PS3 firmware 2.70 brings 16-player in-game text chat [update]

by Jem Alexander on Apr 1st 2009 8:25PM

Congratulations: your PS3 is about to receive another firmware update. Sony has just announced the details for firmware 2.70, which includes in-game text chat for up to 16 people at a time. Check out the video after the break to see how it works. Additionally, you can now sort friends in your friends list alphabetically by online status and last login time. Files you send to your friends can now be as large as 3MB.

For those of you in the US, this firmware update also allows you to transfer video files from the PSN Video Store between the PSP and PS3. No word on when this update will hit, but it shouldn't be long. Judging from previous releases, they usually go live the morning after the PlayStation Blog posts the info. We'll keep you informed.

[Update] 2.70 is now live. The pre-download patch list details the following additional features:

The ability to search the net about a particular game direct from the game section of the XMB using the triangle menu
The ability to cut and paste text (does that mean the PS3 is better than the iPhone now?)
A Dynamic Normalizer to prevent sudden increases in volume between music tracks
~~In-game voice chat~~ (not really!)

Source

Tags: 2.70, firmware, ps3-firmware, ps3-firmware-2.70, sony

Reader Comments (195)

wtf@ sony, stop playing around.
This is stupid, this update went too far, im gonna get back to the old update, idc if i miss chat and other things, its pointless, 1- it freezes as hell, 2- if we cant type more than 20 letters in each line, then why would we waste our time chatting? im done.

I don't see the reason why people don't use Skype if that is really a problem at all. I mean, if you are playing online, you must not have a problem with the internet. And if you really want to play with your friends, do it together. I am sure your real friends miss you.

People who pay their own electricity bill probably won't wanna "just use skype." Lot of extra electricity being wasted.

Are you kidding me? My laptop uses 20W (I just plugged it into the Kill-A-Watt right now). A PS3 or 360 uses well over 100W. And my TV uses more power than both of them put together. And besides, I usually have my laptop plugged and logged into AIM.

So using Skype isn't going to make a noticeable difference in my power bull.

Anticrawl

Thats one of the dumbest things I have read today.

the private text chat has too much language filter......is stupid cant even type wassup nor connect and much more, i dont feel like typing them all lol

Only thing I am happy about is the back back up to the video store, I can finally get rid of the shows off my hdd

And I guess maybe copy and paste will be useful

This is useless. Cross game chat, but you have to re execute it in sense every time you jump out of game. (Hence you still have to fully leave the game PS button, scroll across open up that chat log, etc.)

This was a bad update that missed so many points. I am a PS3 owner but I expected so much more from them. This sucked face it guys.

Copy and paste is cool tho, now all we need is a REAL web browser, skype, and a IM program.

I was about to post a comment like, "OH NO HE DIDN't" until I reread that it was 16 player in game /text/ chat and I was like, "Oh no... he didn't."

Was hoping for some more voice chat support, 16 player voice chat would have certainly gotten Microsoft off their ass to make the next dashboard update better.

And the iPhone reference? Come on guys, leave that for Engadget.

DURR if you want voice chat on your PS3 you know you can just skype on your iphone into a webex online and dial into a conference call to setup a webcam conference so you can talk to all your friends, it's not hard, there's no reason games nowadays need voice chat DURR DURR DUHHH shoot me.

Markez

Its not important to a lot of people. No need to act like a huge dick because others disagree. If it's there thats great but if its not I'm not losing any sleep over it.

How about voice messaging? Features are great and a step towards something. Think about it this way better than we had yesterday ;-)

Nice, I don't have to keep sending no subject messages to friends anymore lol. I also like the dynamic normalizer for music just because some of my tracks are louder than others.

hurf durf. welcome to the year 2000

Y2K?

In-game voice chat does not equal Cross game chat. The PS3 already has in-game chat, nice one Joystiq.

Hmm it's still not up on their website. Damn, I can't update yet then (I'm only allowed to have one non computer connected in my dorm and right now my 360 has internet).
Oh well I'll have to pick it up when I go home then I guess.

In case no one noticed, this update also changes the way the compare trophies function works. Before if the other person didn't own the same game it gave them a "0%" but now it shows a dash. It also sorts them by games you own first then games you don't. Both of these things makes it much easier to looks through someone elses trophies and quickly compare as well as see what trophy enabled games the other user has.

