UPDATE: The PS3 Firmware (v3.00) update is now live. You can use this update to upgrade your system software to version 3.00.
Just in time for the official launch of the 120 GB PlayStation 3, PS3 Firmware (v3.00) will be available shortly. As detailed during gamescom 09, 3.00 will introduce a number of great features, including “What’s New,” a redesigned status indicator and Friends List, and support for new avatars and dynamic themes.
We look forward to your feedback once the update goes live.
i’d like to also weigh in, i agree with most comments here that the update is very poor and a step (or 3) backwards. friends list horrible, larger sizes horrible, the bombardment with ad’s and unnecessary store links are horrible.
i’ve already paid 400 euros (originally) for the console, and 60 euros for games, i dont want to see advertisements.
as most have said, the easiest thing to do is keep this horrible format default so sony can advertise to the noobs, but add the options to revert the pieces back for those that are savvy enough to find it and want it.
further, this update adds absolutely no functionality that affects my use of the console. i still cant send voice messages, no cross game chat, no way to surf the web , listen to music, or watch videos while in a game (would be very nice during the longgggg waits for TOW games in endwar). theres just nothing new to use, and a lot of ugly to look at.
in every way that matters, 2.8 was better.
very disappointed.
can’t believe all the people complaining.
Great work Sony, thanks
its been a fair few hours now since the update was released. Its clear reading through these comments there is a problem and consumers are not happy. Isnt it about time we had an Official response from sony about it?.
Maybe this firmware will make more sense when other features are added like the new avatars etc. The grey box around friends? It might have a use yes, but what exactly?.
Come on sony. Im a playstation fan, like many others here. We want answers.
So respond please…and no I wont believe the “we are very busy” response.
It took myself less that 2 minutes to write this.
“We look forward to your feedback once the update goes live.”
Bet you didn’t expect this? Haha. Around 90% of the comments must be about how they hate the update. I’m sure things will get fixed in a new Firmware soon though.
Ok seriously Sony.. have you ever heard of a saying that goes “If its not broken, don’t fix it!” ?
Well I guess the answer to that would be no because you just attempted to give us a new firmware which is closer to a downgrade than anything else. Sure, the dynamic theme (we even had to pay for) was cute, but that barely qualified as 2.81
Now onto the intro sound. You kept it the same for all PS1 consoles. And PS2. And PS3.. no wait, you just changed it. Why? it was that sound everyone combined with being excited about a PS3 being turned on.. and you changed it! Why? was the other one not working?
And then the disgust continues with being welcomed by oversized text and a pink-purple background with tinsel. I mean come on man, playstation gamers are not women and male hairdressers.
And the awful boxes around our friends.. why? it was fine the way it was. If you already haven’t figured out where this is going I would really like to tell you that firmware updates are supposed to give us new features, not completely ruin what we have already got! Can you send me a new ps3 with 2.80 on it so I can use it offline? This 3.0 will go straight in the closet. I cant even look at it.
OK first of all about the 3.00 update. i am a gamer since the early 90’s..i have seen major and huge updates..but to have an update tha adds dynamic thems and put some shortcuts for the psn store to xmb and a new logo….NO thats not a good thing for me..I was interested for the dynamic Themes but i logged in psn network and try finding one D.Theme and i found out that only Little Big PLaner has one and that i have TO PAY so i can try the NEW DYNAMIC THEMES?! YOU SHOULD HAVE ONE FOR FREE SO The people will try it…
I don’t like the update.
@Snake6000 that’s what “you” want, not what I want so leave me out of the “we” saying.
@djroberts, luckily Europe doesn’t have that.
@Darevsk, you me we understand :-)
All people on this blog do is complain, complain, complain. if you are crying like children on font size select the original, the same goes for the theme and background. I’m not even going to continue typing my original thought. people just need to grow up and stop complaining over an update they have not fully explored.
Thanks for the upload and download speed on the connection test! I couldn’t log in around 9 pst though…
Sorry for my typing..its early just woke up to try it and man…-10 points ..sorry Sony..
Dear Eric Lempel,
We know you and the team have a road map for the XMB/PSN but can you PLEASE LISTEN to our requests and PLEASE TELL US what is/is not possible?
