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.
Single best excuse to get a keypad yet. Seems like everyone on my friends list types faster than me – wonder what they are using.
@1036 That’s the point…you have to be DEAD in game to be able to use it efficiently. It’s useless if you’re in the heat of battle and need backup or something. And don’t say “there’s general chat for that.” Sometimes I don’t want to hear the 9 year olds when I’m playing online with my friends.
@1039 How do you know it’s coming? Has Sony made an announcement? No, they haven’t. That’s the problem. If they would just come out and say, “yes, we hear you, and yes we’re working on it” then it wouldn’t be so bad. As it is, there’s no word AT ALL from them on it. I don’t even need a date, just knowing they’re working on it is enough.
Wow, what a useless update. XBL is still reigning over the PS3 in terms of features. You guys really come up with dumb ideas.
We complain because we care and want the social aspect of gaming online to be the best it can be. Voice chat across games is important for social gaming and without it you will continue to hear disappointment from the majority, as reading through these comments will attest.
We still want voice chatting it’s a little more convenient than typing out a message. You asked for our feedback and I think it’s pretty obvious where the majority stand.
For some reason the “lul” in “lulz” is censored. At least it was for me last night.
LpSquall took the words out of my mouth. Why even concern yourself with cross game text chat when VOICE chat is what your user base has been clamoring for?
I think some thing the gaming division needs to focus on is Not just “hearing” our feature requests, but actually insuring they come in a timely manor. Especially when this said features have been on the competitions device since launch, and since we have paid a premium price for a machine that should have no issue in handling such a feature.
Don’t get me wrong, I still <3 my ps3 but after IGXMB, I would have expected to see voice chat no later than 6 months out from that time. Looks like I was wrong.
Guys, my friends list has always been organised by who is logged in and who isn’t.
Have I missed something here? How is this a new feature?
ok… checked it out and apparently there is NO voice chat while in an offline game. Why bother with text chat?? Do you people not actually play games? This is a total waste of time and space.
You should have waited until there was voice chat before bothering to bring out this update… and skipped that text chat thing entirely.
what if there were settings to be able to go strait to the chat room and back with the PS button, or even the option to have a semi-transparent window over the screen while playing (position and transparency adjustable of course) and using the keyboard automatically went to the chat room?
I don’t see how that would be much harder to implement
Does this update add support for external NTFS formatted hard drives?
I’d like to know how many people specifically requested TEXT chat. I’m guessing maybe 3.
Compare that to the number of people who requested VOICE chat, and the difference must be staggering.
Just boggles the mind why Sony continues to waste resources developing useless features that nobody touches after an initial look-over.
the Next update i would like to see is if you look at xbox 360 you can do something thats called a party, and what you can do is join a party with up to so many people and chat with a microphone. you dont need to enter a cross media bar or anything your just playing your game and talking. and the people who are chating to you dont have to be playing a game they dont even have to be playing anygame. plzz plz look into that into you next update, ]
thanks
ERIC:
Take some frickin’ ownership and start explaining why SONY continues to ignore its customers.
i think the mistake sony is making is spacing out the firmware updates, this way it gives people too long inbetween updates to get worked up and dream up mega updates. at least when updates came more often people had lower expectations. every update is a good update imo as it adds functionality to an already functional machine. keep up the good work sony, most of us do appreciate it.
u know what you need to have a player card just like the xbox though great job!!!!!
how come the person demonstrating this has 5 icons under his Playstation Network list not 3? what is going to be released this is at around 1:20? cross game voice chat? come on tell us please :D
ERIC wrote: “The 2.70 update will be released soon, and as always, we look forward to reading your feedback.”
Didn’t you mean:
“We look forward to ignoring your feedback”?
In Game text chat is cool. But you guys no damn well that everyone wants in-game chat. Live has had this over PSN for too long.
Things are looking good so far Eric.
But what happened to these
[IMG]http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t196/KillerKahuna/picture-267.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t196/KillerKahuna/picture-266.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t196/KillerKahuna/picture-265.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t196/KillerKahuna/picture-264.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t196/KillerKahuna/picture-263.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t196/KillerKahuna/picture-262.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t196/KillerKahuna/picture-261.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t196/KillerKahuna/picture-260.jpg[/IMG]
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgTAEhy-AQM]funny video about a Playstation fanboy[/url]
Voice chat please tsskk.
Censoring text in private chat is inherently epic fail. 4 months and all you could do is break AAC and give us censored text chat? c’mon, what the heck is wrong with you guys?
Cool!!!
Thanks Sony
Some persones say in firmware 2.70 comes the option where you can open 2 playstation network accounts at the same time in teh same console, and play online whit 2 persones online in the same console like split screen online!!! Thats can be very cool
One day we can see that our playstation 3???
Thanks for listening
P.S. Sorry for mu english I’m portuguese
WOW 1000+ comments…..well,
I have nothing…I just thought I would help the numbers.
