Ben-DutkaIt's almost time for gamers to link up their PlayStation 3 and sleek new PlayStation Vita and do all sorts of fun things. …well, in Japan, anyway.
Sony's new portable launches in Japan on December 17, but everyone is getting a necessary PS3 update this week: it's v.4.00 and it has been detailed at the PlayStation Blog .
In addition to game patches, system software, recommended games and videos, and Sync Trophy information, the big news is that v.4.00 basically makes the PS3 a content management device for the upcoming Vita. Users will be able to copy their digital content (games, music, photos, videos) between the PS3 and Vita, back up Vita titles including save data on the PS3 hard drive, and update the handheld's system software via the PS3's network features.
So we're guaranteed that when the Vita hits the US on February 22, our PS3s will be ready to go. And really, without that connectivity, the coolness factor of Sony's portable drops a lot; it's one of the features that makes the unit so damn impressive and appealing.
This update simply heightened the anticipation for Vita for me. I can't wait for February to roll round.
Me neither but I think I will have to get a second job just to afford a decent sized memory card. I am partially joking. A little bit of sticker shock on those memory card prices. In fact I might even delay a purchase just to wait and see if any 3rd party cards become available. I have a hard time paying 4X the price as comparable flash memory cards go. I know it's comparable to the PSP memory stick prices were at the time but that was a long time ago. Ridiculous they cost that much now.
definitely Sticker shock, I was expecting at worst something priced to be competitive with MemoryStick M2 products. But, that's not what they did…sadly.
Bleh I'll just use the 4giga that comes with the starter edition till I see some resonnably priced 3rd party ones 😀 Or a pricedrop on the Sony ones.
But you have to admit that since they sell the console at a loss… They have to get money in by some other means… Like proprietary memory cards. I don't blame em.
This interactivity between the Vita and PS3 makes me feel like the PS3 is not going anywhere. Both the PS3 and the Vita complement each other beautifully.
So the PS3 will stick around for years and years.
The PS4 can wait.
Either that, or PS3 platform support is not going anywhere and will remain a fixture in the PlayStation world.
Yeah just like the PS2 did. I don't know where I heard that but it went like this: blah blah… Sony doesn't want to release PS4 after the competition his time around… blah blah… So yeah might even be here that I saw it. Based on this they are either trying to pressure MS into releasing another console too early and full of bugs OR they really are going for a 2012 release.
Sounds good! I'm exited!
Ha,
So where did you exit to??? LOL
lol sorry i was to *excited* to type correctly.
…and apparently yo still are.
;P
I wish I still had contacts in Japan.
question lol …is there a ps4 section on the site now lol…when did they announce it?
Firmware 4.0 comes out and this is what we get?
Boooooring!
I'm with you there.
I like what the update broughtus but just didn't think they would use 4.0. I kinda figured this would have been more of a 3.9 type of update.
there is/was more to it than that. Did you not notice the new message that the system flashes up for a few seconds when starting. There are 5-10 seconds in the boot time that were not there before. Heaven knows what the PS3 is doing during that time, but I bet it's security related.
I'm not even sure why I'm expecting something more from the firmware updates anymore. It's all security and stability now. We're stuck with what we got until PS4 I guess.
Probably. It has been 5 years since release.
Last edited by Underdog15 on 12/1/2011 9:12:40 AM
Still not worthy of a major release version…but then 3.x wasn't a major step from 2.x.
Hmmm… I'm not so sure. Sony has been working steadily to reduce the memory overhead of the resident portion of the OS. I don't have access to a dev system to know for sure, but I would bet that the full point increase in version number is merited.
I think that barring unfortunate circumstances this will be the last full point firmware revision for PS3 until the PS4 arrives. I think that this revision alters internal components in a significant way related to security, memory constraints and the Vita integration & remote play features. They could have made some significant changes to network & platform security also, in preparation for Vita and in reaction to the continuing attempts to crack current firmware. Either way any significant change to memory, security, network and or device connectivity and integration can amount to some pretty fundamental alterations. Perhaps even ones worth a full point release.
Well, it would be nice if they gave more details of updates for those who care to know. What I would like to see is a real browser upgrade (instead of the glorified mobile browser it's had for so long) and more robust multimedia file support…if it's supposed to be relevant for another 5 years.
I can wait the time gap since the problems the vita has now, might be resolved for the NA launch.
Huh?
What problems????
Problems? What problems?
Problem? Besides Sony charging an arm and a leg for 32GBs of memory, I haven't heard about any problems… Well there is that rumor that some games won't even start, if you don't buy one of their overpriced memory sticks, Uncharted included…
Last edited by Karosso on 11/30/2011 4:00:28 PM
And that will remain a rumor… Unless the Sony reps are lying to me. They said the Vita won't require any memory card to play games. There will be flash memory left on cartridges for saves.
Karosso, it's not just Sony. Even older tech like 32GB SD cards are still over priced.
@Jawknee
If you think a 32GB SDHC Class10 for $50 bucks is overpriced, what should we call Sony's $120 bucks Memory Stick price? Hyperbolicly Priced? Stratosphericly Priced?
Sorry, I just hate this move from Sony, won't be getting the Vita any time soon because of this.. the prices are bound to come down from an arm and a leg thou, that's when I might take the plunge.
Yea that's over priced. And I never said Sony's weren't over priced. They all are.
Sweet, might get Vita as early as January or February just to play Uncharted!
Mu u hahaha pre-ordered the starter edition of Wifi model. Getting it by feb 15th yayyy! Unless they mess up and lose my pre-order XD
I've had my wifi Vita paid off about 2 months ago.
