Everyone expects magic and wonder whenever a new firmware update for the Sony PlayStation 3 is released, but it takes a lot of careful work to make these things work without major problems. Features and additions that we on the end-user side of things believe to be "simple" are actually serious challenges to implement. PC World has an interview with Sony's Eric Lempel about what goes into creating a PS3 firmware update.
I think it's important to know, a lot of people wonder why we do these updates when it just says something about security enhancements or that playability of software will be better. Actually, behind the scenes, there are reams of documents sometimes with improvements for developers, where they can take advantage of a bunch of new tools, or new ways to allocate memory, or other ways to improve performance. So I'd start off by saying that.
You'll definitely see another firmware update this year, but it won't be like what the rumors say. We're working on some consumer features that consumers will definitely like, but it's nothing like what you're reading about, and at this time I don't want to confirm any of those features because they're not completely locked down yet. We're looking pretty good, and timing is a little rough, but just in terms of that rumor, it's not the case.
Everyone has their firmware feature wish list, but at the top of mine is the ability to flip into the web browser for a moment in the middle of a game. Sometimes I like to check a game guide while playing and it's a hassle to completely drop out of a game to look up a few sentences. It's must be possible to do. Burnout Paradise does it already when it forces the Criterion Games website to appear when the game starts up (and, ironically, this is one time that I want the browser to go away so I can get into the game as soon as possible).
(via Kombo)