I appreciate any Firmware update, but calling this one FW 3.0 is false advertising because the move to a higher number suggest a major improvement or innovation. Whilst this update is nice, and I definitely do like what is changed, the big features that PSN needs are still missing nearly 3 years after the PS3 has launched.
* Read the comments here of loyal PlayStation users.
* Please, look at the features on competing consoles.
* Then make an announcement here about what your team is working on, and when next year, approximately, it will be delivered.
If you are working on a friends/party system -TELL US!
If you are working on cross-game chat -TELL US!
If you are working on updating the PSN IDs with our Home avatars – TELL US!
Then we will wait, but be happy because we know that these features are coming. Keep the good work up, and I’m looking forward to your announcement on the PlayStation Blog! :)
and then we will stop asking. But at this rate, basic features
Ok, I love this firmware update. I had a few ideas which I doubt will be taken into consideration, given the amount of post already.
1. Make the avatar system like a reward system. When you play a game, you get an avatar, but when you beat a game, you get a special avatar. Getting a platinum trophy gives you a really cool avatar and dynamic theme (mainly, avatar).
2. One thing I’d love to see is with the friends list and trophies list. Currently, I have my PS3 set up where my ‘Comment’ over my name in my friends list displays my current profile level. The way the friends list is now, you could easily keep a level bar right below your friends name. That would be cool. Or a trophies counter right below that.
3. I’d love for cross-game chat, and I really don’t know why you guys don’t use Xfire for this, since it’s perfect and uses basically no bandwidth. Originally, the PS3 had this support (Untold Legends) but was that it?
4. Finally, the only thing I want more than these other features is couch co-op support. My brother likes to play games with me but he wants to have his own profile earning trophies while playing with me, like we do on the Xbox 360 currently.
I like the new update for the most part I have a small HDTV that I play on so I like the larger font. I think it would be nice if you could choose your own size font’s and such. The new friends list is alright not the best thing but not the worst either, if they would make it with your gamer card it would be much cooler. Also it would be nice to turn the ticker off and there is a couple too many PS Store Icons. Cross game chat really does need to be implemented though and I know it won’t happen but Backwards Compatibility with the PS2 would be awesome. One other thing I hope is that when the PSP Comic Book reader is launched it could also be used on the PS3. :D
Forgot one other thing I think our Avatars should be our HOME avatars. Or at least be an option.
update is pretty useless atm, $3 for the theme? yeah right…not a good first impression.
wtf what´s the grey thing at the friendlist? lock ugly take it away please
I Agree VenomUk
Sony U have to start thinking about what gamers really need.
i actually like the font size…
Thank you for allowing me to finally run my audio through optical with video through HDMI. That is awesome.
I wish the ticker could be removed though.
im downloading it right now
uhm DonnyG that has always been possible. The only difference now is that you can have two audio outputs at the same time
Sony have such a bad habit of screwing things up. Damn! What happened to the people who made the PS1 and PS2?
the only problem i have is the new pink clasic themes. I really liked the black one. On the other side everything is really good. I though the What’s new was a mess to the xmb but now that i have tried it, it is one of the best thing of the xmb
change back to the old xmb thanks
ohhh and the weird thing…that u didnt fix and honestly i dont know why…I have a Jap PS3. i have both EU and US account..Now when i log on my US account i see under the game on XMB that u have created a folder so the ps3 games are all over there…but that feauture isnt available on the EU account…??! why? i think firmware updates dont have REGION LOCK FEAUTURES right?
Loved the update… these people complaining are crazy ,I LOVE the larger XMB on my 42 inch LCD , not only that but I love how people chronically complain about cross game chat and partys , seriously … Id like cross game chat too but if its gotta come later its gotta come later , don’t let these others force you into releasing it too soon…
The info in the top right corner of the screen, nice gesture.. but layout is terrible. Drop the 3 sided box around the whole thing as it ruins the flow of the XMB.
The ticker should clearly be optional.
Strange spacing going on there. battery is no longer a problem but now it floats way off towards the middle despite there being a country mile between the clock and the right edge of the screen and a fair amount of space ABOVE this new info box. Spacing within these borders is strange too. We have our own icon.. which is actually mostly pointless information to have staring us in the face. Then we have an online friend count.. this could be optional. Then there is a big gap for a rather small message indicator. Date. Time. HUGE SPACE! Then the Ticker that expires before the same HUGE SPACE that plagues the top row.
