Updates Are The Future
Submitted by videogame2play
This past week I was busy writing a series of posts for my blog on the history of videogaming. I really hadn’t planned on writing a history, but it kind of evolved out of my original story idea. The thought that kicked off that series was about innovation in the current generation, specifically talking about the firmware updates that the PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation Portable have been getting. But, in talking about the present it’s always good to have a working knowledge of the past, and that’s what I ended up doing. For this article though, I’m going to talk specifically about the seventh generation consoles, namely the PS3 and PSP.
With the recent release of update 2.20, we are seeing a few unique additions to the PS3’s capabilities. Now we have the ability, with the audio output device function, to use our PSPs as a remote control for music played through the PS3. Plus we can now export our playlists on the PS3 to the PSP. Those were not the only significant improvements for the PS3 though. The new resume play feature for Blu-ray movies is handy, improving the web browser is welcome, and adding the ability to have DivX videos over 2 gigs in size is nice. But, the big one has to be the addition of BD-Live and Profile 2.0 support on the PS3. Inclusion of this much anticipated feature is definitely going to help the PS3 in the long run, namely with sales.
The PSP also had significant upgrades with it’s last couple of updates. The addition of Skype and internet radio with the 3.90 update is very interesting indeed. Now (with the remote control headset accessory) we can make phone calls with our PSPs. Can any other handheld (no, I’m not going to talk about the N-Gage) do that? With update 3.93 we see an increase in the number of stations we can listen to. Now that is cool stuff. One of the older features that I’ve been playing with lately is the remote play function. Playing movies, music, and (of course) games from my PS3 to my PSP is fantastic, but remote play is not perfect. It works great with music and movies, but the gaming side is where it’s lacking. I don’t understand why the classic arcade games that I have on my PS3 can’t be played on my PSP. There is definitely enough power under the PSPs hood to handle those 20 year old arcade games. I would love to play Gauntlet or Joust on the go. So, why can’t the PSP do that? Just curious. Maybe a future update will allow that to be possible.
Since the PS3 is one of the first players to support Profile 2.0 I really feel good about my decision to pick the PS3 over the 360. I really don’t have a problem with the Xbox (and plan to pick one of next month), but the inclusion of the extra features (numerous at this point and growing) just made the PS3 seem like a better investment to me. Also, the added functionality between the little portable that maybe can and it’s big brother just make it even more worth it to pick up both. Now, where is that damn portable copy feature that was rumored to be with update 3.93?
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