Firmware 3.0 dropped on the Sony Playstation 3 late Monday night, and it has sent a ripple of discord through some of Sony’s most hardline fans. Seemingly without reason Sony has decided to make some drastic visual “improvements” to the previously minimalist XMB, but it’s not all bad news!
But the biggest complaint seems to be the redesign of the friends list. Gone is the minimalist vibe of the old XMB, ushered out in favor of a wall of gray-glass. Sony is obviously trying to better use the screen space available in the friends list, but this solution leaves a lot to be desired. And speaking of utilizing screen space, after initially installing the firmware I sincerely thought my screen resolution had been reset to 480. What is with these giant icons and fonts? Is Sony trying to appeal to the baby-boomer demographic now?
There are some bright points, however, as the firmware brings two major improvements and a handful of minor, less-impressive tweaks. The first and perhaps most noteworthy improvement is the addition of dynamic themes. The animated sackboy theme is great, and brings some welcome depth to the XMB interface.
Perhaps even more welcome to PS3 users is the new option of using multiple audio outputs. With this feature you can quickly transition from listening to full digital surround sound through your stereo system via optical, to simply using the TV’s sound via HDMI or AV-multi without leaving your game to change your audio settings.
Other features are of less usefulness and include browser copy/pasting, the somewhat pointless and arguably intrusive “What’s New” section (which replaces the Information Bar) and the new message box/user area in the upper right corner.
