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)
1664: “…your a bunch of idiots.”
I stopped reading right there, since it’s obvious that “your” in this case should be “you’re.”
Hey Allegro_Dragonst this isn’t a flame but please read…
I don’t use the “Other OS” either but what if they decided to remove a feature that caused you to pick PS3, or maybe disabled a feature on you TV or other appliance after you’d bought it? I know that some folks are focusing in on the feture itself but I’m more concerned about the precident it sets.
@ 1669 but it wasn’t about the ps3 update. someone said i was complaining about the update that was about canada.
I own the original PS3 (Pre-Ordered for release date) which means that i have a higher chance of getting the Yellow Light Of Death (YLOD)and i had the install other OS feature unlike the slims, now that is being taken away! Shame you cant take the YLOD away isn’t it. Also an update which only removes a feature, really? i am sure there is a way to patch the exploit that geohotz has found or has he really beaten the giant Sony.
lol ive never seen so many comments on one post topic i dont really care about losing OS even thou i have a 60gb i play by the rules haha im cool anywayz but yes i feel ur pain community members that bought to use other OS 8( sony your protecting ur ps3 from hackers BUT AT WHAT COST????? o.o half of ur users are pissed!!!!
please…im tired of Sony’s false promises,lies & lame excuses it’s getting old now lets see some real result here because i didn’t dump 3 years worth of cash on my PS3 to get ripped off!
@morris1129
Decided not to go play god of war afterall?
“so you bought a Ps3 to use as a computer….that’s stupid. I bought a computer to use as a computer and I bought a ps3 to use as a gaming console. I guess you can’t afford to buy both.”
It’s like saying “I bought this container of milk for my cereal, and this container of milk for drinking”. And then throwing away the last half of each container because you couldn’t use it all.
The playstation 3 is a computer. Just because you didn’t have the wits to use it to it’s full capacity doesn’t mean it was “stupid” to use it’s full capacity. A company that baits and switches a product is stupid.
This is quite simply intolerable. I’ve paid for services, including PSN-based download games and add-ons, as well as functions of the machine I purchased, including running an OS of my choice. Now you arbitrarily decide to steal those from me? I’ll bring that to court if needed. It’s one thing to not include a required function for me in your new model machines, quite another to retract what the machine was sold for.
Le sigh, drop a bad news bomb and then not reply. Glad to see everything is still status quo.
@1672: anything is possible. for instance: microsoft made a decent console, and PS3s do not play PS2 games any longer.. both were unexpected lol
@CoBrA2168
I can’t even read your user name and your complaining about grammar?
Thanks SONY for the AMAZING update. You just lost me as a customer. I can’t think of a reason why I would ever buy another one of your products in my life. I have never been an xbox owner but if this is true on April 1st I am buying my first 360 and never looking back. SONY you are the MOST ANTI-CONSUMER Company on record. I hope others will make the switch like me. I hope that the calls for boycots of the PSN and PS Store are followed. I hope people follow my recommendation and go on a hyadous of new game purchases. I for one will not be buying any more new PS3 games or Blu-ray movies. If sony thinks they can continuly screw over their costumer base I suggest we show them that they can’t.
@justnowfree
I think you misinterpreted my stance on the subject. I am very against Sony eliminating this feature.
oops, meant @1673.
Morris,
You seem to miss the point. Some of us bought the ps3 to do what they said it could do. I don’t expect it to do anything extra then what was promised by their own documentation and continued press releases. I think most here are along those lines of thinking. I agree with justnowfree, his argument is valid. It probably wont make a difference as you cant go for a lawsuit as they are protected by the end user agreement.
1685: Now I’m just confused, I have no clue what you’re talking about.
I seriously think that Sony should give us small treats each time we get a minatory install. Please Sony, give us something your creative minds can treat us. Couple months with nothing interesting?! Atleast do something creative.
I was a die hard playstation fanboy, now I’m just blah! Why dont you remove the playstation 2 emulator from the 4 usb 80gig models next. Better yet, how about banning all 60 gig models because they use hardware ps2. The point is they paid for a service and still have it. I payed for a service and still want to keep it. If I would have know about this I would have just waited for the slims.
bad move sony, bad move
Is this over at Attack of the Show forums? http://www.g4tv.com/attackoftheshow hehe That way they can do a loop on this subject? Better start backup on Wed Night :). It took me almost an hour and half backup 43gigs of games err.
