In Game XMB...coming in the Summer?

[dendj55]

"For those of you wondering when we will get in-game XMB, I think we finally have an answer. Sadly, it's not a good one. In an interview with SCE UK Boss, Ray Maguire, he tells us that in-game communication will arrive in a firmware update during the summer.

“Our momentum will continue with the introduction of in-game communication in the summer, firmware update 2.4 and the strongest line-up of games through our third party partners and our own studios. I’d personally like to thank our trade and business partners for helping us on the start of the PS3 journey.”

There you have it, straight from his mouth. Looks like we have quite a bit of waiting to do." source (http://onaxis.blogspot.com/2008/03/sony-in-game-communication-to-arrive-in.html)

Oh Sony how long must we wait...????

[Matt]

I must admit, I haven't been in a situation where I would need to use the in-game xmb for a long time.

Would still be nice to have the damn feature though! Hurry up Sony!

[LiquidEagle]

-rep :'(

Oh well, no biggie... at least we get 2 more updates between now & then! :-D

[VG Aficionado]

That's actually good news. Why do you have to focus on the fact that we still have to wait a bit more? Until now we never had any confirmation like this one, and now that we know it's coming, we should be glad about it.

[Matt]

I wouldn't be surprised if we see a few articles that rumour that it'll be included in the next FW update.

[GTAce]

That's actually good news. Why do you have to focus on the fact that we still have to wait a bit more? Until now we never had any confirmation like this one, and now that we know it's coming, we should be glad about it.

LOL exactly what i thought.
But i actually think with "in-game" communication he means HOME and not in-game XMB.

[Matt]

LOL exactly what i thought.
But i actually think with "in-game" communication he means HOME and not in-game XMB.

Could possibly be the same thing. Perhaps Home is due in the Summer as well then?

[GTAce]

At least it sounds like that for me.
Maybe they prepare it to launch at the E3 or something.

[Coded-Dude]

the ability to send/receive friend requests as well as other messages is what matters the most to me(besides music)

[jaxmkii]

personaly i dont realy care all that much.

now cross game voip would be exciting though

[Coded-Dude]

i just hate getting a friend invite/message and having to quit what i'm doing to read/accept. It would be nice to have theses features in-game.

[Matt]

personaly i dont realy care all that much.

now cross game voip would be exciting though

I'm sure you can do that on Xbox Live.

[dendj55]

That's actually good news. Why do you have to focus on the fact that we still have to wait a bit more? Until now we never had any confirmation like this one, and now that we know it's coming, we should be glad about it.

I focus on waiting a little bit more because we are over a full year into PS3's life cycle and we still do not have basic communications sets available to us such as reading messages from friends while in a game.

I don't have any links, but I swore someone on this board posted something about Sony promising in game XMB, is that not confirmation? This is certainly not the first time we have heard bout this.

[Coded-Dude]

but you must remember.....PS3 wasn't actually ready for "release...."
It was rushed due to the competition. It will see its full potential soon.

[GTAce]

@Matt: Yep you can do this in LIVE.
And i agree with Coded on this one, in-game messaging would be enough.
I also dont expect too much from a free service, im happy with every update in this direction.

[dnpmakkah]

If true it would be nearing 2 years into the consoles life which = fail IMO.

[Matt]

If true it would be nearing 2 years into the consoles life which = fail IMO.

Considering a few games give you the option of sending messages in-game, it is disappointing that they couldn't have added it in as standard.

[VG Aficionado]

Wouldn't it be worse that they never implemented it? It's like you just want to look at the negative side of it, which is pointless.

[Matt]

Wouldn't it be worse that they never implemented it? It's like you just want to look at the negative side of it, which is pointless.

Personally, I think it's worse. If EA can pull of in-game messaging without any problems, then there's something seriously wrong.

[VG Aficionado]

It's not that EA implemented it. The tools have always been there, only that they haven't been standard and developers had to dedicate some resources. Some games do implement the official system tools for custom soundtracks and messaging but they always depend on their own design decision. Most developers prefer dedicating those resources to the games themselves.

[Matt]

Would that be the reason why it's taking so long to implement it as a standard feature, because some of the games are using too many resources?

[dnpmakkah]

Yes VG it's better than not getting it at all but my fear is that the "summer" time frame could just be a ploy to keep our interests high but when time comes it could get delayed again.

[Matt]

We'll won't have to worry when Home comes I guess.

[VG Aficionado]

They never said anything so clear until now, so I guess something is coming sooner or later. It's always good to be cautious though. Just keep your expectations low and you'll always be surprised.

Would that be the reason why it's taking so long to implement it as a standard feature, because some of the games are using too many resources?There can be issues in terms of free resources and compatibility problems with older games, or so I've read from game developers (not people directly involved with firmware upgrades, just educated opinions). New games just have to adopt a new TRC and they'll be fine.

Remember there is a permanent OS memory footprint that was quite very high by PS3's launch (96 MB) and that it's being reduced over time (72 MB by firmware 1.80). I guess Sony has been asking developers whether they wanted the freed up RAM for game resources or for adding new features running in the background. My best guess is that they've either reached an agreement now to add these standard features soon or Sony has finally managed to implement custom soundtracks, messaging and something else in the permanent memory footprint. I remember reading that at first the custom soundtracks would require 12 MB and an in-game keyboard would need 7 MB or so. I guess a properly optimized in-game XMB could require anywhere between 16 and 32 MB of RAM.

