Sony to Microsoft: Wanna Copy the PS3 XMB, Go for It?

Sony's Director of Network Operations, Eric Lempel, has been spreading the love between PlayStation and Xbox brands with lovely open offers such as: "You know, hey, it's great, if they (Microsoft) like our interface and want to copy it, as long as that's legal, sure. I don't really know how they go about making their plans or the strategy behind them, but if they've found that we're doing something right and they want to copy that, more power to them."

Nice. Lempel also tells Matt Peckham about a 'hidden update' in 2.80 firmware for PS3: "... with 2.8 we implemented something that we didn't talk a lot about. We actually gave consumers the option to update. What I mean by that is, prior to 2.8 you had to update. So you'd turn on your PS3 and it would say, you know, if you want to go in the store, if you want to play an online game, or go into PlayStation Home, it would say there's an update available, please update before moving any further.

"With 2.8 it was an option. Users didn't have to update when we released it, and actually weren't prompted to do so, because there wasn't any consumer-specific functionality. I'd say a majority of consumers out there who just wait to get hit by these updates didn't even know about it. They might still not know about it."