Allegro_Dragonst
Sorry, then you see the bigger picture. It’s really chilling to consider that Sony might take any feature away at any time.
Sony better be ready for the lawsuits because I’m bringing them, I don’t care if they get thrown out or not. I demand that I be reimbursed for the 100s of dollars I have spent in Home and on the store that I will effectly lose.
I really hope this is just a bad April Fools joke gone wrong. Since when does one remove features instead of add them?
Sony is so stupid. Why are they going to take out a feature that is rightfully ours? and that is [DELETED] so if you dont update you cant use the psn? you are just going to be forced to update this is exactly why giving to much power to a corporation is wrong. and what [DELETED] security reasons are you talking about is it geohot’s expolit if it is that is stupid cuz its not even a security risk becuase you are installing the software your self. im definatly not updating….
@Allegro_Dragonst
“A company that baits and switches a product is stupid.”
Yes because Sony just woke and said, hey I think I’m going to screw over the community by removing a feature from the console.
Why don’t you cry babies take a trip over to Geohots website and let him know how you feel about ruining your PS experience.
@1696 Since Sony decided they didn’t want to patch geohot’s exploit…
I agree with you Allegro_Dragonst. I don’t understand how anyone can support this move. What is to prevent Sony from disabling the Media Server capabilities? People aren’t thinking aobut the other ramifications that extend beyond Sony. If people think other companies aren’t aware of what Sony is doing you are wrong. If sony can take away launch featuers at will expect the same for every consumer device.
Consumers should not have to worry that one day the product they bought will be disabled.
is legal to remove features “you” play?
collectively sue Sony!!!!
I’d expect a jump in numbering from firmware 3.15 to 3.21 to have some sort of advancement to the system, not for something to be removed with nothing added. All I can think of was the person who named it decided it would make a good countdown to the fail of a great system. “3… 2… 1… EXPLOSION!!”
@1617 I like how you inserted the Case Closed quote. I miss that show dearly. Anyway, I think that the update will fix the old PS3s and enable “Install Other OS” for slims. There are just too many clues in this article that say that it isn’t true.
First of all, it’s supposedly being release on APRIL 1ST.
Second, isn’t update 3.20 the update with 3D support? It hasn’t been released yet, so why would a 3.21 be released?
Thirdly, it’s a completely stupid move. Why remove a function that people payed for? Why risk many, and I mean MANY, lawsuits over this? Also, from what I’ve read of these comments, there would be tons of people that would never by another Sony product again if they could help it.
@mani8387
Geohots didn’t ruin the PS experience. You don’t punish the innocent. It’s also simply conjecture that it was his mod that started all of this. Sony did decide to screw over the community by making it so that you either give up the otheros or give up the ability to use the network.
Regardless of their intent, the result *is* that they *are* screwing over a portion of the community.
@1675
I agree with you. I have the 250 GB and thus don’t have the option but whenever a company removes any features from a product that helped it sold, it sets a very dangerous precedence.
For those who say “That’s why I have a computer” how would feel if the maker of your motherboard decided it wouldn’t support USB technology? Or decided that your partitions would no longer be supported? You’d be pissed and that’s what most are talking about. It doesn’t matter if you don’t use the feature (I used to have a 60 GB but it crapped out and I never installed another OS) but had I wanted to, it was one of the features that was promised. If Sony took away your free multiplayer access or demo access, how would you feel? Same argument.
Try walking a mile in someone else’s shoes before throwing rocks at them that way when they get mad, you’re a mile away and they’re shoeless.
Here in Tennessee you can get $10,000 in small claims.
@1699, well… technically, the update isn’t forced, it just screws you over if you “opt-out”.
Wow lots of complainers !
I don’t really like that they’re removing this feature either, but for security purposes I am all for it.
I’d rather have the PSN up and not down and my PS3 virus free because some virus has been installed by a hacker using the other OS feature.
Would any of the people complaining want to allow a feature on their pc so that hackers could install virus’s ? I doubt it.
