levels of directories?
just something i really miss!!!
Is it possible to make an option so we can make a playlist in videos.
And Make is so the ps3 can play MKV. files.
Text chat? Really? Are we back in 1995 or something? Guys, get with the program please and don’t release band aids to try to fix wounds. Get voice chat implemented asap!!
Well, i don´t know what to say….. emmmm ummm ammm….. ok, is this all the new stuff?
I really don´t care about this update, it´s just…. pathetic.
What about new look for trophies?
And home avatar for card game?
I know, it was just rumors, like in-game voice chat.But, what´s wrong with you Sony?
Nice guys… cool additions to my favorite console. keep up the good work… rly liked the search feature for games too… and crossgame textchat is pretty cool.. thanks sony
April Fools!
Firmware 2.80 coming later tonight with in-game Voice Chat.
What I would really like to see is another option under your current online status.
Sometimes you jump online to visit the store and to get a quick game in and you don’t want everybody knowing that your online, so I ask that unavailable will not show you being online to any of your friends or that a new option is made to hide your online status.
*sigh* still no simple “search” funktion for mp3’s, pictures or videos when using the PS3 as a media center together with a NAS :((
Wow, another lame update.
How about you just give us all what we want – private voice chat…..
Rux.
In game, might I add.
this is such a useless update.
ef u sony, smh
Okay, now I’m not usually one to complain and I’m absolutely ecstatic about some of the new features.
However, I’d love to see a feature that allows me to organize my friendslist like it’s always been before. Organize from a-z and seperate online from offline.
With the update, I either have a huge list from a-z where online and offline are not seperated, or based on last-sign-in and I’m not about to keep track of all my friends’ sign-ins..
This way I’m going to have to remember avatars to recognize someone in my list without reading every name. :/
That’s my 2 cts, hope I won’t get flamed.
@threeleggedfreak
So no one else is allowed an opinion apart from Americans ?
yo we really need in game voice chat so i can talk to my friends when im playing cod5 or cod4 and their playing rock band 2
Better Notification-MSG System would be great.
like:
[ ] popup when user online
[ ] popup when user offline
[X] popup by getting a new MSG
[ ] no Notifications
Nice, Copy paste is not 100% there yet, but now I can at least send out mass messages to Club Members by copy a written text on the webbrowser.
And guys? Now you are just aiming for the “big” 1k post.
….wordless…. incredible… you REALLY think that this is an usefull feature…?? but really…??? where is VOICE PRIVATE chat..? we are asking you since years… it’s seems you’re joking with us.. please stop with these things.. it’s frustrating……. also trophies.. we’ve to still waiting 1 hour to loading? ..thank you Sony.. thank you
That a nice addition, but i wanted to have a video chat available in game like that we can talk with other friend who are currently playing other game instead of chatting since we’ll be busy playing. I also would love if we could have voice recording message instead of typing, since most of us still don’t have an USB keyboard(expensive compared to regular ones) or we dont have the Ps3 Keyboard that sticks to the controller.
Cheers.
people this is just the first step would you rather pay 50$ a year? give em time oh btw eric text chat needs to be able to right longer messages but i like 2.7 i can internet search games :) whitch is kinda cool
What a nightmare week for Playstation in the PR department. First everyone thought the “big” announcement (PS2 price drop) was an early April Fool’s Joke; then everyone thought the Jak PS2/PSP announcement was an April Fool’s Joke; and now everyone thinks the 2.7 news is a late April Fool’s Joke. In summary, Sony just ends up looking like fool’s.
So much for PS3 being a powerhouse. It doesn’t even have enough RAM to offer cross-game voicechat which 360 has had for 3 years. Text chatting died a generation ago – welcome to 2009, Sony. Now we’re stuck with another 10 minute download, 10 minute install for an update that doesn’t offer anything of interest – good to see that Cell processor I paid $600 being put to such good use.
oh PS: Sony now all you have to do is make a computer based PS network friends list and have a Sony I’m service so we can messages friends who aren’t on there ps3’s but computers
maybe they haven’t implemented voice chat bcause they want you to buy a compatible keyboard. Typing with the controller is a pain but with a keyboard is much faster. If you have to invest in a keyboard they make more money.
Censoring of text is just ridiculous, when it comes to people’s own discussions. In HOME, I can understand it’s a different matter, but when you specifically invite people into a chat room, then they’ll know what they will accept, and what’s allowed and isn’t.
If it reaches a point that it’s sometimes not possible to have an effective conversation over the text service – surely its purpose, then I think that needs to be re-addressed. You’ve already got safeguards in place, and feedback channels to address problems. Where it pertains to people’s own discussions, censoring is not always welcome. An optional control, by each user – OR a setting to toggle when the room/discussion is started, would be a preferable compromise.