I think a simpler solution would have been a better fit and kept the clean design of the XMB. The same size and position the old date/time used to be with an additional envelope that pops up on the left of the date whenever you have unread messages. (Doesn’t even need a message count.)
Battery indicator could could be similarly simple and appear right aligned ABOVE the date/time line…
I love my PS3, but this new update is hideous. At the very least, can you give us the option to return to the proper font size? This magnified view looks so much tackier than the previous appearance. Also, I already know how to access the PSN. I don’t need additional hand-holding. If anything, it makes me LESS likely to spend my money there. It’s garish, guys.
hahaha, i luv the comments
the friends list is mad ugly please fix it asap other than that an option to disable the icons in the game and video section would be good
Sizing of the XMB really looks less elegant than the original design. I have heard positive feedback from SDTV users though so perhaps a similar “zoom” option could be kept as an accessibility option.
If you want to spice up the interface and make it less clinical I’d suggest an option under THEMES that skews the XMB so that items on the left look like they are coming out into the foreground and items on the right fall off into the background.
To look just right I’d suggest the dramatic skew horizontally be accompanied by a slight vertical skew.. like the “face” of the menu were tilted up just a tad.
It would preserve the nice clean aesthetic while giving it just enough oomph.
The new friends list is ugly but I’m more perplexed that the redesign didn’t come with any new features.. no advanced friend sorting? no friend grouping? no info in those ugly grey boxes?
Support for new avatars should really come with new avatars.
Excessive use of store links isn’t a huge concern but it seems redundant in combination with the “WHAT’S NEW” feature.
Living in Canada I can tell you having a store link under video that reminds you that your region/country doesn’t have access to that feature is only going to breed animosity.
The icons are too big now.
Sorry but the old design was better. The dynamic themes are an good idea, but the icons are absolutely too big on a high-definition screen.
Can we get the old ones back please?
why ??
whyy wud u do this ?!
I don’t like the new Start Up and no Gameboot horrible. I just hope the psp does not have the same fate to change it to PSP logo and then no gameboot. Please change it back and also bring back the old friends list don’t like the new one. And have the ability to change font size too huge.
Ok. Update is ok. Please put the friends list the way it was. The gray boxes are ugly, and the font is too big.
1 more thing. I don’t like how the background fades out when I select an option. plase fix that as well.
You should be able to remove the ticker.
Playstation Store icons all over the place is ridiculous and just an attempted to get more people buying stuff. Keep them under one icon not in games, movies etc. It was not hard to access the Playstation Store before.
WORST EFFING UPDATE EVER
EVERYTHING IS SO DAMN UGLY NOW.
SONY you are letting programmers design again!!! Let the artist’s do their job or hire better ones. The interface just keeps getting clunkier and lacking of that SONY aesthetic I’ve come to love.
Ok seriously Sony.. have you ever heard of a saying that goes “If its not broken, don’t fix it!” ?Well I guess the answer to that would be no because you just attempted to give us a new firmware which is closer to a downgrade than anything else. Sure, the dynamic theme (we even had to pay for) was cute, but that barely qualified as 2.81Now onto the intro sound. You kept it the same for all PS1 consoles. And PS2. And PS3.. no wait, you just changed it. Why? it was that sound everyone combined with being excited about a PS3 being turned on.. and you changed it! Why? was the other one not working?And then the disgust continues with being welcomed by oversized text and a pink-purple background with tinsel. I mean come on man, playstation gamers are not women and male hairdressers.And the awful boxes around our friends.. why? it was fine the way it was. If you already haven’t figured out where this is going I would really like to tell you that firmware updates are supposed to give us new features, not completely ruin what we have already got! Can you send me a new ps3 with 2.80 on it so I can use it offline? This 3.0 will go straight in the closet. I cant even look at it.
well i love the new update you guys are just looking for stuff to [DELETED] about
2 Steps forward, one step back
pathetic sony, this update has nothing to do what we wanted, it’s about what you want and that’s our money, oh and let’s throw in an animated background to keep the kids happy lol, by no means should you be calling this a major update. what, did Microsoft increase their font size and you were just following the leader? pathetic i tell you!!!!