@sicruise (1630) Facebook protest pages are a JOKE. They NEVER make a difference and especially won’t in this case, so don’t waste your time on them because this update is already set to roll out. There is nothing we can do about it. If you have a fat and you use a different OS, you’re just f!cked. Keep an eye out for what Geohot is doing, because that’s about all you can do, considering he’s the one who caused this mess. I trust he’ll find a way to clean it up. Just don’t do the update if you run a different OS.
@Allegro_Dragonst
First off, I’ll make it clear that I don’t believe Sony is removing this feature from the console, and I think this is probably the best April fools joke in history.
Second, if by some astronomical chance this is happening, sure geohots did.
I don’t use otherOS, so I don’t care, but I’m still waiting for updates you promised to make. I’m still waiting for features included in the xbox since it’s out, you keep telling us things will come in time, and the next major update is a security one preventing users to use otherOS.
What if there’s a security breach in the backward ps2 compatiblity ? You’ll rip it off instead on working on a patch ?
Wow almost a day later, and people still think this is a joke… Why would they make the joke on the 28th hmmmmm??? Furthermore if anyone bothered to research this, devs that work on PS3 have contacted SCEI and this is true, and even devs aren’t happy about it. NOT A JOKE…
I don’t use Other OS, but taking away features is never good. And removing it from older systems is a ripoff since people paid for that functionality.
https://share.blog.us.playstation.com/ideas/?s=remove+other+OS
at least let’s make this positive!
Sony should be giving us new and better things in these software updates but they keep on doing stupid things they should do things like allow us to leave voice messages to our friends on the playstation network. But with out charging us like the useless xbox.
@1707 — you’re an idiot. There is NO security proplems. It takes a LOT of effort on the owner’s part to exploit this flaw. It’s not a problem with viruses. It’s all about piracy.
On Fri, 2009-08-21 at 09:58 -0700, geoffrey.levand at am.sony.com wrote:
>> The feature of “Install Other OS” was removed from the new
>> “Slim” PS3 model to focus on delivering games and other
>> entertainment content.
>>
>> Please be assured that SCE is committed to continue
>> the support for previously sold models that have the
>> “Install Other OS” feature and that this feature will
>> not be disabled in future firmware releases
> On Fri, 2009-08-21 at 09:58 -0700, geoffrey.levand at am.sony.com wrote:
>> The feature of “Install Other OS” was removed from the new
>> “Slim” PS3 model to focus on delivering games and other
>> entertainment content.
>>
>> Please be assured that SCE is committed to continue
>> the support for previously sold models that have the
>> “Install Other OS” feature and that this feature will
>> not be disabled in future firmware releases.
>
> Although it’s disappointing that Sony have removed the feature from new
> models, It’s good to have this public assurance from Sony that at least
> the feature won’t be removed from older models which are already
> working.
lol this has nothing to do with viris and nothing to do with making ps3 more secure for us. Its about making it more secure for them.
The removal of the Other OS functionality is not detrimental for most PS3 owners.
What IS bothersome to all existing and potential customers is that Sony is too lazy to fix the problem – to sandbox the Other OS components.
Is it broke? Yes.
What do we do? Expunge it.
This is not the way a big corporation wins strong customer loyalty.
Sony should patch this instead of removing the feature…
Well, this is just the most notable portion of the update.Most of the time it’s a bunch of smaller internal fixes and upgrades to exsisting software.I believe you might find one or two easter eggs in this upcoming update.It’s a good thing that they are doing this esspecially if the rumors are true about the pay per month/year subsription that may come on down the line.Until April 1st I’ll hold my breath until then…figuretivly
I LAUGH AT THE PEOPLE WHO THINK THIS IS LITERALLY BECAUSE OF VIRUSES.
THE FIRST PERSON IN THE WORLD TO HACK THE iPHONE, HAS NOW HACKED THE PS3. AND THEY’RE USING “OTHER OS” TO GAIN BETTER ACCESS TO THE SYSTEM. HIS NAME IS GEOHOT, AND HE IS A VERY GOOD HACKER.
SONY DOESN’T WANT TO ALLOW PIRATED GAMES TO BE PLAYED ON THEIR SYSTEM… SIMPLE AS THAT.