PTOM Interview: PSN Boss Talks Voice Chat & Firmware Updates

Submitter: PS3 News - (http://playstationlifestyle.net)

Site Tags: ptom interview psn boss talks voice chat ps3 firmware updates

Category: PlayStation 3

During a recent interview with PlayStation: The Official Magazine (PTOM) in the Holiday '09 issue, PSN Director Eric Lempel discusses how Firmware update features are planned and released for the PlayStation 3 and PSP consoles and touches on cross-game voice chat.

To quote: “We go about doing that in a few different ways. We do consumer research in addition to following our roadmap.

We’ve had a very long roadmap that we’ve wanted to roll out, and clearly all of them couldn’t be rolled out day one when the PS3 launched. So we’ve been implementing these features as we go along and some of them, and some of them take longer than others.”

Lempel continued: “Of course time and manpower always factor in because there aren’t limitless resources. And are sometimes key features that must go out in Firmware updates. For example, you saw on September 1, we released a 120GB PS3 and we did a Firmware update, and there were some enhancements in that specifically to bring on the new hardware.”

The director of the PlayStation Network further explained: “We absolutely read all the feedback that we see on our blog when we do firmware updates. We have people who look across different forums and different sites. And we also do our own testing – some very extensive testing..”

“But in some cases, we can’t do complete testing because you never quite know how things will work until users have it.”

When asked the question that’s on every PS3 owners mind, on the long awaited cross-game voice chat feature Lempel has this to say:

“I think it’s incredibly popular. We know users want it, and like lots of other things that work cross-games, technically, it’s complicated. But it’s definitely something we’re looking at.”

If you wish to read the full interview, pick up issue 027 of PlayStation: The Official Magazine at newsstands now.

Posted 7 days ago

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By everglow21 on 1 week ago:

had very was typed twice btw :D

By PS3 News on 1 week ago:

I fixed it on our site now, but it was part of a quote so it's still that way on the source site. :p

By Nairb on 1 week ago:

Oh man thanks for the news. PS3 owners have been waiting for the day for Voice Chat in game.

By 51N15T3R on 1 week ago:

Not sure when the interview took place but it doesn't sound like cross game voice chat is coming this year. i hope i'm wrong. whatever happened to the premium avatars, i'm so tired of the boring ones we've had for so long.

it would be neat to have animated avatars or even Playstation HOME avatars. every once in a blue moon Sony comes out with a cool firmware feature, but most so far are pretty lame. i think Sony's biggest problem is the time it takes them to release new features.

By adrianc1982 on 1 week ago:

Quote:

Originally Posted by 51N15T3R

I think they are doing very good in the long run, the xbox had the previews generation to build on xbox live and other stuff. Sony is a first comer with the ps3 and its online comunity, and I think they are doing pretty neat. To have ps1 classics and all the cool features we have now makes the ps3 a very complete machine thats quite enjoyable.

Not only that, at least they are planning features like cross chat and ps2 backward compatibility for the newer ps3s or how about the remake they did with god of war, try that with any xbox 1 exclusive. I think they are on the right path and seriously the machine rocks. I feel sony is taking its time with the ps3 and I think we will have the ps3 for a couple more years. Also by the time the ps3 cycle ends I think we will have the ultimate entertainment machine just think of the possibilities.

By Sagarp14 on 1 week ago:

So then i'm guessing Sony definitely knows how much demand there is for backwards compatibility if they've been looking over different forums and sites. I'm glad they actually have people doing that so they can see what features ps3 owners want and possibly what features they can deliver to us.

By alexcamrod on 5 days ago:

i have to be totally honest.. my ps3 is still at FW2.60 because i read on line that there have been issues with just about every FW since. 2.70 and 2.80 were minor issues in comparisen with 3.00 and 3.01. The last two firmwares were total disasters there were hundreds of complaints about things as siple as controllers acting funny to blue ray not working at all; no games, no movies, nothing.

Tekken 6 is out now and requires FW3.01 and i love the tekken series but i won't update untill im sure it's not going to destroy my system.

I usually wait about 2-3 weeks before updating just to make sure i dont see any serious issues on the ps3 news sites.

By everglow21 on 5 days ago:

mine is still 2.76 :p this is killing me.. with the new CoD out..I'm so tempted to update.. but I guess im not the only one who hasnt bit the bullet.