When Sony's Network Operations Director, Eric Lempel, got out of bed yesterday he was probably bubbling away with that sense of a job well done. PlayStation 3 update 2.0
is ready to roll and Eric's the one to introduce it to a captive audience.
Off goes Eric to work and posts a preview of the update - you can see it
right here.
The first response from eksMan is positively 'awesome', eksMan can't wait. The next comment - and one that sparks an inferno that Eric must step into - is less effusive: a user called 'lagerblad' simply states, "no in game xmb...".
After more shouting about the fact that, in order to message friends from within a game, well... you can't, you have to leave the game because there is no in-game Cross Media Bar (XMB) - Eric steps back in with the following:
"Wow a lot of comments, and very quickly. Let me address a few things:
"About the firmware version number In general, we dont wait to release new features based on a particular firmware update number. The 1.80 update, for example, was pretty substantial, including important features like DVD upscaling.
"That said, this update does include valuable features that consumers have been asking for such as the Remote Start functionality. Personally, Im looking forward to using this feature as Im frequently on the road and I know a lot of you are too.
"As far as other features many of you are calling for (such as in-game XMB) SCE continues to evaluate opportunities to provide new functionality to PS3 on an ongoing basis. New features and functionality have continually been added to the system since it debuted, and we will continue to update you with new developments.
"We do read your comments, and they have helped shaped previous updates including this one."
So, still no news on the in-game XMB then?
You can read the entire debate over
here.