Unfortunately the Normaliser doesn’t appear to be working for me.
I’ve just copied a various CD created by myself with varying levels of loudness and it still goes from a low volume on one song to very high volume on the next and so on.
FAIL
awesome its like instant messaging for the ps3 except without the notification
lol
about time
I have to say, your efforts are not being ignored by me and I do appreciate the fact your trying to give us something new and unique to the playstation experience but sadly there is a but…
Sometimes thinking outside the box and developing a feature your users hadn’t thought about doesn’t look innovative to your user-base but instead looks dismissive.
Your hard work is appreciated and I personally am looking forward to trying these new features out after a hard day at the office, I just wish SCE would prioritize the following…
* The ability to run the XMB including checking messages and maybe even running a chat-room at the bottom of the screen without distrupting/ pausing my movie viewing experience. (it never used to be this way)
* Status: showing what movie I’m watching, music I’m listening to and if I’m in Remote Play (you have a wealth of content and features that the casual dont know about, and wouldnt it be great to message your friend and ask if the movie is any good, or discuss the fact you both love some obscure recording artist)
* Voice messaging (hopefully you can team up with googles phone service which is currently in BETA)
* SKYPE
* Cross Game Voice Chat
I’m sure your not oblivious to the reason your users want the last function above all else. It’s not because M$ have it… no.
It’s because its superb way of communicating without distrupting your gaming experience.
Text chat is fine but it doesn’t convey any emotion and is not as intuitive as speech… I want to hear the concentration, the fear, the excitement of a friend who’s playing a title on his PS3… its better then any review and if its only there to make you have a good laugh at someone get frustrated then its served its purpose.
This shouldn’t be that huge a ask and I hope the infrastructure in place allows for it, afterall other services are going one better real soon with the ability to jump into someone elses game and watch them play.
Keep up the great work and cant wait to see what the future brings, I just hope its the very near future… just please dont rush it either haha (I sound like a parent trying to confuse his child eh)
Seriously, is it really that hard to implement cross game chat ?
You had several years to come up with that feature.
Don´t get me wrong, text chat etc are nice additions, but the salt and cake in the gaming world (in our days) are community features like voice chatting and messaging.
I´m sure that sony has some very intelligent employees but where are the results ?
People want to hear that it´s in the work at least.
But we didn´t receive any official information so far.
What about skype ?
Yeah finally!People have waited a soooooo long time for it!!!!
@Kevbocat, what kind of ridiculous comment is that? Personally I don’t want to have voice chat for ingame. When I game, I game and don’t want people to yell in my ear when I try to follow a line of the story in the game. Then text chat is the most obvious and suitable way.
@Anthonyginczycki… the one with the difficult name *lol*.
You do get a notificiation. When you press “back” from out of the chat screen without leaving / deleting the chat via the XMB in game, you’ll get a notificiation when someone typed and entered a new entry. You’ll get the name plus the text in the top right screen.
Speaking of offending, I have 1 question of which I hope someone can answer. When you block someone from out of your PSN friends list, is his / her account only being blocked or also his / her IP?
why is this a major update? (i.e. 2.70 and not 2.61, 2.62 etc) As is stands i dont think this is a MAJOR update at all. Text chat doesnt intrest me as i have a cell phone but backwards compatibility does.
Can you imagine buying a new car and having to take it back and pay for an older model because it had more features? Doesnt make sense.
Maybe its time to stop waiting year on year for decent updates and get a x360.
@Threeleggedfreak, get a grip will you. This blog is meant for everyone worldwide, not only for you Americans.
@mestonian, sure get one, but don’t complain when you’ve encounted the fearsome red ring of dead and you wished you still had your PS3 instead, which is getting the same games as on the 360 with even better exclusives and free PSN.
..at least SAY SOMETHING ABOUT VOICE CHAT… we’re working on it.. please wait another year.. or never guys… BUT SAY SOMETHING!! it seems you don’t care about our requests… or maybe don’t say: “..and as always, we look forward to reading your feedback”… because YOU DON’T CARE ABOUT OUR REQUESTS
What about Voice Chat at the system level. A lot of the time I have to manually phone my mates when we are playing different matches or different games.
Cross Game / System-level Voice Chat would be awesome if available when playing a game.
Boring!
Cross game VOICE chat!!!!!! – who does the crappy text thing anymore except little 5 year olds? After 5 people learn how to speak – its amazing!
Text chat is all well and good BEFORE you launch Killzone, but once you’re in the middle of a round, I think typing messages back and forth is a little too slow, even with the keypad. It will lead to some frustrating deaths. Ultimately, I don’t see how this is different than the chat system that was already in place, other than the fact that you can have multiple people in one room. That’s why cross-game voice chat is needed.
Never the less, good effort guys, hard to complain about free updates.