14 DAY TRIAL // With every update to its PlayStation 3 platform, Sony has been striving to increase platform stability, performance and security. On the other hand, when making efforts to solve an issue, others may arise, preventing consumers from gaining the complete sense of fulfillment after performing their new update. Such a situation might arise soon, along with the release of the latest PS3 firmware from Sony Computer Entertainment, namely version 3.21.
The “Install other OS” feature doesn't really bring any benefits to gamers but Sony enabled it on the PS3 in order to gain some market share among end-users that employ the console for other purposes. However, the company has now reached the conclusion that removing this functionality will increase the security of the system.
Sony has also stated that consumers can simply choose not to perform the update, although they will have to resign themselves to no longer having access to several features of the console. For instance, owners will no longer be able to sign in to PlayStation Network. The console will also be unable to playback PS3 software or Blu-ray disk videos that need firmware version 3.21 or later.
Consumers that have been using the “Other OS” will have to backup any data stored on the respective partition, as it will become inaccessible once the firmware update is performed.
"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," wrote SCEA's corporate communications director Patrick Seybold. "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.”
The Firmware Update v 3.21 will be released on April 1.