[Matt]

Ahh OK, so that would explain why some of the more recent games have been including it. We could be seeing a few reductions on the next couple of updates before Home then.

[dendj55]

They never said anything so clear until now, so I guess something is coming sooner or later. It's always good to be cautious though. Just keep your expectations low and you'll always be surprised.

You keep saying that there has been no clear evidence of this until now and I am confuse why you say that: thread 1 (http://forums.e-mpire.com/showthread.php?t=82527&highlight=game) thread 2 (http://forums.e-mpire.com/showthread.php?t=83713&highlight=game)

For the money I have spent on this system and from my previous experience as a PS2 owner, I should not have to keep my expectations low. Sony has always delivered for me as a consumer, I expect them to again.

[Red_Eyes]

Current firmware 2.1.
Next firmware 2.4.
That's quite a leap. And that's a pretty long time. It better have more features than just XMB in Game. It better have Home. It better have mkv and quicktime codecs and srt subtitles.

[Gegenki]

woah woah no.
I was thinking, the whole way through this thread, what happened to firmware 2.2 and 2.3.
Why would they jump to 2.4. When they realised either 1.9 or 2.0 - i dont remember which - sony said the numbers don't matter so much, they just release things when they are ready.
With the way they have been stepping up and adding decent things every .1 theres no reason to goto .4 randomly.
Whats in the other firmwares! And when are they out. I was pretty happy before with firmware every 1 - 2 months. I'm getting testy now

[LaLiLuLeLo]

At least at this point we have a rough date/period on when we can expect it, instead of it just being a carrot on a string we've been chasing for the past year.

[Epix]

TBH, I haven't found myself in a situation where in-game messaging would be handy. Custom Soundtracks, OTOH, would be a much appreciated feature for me personally.

[LaLiLuLeLo]

The hell does OTOH mean?

[Epix]

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/OTOH

[LaLiLuLeLo]

You know, it took you more effort to find the wiki link than it would have to just type it in the quick reply box.

[Epix]

You know, it took you more effort to find the wiki link than it would have to just type it in the quick reply box.Someone's panties twisted today? Perhaps through posting the link you'll learn to search wiki first before posting an elementary question derailing the thread.

[LaLiLuLeLo]

Testy!!!! Relax pops. Not that serious.

[jaxmkii]

^^
CTFO epix

[LaLiLuLeLo]

Too late, I'M CHARGIN UP MAH LASER!!!
j/k

[NickSCFC]

In-game HOME anyone? ;)

[VG Aficionado]

You keep saying that there has been no clear evidence of this until now and I am confuse why you say that: thread 1 (http://forums.e-mpire.com/showthread.php?t=82527&highlight=game) thread 2 (http://forums.e-mpire.com/showthread.php?t=83713&highlight=game)

In the first link there aren't direct quotes from Sony reps. In the second link there's nothing that indicates in-game XMB, but some kind of in-game messaging at best. I'm sure we will get a new feature sooner or later, but there is no clear evidence of official confirmation of in-game XMB to date.

[Raitei]

all this indicates is ingame messaging aswell? ge never says music and what not.. just chat

[TimmyJ]

Would it not be feasible for the system of in-game communication to change, in terms of how it's implemented in the firmware, upon the arrival of Home?

As such, would it not be feasible that Sony would be waiting to make in-game communication available until the arrival of Home?

And when is the closed beta now scheduled to finish? May - Sony could very well class this as the start of summer.

Given this, the fact that there are two firmware versions now pretty much confirmed, and the amount of time it's been since the last firmware update, I think certain aspects of the XMB may be available before then.

[Kiosko]

Yeah I was thinking XMB Messaging, XMB Soundtrack and XMB Browser?.

[VG Aficionado]

PSP's firmware is surely upgrading to 4.00 this month (http://forums.e-mpire.com/showthread.php?t=84241), so I'd at least expect firmware 2.20 for PS3 this month, possibly. We'll see what happens, it's about time we get another update.

[Sephiroth_VII]

Yay, that means another M33 update :hugegrin:

[Kiosko]

Perhaps Mkv, srt support?

[Raitei]

mkv support would own.. everything

[Sephiroth_VII]

Wait for CFW, Sony will never do that :(

[Segitz]

Wait for CFW, Sony will never do that :(

And that (beside flac, ogg and the like) is stuff, I don't understand... There's no cost involved at all (because it is all licencable for free) and the users would benefit hugely from it... (Ok, I never even thought Sony would implement Divx either, so hopefully, I am wrong on that one too)

[Sephiroth_VII]

We could try mailing the PSblog. That's what it's there for, isn't it?

[Segitz]

We could try mailing the PSblog. That's what it's there for, isn't it?

We don't matter^^ Remember, we are only Europeans!

[Sephiroth_VII]

Ah, I forgot that. Just say you're Japanese, and write your letter in crappy Engrish.

[Xclusion]

^ Hey... Hey! Settle down!

[Matt]

Oi, you're stealing my job!