The new font & icon size is too large for HDTV’s, I understand you did this to benefit those with SDTV’s but you cant just force everybody to this, give us an option so we can configure the size on our own, that way it benefits everyone.
The grey boxes around Friends icons are hideous, at the very least give us an option to make it transparent or change the color.
Thanks Eric.
I like the whats new. Just as cool as you demonstrated it. Great possibilities there. Still believe there is value in getting the last games played information uploaded onto PSN and put onto a “trophy card” just like mygamercard.net does for another system.
I understand the removal of the PLAYSTATION 3 banner upon loading a game. But for consistency purposes you guys should probably remove the PlayStation Store screen banner as well. So it will load a few seconds faster just like our games. As we obviously already know we are going into the store :)
Don’t know the reasoning behind the grey background of the friends lists, unless there is more that going to be put in those boxes. It doesn’t look all that great currently especially with a full friends list.
Keep up the good work!
THIS IS THE WORST UPDATE I HAVE EVER SEEN FOR THIS SYSTEM BY THE WIDEST MARGIN OF 400 FOOTBALL FIELDS. WTF WERE YOU PEOPLE SMOKING. THERE ARE 25 MILLION OWNERS AND ALL THEIR GAMES THAT HAVE THE MATA FONT. WE LIKED THE SPLASH SCREEN WE LIKED OUR OLD BOOTUP. WE DONT WANT YOUR NEW FONT AND WE DONT WANT THIS TERRIBLE FRIENDS LIST OR THIS HIDEOUS TICKER. MAKE IT AVAILABLE TO SWITCH BACK. WE ARE YOUR FIRST TIME BUYERS WE SUPPORTED YOU THROUGH IT ALL NOT THE F’ING SLIM BUYERS. WHY WOULD YOU GO AND DIVIDE YOUR FANBASE WITH THIS SILLY FONT AND ACT LIKE THE MATA FONT DOES NOT EVEN EXIST. PURE IDIOCY ON YOUR PART AND THEIR WILL BE COMPLAINTS UNTIL YOU CHANGE IT BACK. F’ING IDIOTS SERIOUSLY THIS WAS YOUR BIG UPDATE. YOU PEOPLE BETTER FIRE SOME HANDICAPPED WAFFLES AT YOUR STUDIOS AND ACTUALLY CONCENTRATE ON WHAT WE WANT NOT WHAT WE HAVE NO F’ING NEED FOR.
This update really sucks! The only portion of it that has enhanced my experience is the right analogue stick video controls. The rest is garbage. I expect a new firmware to come out soon allow the visual look of the XMB to go back to the original. Also, I would love if video playback could resume when the XMB is accessed, instead of being paused.
Just listen to me, Re-design the interface PRONTO. Just say its beta and replace it in 3 months with a sleeker, SONY interface. We’ve all invested a great deal of money into your product so the least you can do is not make sure someone with a design sense oversees the interface design. I realize the original design has its limits but the additions do not blend well at all. Its like two opposing ideologies clashing in front of me.
Not a fan of this new design at all. Way too busy, and the friends list is atrocious. Did this redesign really make it out of testing with good reviews? It has the look and feel of low budget freeware. Look I know the updates are free and we really don’t have the room to demand more features. I’m fine if all we get are bug fixes and cleanups. But a forceful redesign of an interface that was already the CLASSIEST we’d ever seen? The fact that we can’t even go back to the old style as an option, or make any kind of changes really swipes our ability to customize. Please send 3.01 soon.
I like some of the new features… but a lot of them should be optional…
– The font size is a bit too large for my taste. We should be able to revert to the original size.
– We should have the option to turn off the video store icons underneath “Games” and
“Video”.
– The “What’s New” section is a million times better than the “Information Board”. Please do the same on the PSP in the next firmware update for that system.
– Thank you for changing the placement of the battery life indicator for the controllers. It’s better than it was before… not in the best place as it now breaks up the symmetrics of the new top-right “area”, but it looks better. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to add the indicator within the top-right “area”?
– Please give us the option to remove the ticker if we don’t want it.
Other than that, it looks really good. I like how when you hover over an option, it blocks out the rest and focuses on that…