PS3 2.41 update arrives early as Microsoft calls Wii “novelty”

by Alex Zaharov-Reutt

Wednesday, 09 July 2008

Page 1 of 3 ! Although said to arrive on Wednesday, for many the PS3 2.41 firmware update became available on Tuesday, wiping out the frustration of waiting for a pulled 2.40 update that had caused some users to experience the pain of a “bricked” PS3. Sony has learnt some of the pain that Microsoft experienced when releasing an update that clearly wasn’t properly tested: bad publicity and the need to quickly work on an update that doesn’t stuff up your customer’s machines. Of course with Microsoft I’m talking Vista SP1 and XP SP3, but in the world of the PS3, one doesn’t expect that an update could cause you to reformat your PS3’s hard drive, thus robbing you of your game saves and other data. One clearly PS3 owner reported in the comments section of a previous iTWire article on the topic that he’d had the foresight to back up his PS3’s hard drive, which worked wonders as he’d then found himself the victim of the 2.40 update bug. Sony did notify users that the 2.40 bug had indeed been real, and that it had been working hard to get the 2.41 update out the door, complete with XMB updates and the new "trophies" system, amongst other improvements. Expected Wednesday, it was delivered on Tuesday for many, and indeed is available to download now – fire up your PS3 and download away, there have been no reports that 2.41 has had any of the problems that some 2.40 users experienced. Of course the 2.40 bug, like problems with Vista SP1, weren’t universal – many people experienced no problems at all. But it’s a sure lesson for companies to check, double check and triple check updates sent out in the millions, because a simple slip up can cause a whole lotta pain down the track. Bad publicity may still be publicity, but good publicity is better! In amongst all of this, and mere days before the start of the E3 games expo, an interview at Gamasutra has shown that Microsoft believes the Wii console to merely be a novelty that will soon wear off. Of course this seems ridiculous when the Wii is outselling both the PS3 and the Xbox 360 and has shown the ‘big boys’ that gameplay is still the all important factor. That’s not, of course, to say that the Xbox 360 and the PS3 don’t have some top-notch titles. They surely do. But so does the Wii, and its games appeal to a much broader, wider audience than Sony and Microsoft have managed – the Wii’s sales speak the truth of that. So, who at Microsoft said what about the Wii? Please read on to page 2. << First page <   1 2 3 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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