14 DAY TRIAL // After spreading the news that the latest firmware Sony has developed for its PlayStation 3 - firmware version 2.40, that is - brings a whole lot of new features, the console maker announced that it is pulling the software back since numerous reports from users showed that it is actually bricking the consoles it has been installed on. Yet, there is also good news for the company, as PS3 managed to get really close to the Wii in sales during June.
The firmware update was a long waited one, as it brought an in-game XrossMediaBar (XMB), the award-winning graphical user interface Sony developed for its customers. Besides that, the firmware was supposed to also bring trophy support for a few games, yet some users found it disappointing that the update did not offer retro-support for the trophy system. The games need to be played all over again in order to unlock any of the achievements.
As for the developers, some of them seem rather reticent to signing up to the trophy system, while others enjoy the idea. The former include Insomniac, the developer of Resistance: Fall of Man and Ratchet and Clank, which has already announced that its current plans do not include adding trophy support to either of its games.
The bottom line is that numerous PS3 users have reported the update to transform their consoles in nothing else than a piece of furniture. Under these circumstances, the company decided to withdraw the update for an undetermined period of time. Currently, the update is not available for download, but Sony announced that it has already started looking into the matter and that it hopes to find the cause anytime soon.
That is not all about Sony right now, as the company's US website suffered a hacking attack overnight from a wily guy who managed to replace the God of War and Singstar game pages with some anti-virus scareware scams. The company said that things have been corrected.
Other news about Sony comes to us from the Japanese market, where the PS3 is catching up the Wii gaming console in sales. Although Wii still has the lead, the numbers show that its throne has begun to shake. While in June the demand for Sony's console registered a nice boost after the launch of Konami's "Metal Gear Solid 4", it still has a lot of catching up to do on a worldwide scale, yet in Japan Wii out-sold the PS3 only 1.7-to-1 in June, compared to 6-to-1 in May.
As for the numbers, while Nintendo managed to sell 235,990 consoles in June, the PS3 reached 139,494 units. Microsoft's Xbox 360 walks far behind, with only 10,964 units sold. Things are looking good on the handheld game market as well. The PS3 has taken the lead in the area, having 274,131 units of its PlayStation Portable sold, while Nintendo sold only 195,714 of its DS gear.