PS3 Firmware Version 3.0 Details

Posted by Drew Robbins on 08.18.2009

A look at what is coming soon to a PS3 near you.

Coinciding with the announcement of a brand new look for the PSN and the upcoming PS3 price drop, Sony unveiled that the PS3 would soon be getting a new firmware update. So what can you expect from Version 3.0?

What's New - Taking place of the Information Board is a feature known as What's New, showing highlights of all things new in the world of PlayStation. It also displays sleek logos for each news story alongside icons for your recently played games as well.

Status Indicator - Gone is the scrolling news in the top right of the screen, and in its stead is a little box filled with a variety of information regarding your PSN account. Your name, avatar, and number of friends online are displayed, and if you have unread messages a tiny envelope will appear in the box also.

Friends List - A slight makeover to the format is in order, with no specific details given outside of the fact that you can view messages from each of your friends via their profile.

PlayStation Store Shortcuts - Shortcuts for the PlayStation Store have been added to the Games and Video section of the XMB, with a click sending you right to their respective portions of the store.

Dynamic Themes - Perhaps the first change you'll notice upon booting up your PS3, Dynamic Themes add motion to the usually stale backgrounds of the XMB. Two examples were shown, one of the default background (now with moving sparkles), and one of Little Big Planet which shows Sackboy and various objects moving around as you navigate through the XMB.

New Avatars - The choice of PS3 avatars was pretty sparse, but this new update plans to add a bunch more from popular PlayStation franchises. Some will be free, but premium avatars will also be coming with the update.

Trophies - When viewing trophies for a game with DLC such as Fallout 3 or Prince of Persia, you can now organize the trophies by whether or not they came with the game or were added later on with DLC.

All of these updates will be coming soon, presumably around the same time the PS3 Slim hits in September.