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)
False information after the purchase
report to the Consumer Agency.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Screw you Sony, I want my linux!
It kinda sucks, however most don’t use the os. It’s that little hacker’s fault :P Ban him!!! or sue him…
BOOOMM…Screw You Sony……We Want linux……
I want that feature on my PS3! This is one of the reasons I still keep my launch PS3 and paid so much for it.
I dont want the removal of OtherOS .
I hope its an early April fool’s day
I am unhappy with the last couple of firmware updates. While the other guys are improving the service you guys are doing the opposite. I don’t use the “Install Other OS” feature but it’s just the principle.
Anyways, I really liked my PS3 before the last couple of firmware updates. Now I don’t like the ticker I can’t turn off, the new fonts, and the new start-up sound.
/rant off
BAD BAD BAD
Esto es un atropello! Muchos hemos comprado la PS3 por poder instalar Linux y disfrutar de un centro multimedia completo en nuestros salones. Que ahora nos lo quiten creo que es un gran error y un atropello a los usuarios.
Me dan ganas de vender mi PS3 y comprar otra. :-(
I want my Linux!
I want my Linux!
I sincerely hope that this is just some kind of cruel joke, despite all of the mounting evidence to the contrary.
Taking away a feature that was have promised (since I’ll be forced to choose between Other OS and PSN/New Games/New Movies, you are taking away a feature) is deceptive at best, and most likely illegal in most countries. Doing something like this is just going to force those that legitimately use Other OS to sway toward piracy and further hacking of the PS3. If there’s no other way to play new games and movies, the hackers will move in that direction. I have no intention of giving up my Other OS support, so I guess for the time being I just won’t be able to buy any new games for the PS3 until someone breaks the security wide open. A move like this will only cost Sony the money that they would get on game sales to the group of legitimate users — those who would use it for piracy will simply not update and continue to work toward their pirate goals.
Seriously Sony, there are probably MANY more legitimate users of Other OS than those that would use it for piracy (being that there’s currently no way to do that anyway).
Just to clarify a little bit about my situation with the PS3…
I resisted buying a PS3 for a long time because I thought it was too expensive for what little gain I would get from owning one (I have owned an Xbox 360 for a lot longer than the PS3). I finally broke down and bought a non-slim PS3 a few months back because I started working with the Cell at my job.
Even if this is some sort of cruel April Fools Day joke, this will cause backlash against Sony. It proves that Sony can’t be trusted to deliver what they promise. Even if this is a joke, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if some future update does exactly what this post says that this one will do — and without telling the customer ahead of time.
I guess this will be the last time I buy any hardware from Sony. Even if this is a joke, this is going too far.
It amuses me that people are up in arms about this. Half of you who are complaining about using the feature probably don’t. You just need something to complain about. The fact is that the OtherOS feature was slow and not very supported in the first place. You were basically limited to web browsing and word processing.
And for those of you who claim that you were “about to use the feature”, stop kidding yourself. The OtherOS feature was removed from the retail units months ago. If you were about to use it, you already would have.
sony havent you learned anything from what ms did with the 360 the more they clench at the security the more the hackers want to and will try to break it >:[ thats why it took so long for ps3 to get hacked cuz the hackers (who only wanted to be able to run homebrew/linux) got their wish OUT OF THE BOX.
Atleast give us something added with this removal, It’s been alot since we got something to the PS3! Please improve sony..!
That is VERY unhappy! I’m not sure I’m liking where things are heading… This isn’t quite as bad as dropping the backwards compatibility, but now your dropping the other os feature and soon we will most likely have to pay for full psn functionality. Is the idea to purposely TRY to kill your momentum? Sorry, im just a little frustrated and disappointed. I suppose I will get over it though.
Sony, you fail.
Swailem95: It’s fine if you and others like you don’t care about the OtherOS feature. If you don’t use it, then it’s obviously no big deal to YOU. However, those of us that do use it see this move for what it is: Sony punishing end users for their own mistakes in their security. I have to go with greatest_foe on this one, anyone defending this decision is either in on it or too dumb to see how they’re being screwed. The PS3 is supposedly a limitless machine, though we’re getting more and more limited with these updates. People who spent $600 on the day of release, those who bought retail copies of Yellow Dog Linux and those that use the feature (afterall, it’s part of the big package we paid for).