;P
Hi my first comment on PS Blog. I got the new update, 2.70, and I must say that it does indeed enhance the experience on the PS3, and by extension, PSN. However, Sony, it seems, has been focusing more on the esthetics of the PS3 rather than it’s intrinsic value. What i mean by this is that Sony should also consider publishing an update that would improve system performance and stability. That being said, Sony did a good job on this update, and hopefully, future updates would take enhance both esthetic and intrinsic value.
@KillerKahuna
Nothing happened to ‘those’. They’re obvious fakes.
Nothing about those photoshops sticks to the aesthetic of the XMB. They’re fullscreen pictures displayed via the PS3’s photo viewer and photographed with a camera.
Great update sony. But voice chat is better…now lets just wait for the next one..hopefully voice chat.
Nice update , but why cant u type long sentences? and swear?
thank you
Eric Lempel; I want a Sony TV like yours.
:)
Regards
Great Guys many thanks this is a great update.
why cant you go just a little bit further and put in voice chat over games in parties?!?!?!?!
The Gamer cards do load faster. Im not a fan of text but it gets the job done.
Hopefully there is another update around E3 this year that will give all the rabid PS3 fans what they want.
Give Sony a break everyone, I am a programmer and everyone that claims that all these additional features are easy to implement have no clue of what they are talking about. If programming was easy everyone would be a programmer.
Nothing but good things to come in ’09 from the Sony Camp. So sit back relax and enjoy the ride.
I want in game music and chat i don’t care about the rest of this crap !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
it’s going on 3yrs. get it together
More useless features instead of FIXING what’s broken!!!!!
WHERE’S THE 1080p UPSCALING FOR TITLES THAT DO NOT NATIVELY SUPPORT IT?!?!?!?!?!
This is something the 360 CAN do! The PS3 should also have this ability!!!
It was PROMISED to us WAYYYYYYYYYY back in December of 2007!!!
Great work, Sony! I think the backup feature is a fantastic and very important improvement.
The new chat features appear to leave a bit to be desired, but are a step in the right direction.
What worries me is some comments about AAC and AVI streaming being broken after this update. I can’t find this anywhere online, though.
It’s interesting that we have 1000+ comments in less than a day. Sony is standing on a treasure-trove of customer feedback. What I would like to see is Sony using more structured feedback mechanisms like polls and surveys, both here and within Home, with incentives to participate. Like free costumes on PSN for those who regularly participate in polls. Sony could create immense value for themselves and bring their customers together as a community by doing things like that.
#1077:
Sony doesn’t bother with feedback mechanisms (like polls and surveys)…because they simply ignore our feedback and follow their own whims.
This firmware is a perfect example: in the two years I’ve been reading the blog, I’ve never seen ANYONE request TEXT chat.
So what does Sony spend months developing?
TEXT chat.
Frickin’ brilliant.
where’s my cross game chat sony? if I dont get it soon imma turn into a xbot….
Voice chat would be a nice features, and much easier/convenient than text chatting, but I think what some others have mentioned such as partying with people is the biggest feature I would request. It’s a way to bring people together when you can’t physically to play games online, why not work on this immediately!? Thanks for the update Sony love the hard work!
@Masta_Shad, like Daxter said in his very first adventure when Jak got knocked out: Well, better you, than me.
#1061
I saw this pics some weeks ago and i was dreaming it will be true, but nah.
The crappy chat and that´s all, ahm oh sorry, the user friend list sorting by state, lol, it was alredy after the update.
And still people thanks to Sony?
Seriously, what´s happen here?
How is text chat an awesome feature, I myself find it hard to text and blast my way through a game. It is either play game or stop and text. Pointless!!! I don’t complain much about the useless features, but this is just getting more and more pointless. There are so many features be requested by the consumer, you think Sony would meet us half way and at least implement something the masses want…. Oh and by the way fix the stupid clock/battery mess.. I am tired of hearing people complain about it… How long now 1yr later… my .02!!!
April fools, cross game text chat!!!!!
then we actually get the voice chat
Sony, Eric, God, Allah, SOMEONE please speak up about this storm of commentary…. A good number of us are less than impressed with this new chat feature, and a lot of those who aren’t impressed want to know what happened to VOICE chat….
Please? Something? I know it’s 11 till 9, but can someone speak up. Please?
It’s a nice option to have but cross game chat and a party system is essential ASAP!
@1078
You’re right, this isn’t what people asked for. Sony has disappointed. However, we don’t know what’s under the hood. Remember, 360 execs always say the 360 was designed from the ground up for cross-game chat. Maybe this isn’t such a simple feature to implement, and maybe did a lot of the ground work for that in this update.
I think Sony are trying to engage with us a bit more — like with Xi in Home — but I think we are all in agreement here. Sony do need to create MORE of a sense of customer involvement by bringing in polls and surveys. They need to listen to us a bit MORE, and also talk to us a bit MORE!
Now all we need is a update to easily allow dual audion output from the HDMI and the Optical.
this is great one small step for sony and a big one for the fans love ya sony keep em coming
@1061
That looks far better than we have right now. I hope it’s real, but I doubt it. It really does look slick though.
please add an hebrew and arabic fonts support- it will help bring peace!!!
This update is a bunch of crap..Im very disappointed with sony.