14 DAY TRIAL // Sony has offered an official response to the outcry from players related to problems they have been having with their systems and games after having upgraded to the newest firmware version, 3.00, which was released at the beginning of September to coincide with the street launch of the newest version of the PlayStation 3, called the Slim.
The official statement posted on the official PlayStation blog by Sony reads “SCEA is aware of reports that PS3 owners are experiencing isolated issues with their PS3 system since installing the most recent system software update (v3.00). Rest assured that we are looking into the matter and will provide an update here as soon as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience, as it’s our mission to deliver the best consumer experience on all PlayStation platforms.”
It's a long running tradition for Sony especially and for gaming manufacturers to be pretty subdues when acknowledging problems with their hardware or firmware but this is much too spartan. Sony needs to produce a list of the issues that players might encounter and to offer a safe way of downgrading their console to a previous firmware version if a fix is not offered very quickly.
Players have been reporting a variety of problems. For some of them, logging into the PlayStation Network has become impossible, others are not able to access their Trophies and initiate online play. Some are reporting numerous lockups of the PlayStation 3 after they upgraded to firmware 3.00.
Sony does not have a time line for the release of a hotfix or of firmware 3.01 but the company will likely move fast, making sure that the problems do not mar the successful launch of the all new, slimmer and cheaper PlayStation 3 Slim. Expect more updates as Sony has something new to say about the issue.