Lol you guys are all really quite funny getting so upset about it. Maybe you’re all just bummed out because you were hoping to be able to pirate games soon thanks to the work of the hackers? And if that isn’t why you’re annoyed, go vent at the hackers that made this a necessity rather than the company which has given us top games like Uncharted 2, God of War 3, Little Big Planet, Killzone 2 etc etc etc. Basically, all you moaners – shut up, you’re embarrassing yourselves.
If Sony thought they had enemies in the hacking community before, they have probably increased that number tenfold. Nothing stirs up rebelliousness like a corporation that punishes it’s loyal fanbase. I had always hoped the PS3 would never suffer the same fate as the PSP and Dreamcast did, but now I feel much more different about it. I hope this “update” comes back to bite them in the ass. Sony needs a wakeup call, and might just well get it with this announcement. Geohotz and the other sceners have my full support. I’ll just use PS3 proxy and wait til an end user hack becomes available. It seems the only way to get what you deserve is to not play by the rules anymore.
Even though I do not use the OtherOS at this time, manufacturers who proactively remove key features from products violate user trust.
For after this (let’s face it) unskippable update means that anything is up for removal – even features that once were taken for granted.
Divx support? Streaming support? Could go.
This doesn’t just apply to removing stuff, it could also mean Sony will use firmware updates as a marketing tool.
It’s not unthinkable that there’ll be a PS3 3D at some point. Even though the other consoles can be upgraded to support 1.4 HDMI… from now on, who can guarantee Sony will deliver that functionality to current and older models?
Sony violated the trust that the console would only increase in functionality – and I will weigh that whenever I purchase Sony products in the future, if they depend on firmware updates as heavily as the PS3 does.
Probably some april foosl joke, not falling for it sony!
if this does happen then thats retarted to remove a feature when we first paid $599 for system that has that awesome feature.
Way to go Sony. Please deactivate the blue ray with the next update. Can’t wait for further product improvements! Should you find any sarcasm or irony in this comment you may keep it as a token of my eternal gratitude!
Great job Sony, take more away from your customers. I guess you don’t want me to buy a PS4 after how you are handling the PS3. I’m already unhappy that my 80GB MGS4 bundle PS3 only has partial backwards compatability and now that I just swapped hard drives and formatted in preparation to use this feature, you are taking it away in a few days? I would already be using the feature if I wouldn’t have recently been called back to work, or I would be even more furious than I already am. Sure, I can skip updating, but if I do that I basically lose the full capabilities of my console for gaming and movies. All I can say is this better be a really bad April Fools joke. If it isn’t, I’ll be siding with a coworker who despises your company and tells all of his customers from his computer consulting business to avoid your products and spend their money elsewhere.
anyone try this?
PS3 owners who have further questions should contact Consumer Services:
http://us.playstation.com/support/ask/
800-345-7669 (800-345-SONY)
The sad thing is that this whole mess is handled in such a amateurish way. You should add new features to the Firmware and THEN also remove the OtherOS functionality. This way it’s just a complete slap in the face and back to the marketing hell Sony was in for years.
This is complete BS. I had hoped that the original feature richness of the PS3 was a sign of consoles becoming more of a home appliance. However, Sony keeps removing features such that its just another dumb console. You just don’t see the big picture, do you Sony? While the Xbox360 and Wii are becoming more, your PS3 is becoming less. How can that be a good business model?
I’m off to begin backing up my Xubuntu installation.
When your customers have to ask if you are kidding, you have a problem.
Geohot got a little too close to the inner workings and I guess the panic button was pushed. Do you think he’ll update? If he gets a hack going off USB, will you disable the ports too?
Wait a minute, this is a joke cause eric lempel always post firmware updates not patrick seybold
hint hint people this is a april fools joke.
note: i don’t care for pirated games, i’m literally clean from cracked games unlike many others. and i see this as a move not looked at, i wouldnt be surprised if this update is rolled out and dev companies don’t see it coming and lose all their data ( if it were sysadmins… Sony you’d be Fsck’d up more than anyone with mass lawsuits coming from devs who lost their precious data).
take that as a warning NO ONE LIKES LOST/CORRUPTED DATA.