But It looks like I've got to start saving all over again for the 16 & 32 MB memory cards, unless some of my HongKong venders can get the aftermarket cards out quickly.
And let's just hope that Sony hasn't gone the way of MS & made it so aftermarket cards won't work.
PS3 Update 4.00 Prepares PS3 To Interact With Vita…AND removes yet another useful feature.
Sony killed coping PSOne Classics to your PSP from your PS3.
A-Holes.
it also said that you can turn auto update features of psn+ separately but i still dont know how to do them. all i see is the main auto update thing.
i still dont see the point of removing the ability to copy psone classics to psps. maybe theyre trying to push the remote play feature.
Last edited by johnld on 12/1/2011 12:10:56 AM
Wait, I would like to see a release notification where that feature was deprecated from the firmware. The PSOne games are not sold separately for PSP, so whatever is going on with the ability to transfer them to your PSP, I don't think it was necessarily removed on purpose.
It's possible that this is an unintended side effect of the new Vita functionality. I don't have the information in front of me, but I remember that the ability to move PSOne games to the PSP was a selling point of the PSOne titles. If you go to those games on the PS Store there isn't even a separate category for purchasing the game to run on PSP specifically.
I'm pretty sure this is some kind of bug.
The auto update thing can be controlled you can turn the feature on or off, but you can also selectively alter the settings on each game. select the game on the XMB hit Triangle and there should be options there for updating. The same is true of the cloud save feature you can enable or disable the updating of the cloud saves on a per file basis.
John, you have to turn the auto update on then it will give you the options to select what auto downloads you want.
I hope your right Highlander and I hope they fix it in time because downloading to the PSP is slow and having to download the games twice is tedious and a waste of time.
PSP support is still there Jawknee, but there has been a change that I don't think anyone anticipated the impact of.
They altered something to do with the way that games are downloaded, activated and 'installed' on the PS3. I'd be willing to bet it is something to do with the way that Vita functionality works. Basically PSP (including Minis) or PSOne games that were downloaded and 'installed' to your PS3 prior to version 4.0 are no longer copyable to the PSP in their present form. Some are speculating that the installation package downloaded wasn't deleted before and that was used to copy the game to the PSP. But, that makes no sense because it takes up a lot of HDD space.
You simple need to refresh the copy of the game on your PS3 by re-downloading it from PSN and then copying it. I am wondering whether they changed the packaging of downloaded games in preparation for the Vita. It may be to do with software activation for the Vita, or it may be security related. However, the solution is simple (but slightly annoying), re-download the PSP game or Mini or PSOne classic you want to move, and it will once again work as anticipated. That's what I have read elsewhere, but won't be able to check until later tonight myself.
I'd bet that there is some new wrinkle in the activation/install process related to the same downloadable games working on both PSP and Vita. It's probably related to content security and or the inclusion of new 'wrappers' to allow the same game package to work on both PSP and the Vita. So to prevent problems (and perhaps piracy?), existing installations of games have been prevented from being copied because they lack whatever new wrinkle is implemented in the process. When you re-download and install to your PS3 HDD under firmware 4.0, whatever the wrinkle is is ironed out, and everything works properly.
It'd be nice if they told us in advance, wouldn't it?
Awesome, thanks Hiighlander. So full of useful information you are. I will too try this later on. If it was a wrinkle and they didn't know about it it would be completely understandable that they wouldn't be able to tell us.
Last edited by Jawknee on 12/1/2011 2:35:20 PM
Okay, I just tested this. Its weird that they changed it but it seems now that when you download the PSOne classic you have to copy the file that sits in the Game section you use to actually install the game now. You know when ever you download a new game, there is a file sitting in the game section you have to click on to install it? Well you can copy THAT to you PSP and it just installs it to your PSP.
It's odd that they changed it to that but it still seems you can copy PSOne games to you PSP. You just have to use the install file instead of the actual installED file. Also after you install the PSOne classic it no longer automatically deletes the install file. You will have to delete it manually.
Awesome, thank you for testing this Jawknee.
what, no new features other then vita comparability?
🙁
sigh, and xbox gets a whole makeover in a few weeks.
why oh why wont $ony do a XMB and PSN revamp?
works ok, but its starting to look really old and boring!
we want a new dashboard!!!!!!!!!!
You could get a new theme. That's enough for me.
No other OS in the world has done a makeover other than just a new skin.
And if Sony changed the XMB to something dramatically different (as some seem to want for no apparent reason), the themes people have purchased *wouldn't work*.
Considering the design and ergonomics awards the XMB has garnered in it's like, changing it would be at very least, illogical.
It also added a few extra "Are you sure?" steps to copying saves.
What is this…Windows?
That may have been added in response to user complaints that they accidentally copied the wrong file overwriting something. Having worked in support I know that one of the most annoying things is users that make a mistake but blame the system for not saying "are you sure" before performing the operation. Those messages are added to satisfy such users.
Oh, I understand why they must have done it, but we shouldn't all have to suffer because of a few idiots.
Are TWO confirmations, both with the default response set to "No", really necessary…even for the most careless fool?
Last edited by Fane1024 on 12/2/2011 7:33:05 AM
Another find: Sony seem to have removed the quick version of the file recovery protocol which was used after system crashes, thus forcing a full scan/rebuild every time.
Given that the (still un-fixed) browser causes crashes pretty much every time it's used, that means I lose about 10 minutes a day waiting for my PS3 to reboot.
Three times in three days so far. Thanks, Sony.
Oh, and fix the motherf***ing browser.
Last edited by Fane1024 on 12/2/2011 7:41:46 AM