People are idiots, how can anyone cheer this on whether they use the feature or not? We aren’t embarrassing ourselves, you all are just the perfect type of people who let corporations and other entities of power push you around. How about they take a feature you DO use? Maybe a hacker exploits trophy syncing or something so they disable trophies. You guys don’t get it, you really don’t, forget that I actually have USED the thing for a year and a half now (and guess what NOT for piracy, there is NO piracy on PS3 right now, so quit saying that is why we do.) lets just focus on the fact that I was sold a high end expensive machine with certain expectations of what it can do. What if they took divx support, or the web browser, the photo viewer. Guess what I am betting a lot of us don’t use at least some of those features, but I’m not gonna let them take it without getting mad.
Either way, if this a joke or not, this feels like a bit of a Fail…
disappointing
Btw, this post generates more comments than any other in recent months, even more than the PSN troubles we had when people couldn’t even play for one day. This should really tell Sony the severity of this whole affair.
It looks like a class-action is brewing already.
KILLZONE79, nobody posts an April Fools joke on March 28th…..
I CANT BELIEVE IM SAYING THIS – IM CONSIDERING TO MOVE TO XBOX.
ITS UR FAULT SONY
confirmed by PS3 devs on twitter this is not an april fools, and furthermore, Sony didn’t even bother to tell the devs who use this feature on their home consoles to be better at their jobs, and make better things for PS3, stop saying this is a joke, ITS NOT…
wow i hardly if ever complain, but this is bunk [DELETED] here. removing features? for real? playstation it only removes features you paid for!
personaly its fine i dont run linux or anything, but this is bunk, you would think that they would also give us a cool feature in the same update to soften the blow
I’m 786! YES!
@ 785
well it does say april 1st so who knows.
DOh!
with all i’ve seen Sony, good luck getting out of all these incoming lawsuits. (i might even hack this system and make an emulator for ps3 IN otherOS to evade this c**p).
TO ONE THOUSAND! TO ONE THOUSAND! TO ONE THOUSAND! HURRAY!!!
I don’t see this affecting too many people, i mean who really uses their ps3 as a computer? The only people that might legitimately be affected by this are the hackers and maybe the universities and companies that use it for research purposes.
I love how everyone and their mother started using the OtherOS feature once Sony said they’re removing it.
I have it installed on my Fat PS3, but have not used it in probably a year and a half, maybe two.
I’m not saying that no one else uses it, but whoever is on here complaining about it, probably has a computer and can install linux within 20 to 30 minutes and boot it instead of Windows.
I’m also not arguing that Sony’s doing the right thing, removing a feature and all, but it certainly isn’t the end of the world, nor the end of PlayStation.
Obviously research, time, thought and money has went into this, so I doubt they’re removing it just to piss off all their early adopters.
When are you guys going to be releasing the PSP firmware update for the 1001, 2001, and 3001 series PSPs that completely disable the use of UMDs?
Seriously though, using JST after the date? Your slipping Sony, had me for maybe a second until I saw that.
to sony and to people that are saying that only few are using Linux…….
Nevertheless these “few” people have spend money to upgrade their HDD, to buy a retail linux cd, to buy a 2nd mouse plus a 2nd keyboard.
what are they supposed to do now with all that staff?
Complaining to FTC
Here’s the link…
https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/
What will happen to our partitions? Please answer this, what about people that currently have a different OS installed and have partitions for it? Will they become dead weight on the PS3?
well if this is a joke it def not a fail. just look at all the people freeking out. thats a what a practical joke is supposed to do.
if its not a joke then it doenst seem legal is some respects.if i went out and bought a HD tv and a month later they said the were updating down to STD it wouldn’t fly obviously. this was a selling point for linux user’s. whats next removing support for games unless i buy a special adapter? taking away blu-ray maybe.
i say its a joke. and if its is. grats on a good one. you got alot O people.
if not well then thats just sad. i thought ps3 was unhackable (for the most part) and now linux scares you?? maybe were closer to a ps3 mod that we thought i guess.
PPL it’s an April Fools Joke, if it wasn’t they would of commented that it wasn’t a joke by now.
FCK YOU SONY…… IM BUYING A 360!!!!