WOW, talk about stupid people! Every online game on PS3 HAS in-game chat! Bitching about cross game chat??? Really??? You play an intense session on Killzone 2, chatting with your team mates about your strategies and all of a sudden you NEED to chat with your friend who's playing Monsters Vs Aliens, about what? Getting your nails done?

Cross-game chat is as gaming relevant as wifi integration, blu-ray movies playback etc...it is a SOCIALISING feature, not GAMING...

Well, for me it's more the privacy of a chatroom outside of the game that's fun. When Sony makes it available to us, you'll see why. It's cool and when switching games you're all still connected.

@ Levi

get over yourself, no one wants to hear the BS coming out of your mouth. Sony should have had XMB chat from day one but they dropped the ball. Big time. Lots of people playing with their friends in the same game want the ability to have a private chat room with JUST THEM in it so they can cut through all the whiners (are you one of the whiners Levi?) using the in-game chat and play the game as a team.

"Lots of people playing with their friends in the same game want the ability to have a private chat room with JUST THEM in it so they can cut through all the whiners using the in-game chat and play the game as a team."

So how is ignoring everybody else and only listening to your friend considered "as a team"?

All of the shooters have private squads anyway.

Just like how microsoft shouldn't have had a giant failure rate from day one, huh? Don't you hate it when consoles are missing key features like, i don't know, the ability to last for more than a week without breaking?

To everyone that says what about Cross-Game voice chat.

You aren't getting that feature anytime soon. Buy a PSP - it has Skype... You will make Sony very happy too!

Or we can use the PC's we're using at this very moment.. they also have Skype. And we can give Sony the finger.

Wow, incredibly picky aren't we? I suppose you guys want telepathy in games next so that chat altogether becomes a thing of the past.

All I want is voice chat that can be run in the background...

Wow... just wow. I thought that the target demographic for the PS3 was males ages 16-25, but apparently it is whiny 14-year-old-girls who don't want to pay their cell phone bills. Most PS3 games already support in-game voice chat, but what most of the complainers here want is a Sony subsidized long-distance plan.

I own a PS3 for the games, and it is a stellar system for that purpose. I even get free online via the PSN! I really, really, reallly do not want to have to start paying for this service just so you whiny cheapskates can avoid paying for a real cellphone plan.

We won't have to. When all the whiny 12-year-olds start asking for stupid, unnecessary things, Sony says no. Then microsoft adds the retarded shit, and makes them pay. The people, who consist of 7th graders who have their parents pay all their bills for them, then flock to the xbox, for all the stupid pointless shit, and the ability to talk to "your bros" from the fraternity when their playing gears at a "totally sick kegger at travis's house while his parent's are gone"+ being able to teabag people in halo while spouting racial slurs. That way Sony has a refined system and it weeds out some of the dumbasses. And as for the cheapskates, as I have said before, If you can afford a ps3, you can afford to pay your fucking phone bill and get better chat than the xbox users get with their low-quality headset that comes with their low-quality system.

Probably you should spin it like this: cross-game/team voice chat is not possible to prevent cheating. E.g. you wouldn’t want your opponent to have spies among your team that convey your tactics. There is a reason games will only let you hear team members’ voice while playing. Of course you can still do that in other ways (e.g. by using the phone), but at least it’s not made easy.

Bricked my PS3 - don't download it.

wow. text chat. just like Prodigy in 1985.

I'm sure that Sony is working on in-game voice chat. What I want is voice messages.

I'm tired of you half-tards talking about the whole Voice Chat functionality.

When someone refers to 'In-Game Chat' or 'In Game XMB Voice Chat', they are referring to the ability to OPEN UP THE GROUP CHAT FUNCTIONALITY FOUND UNDER THE FRIENDS TAB ON THE XMB. (Not the ability to talk while playing an online multiplayer match. That is standard on all games. Has been for a long time now).

^^You cannot do this. What people are asking for is the ability to talk while in ANY game with individuals that may or may not be in the same game, just like this Text Chat feature.

BOOO! Nothing I wanted! Do something real Sony you stupid Fvcks!

I'm happy with any update that Sony releases. This one might not be all that it was rumored to be, but still it's decent. Big deal, no cross game voice chat. I didn't know that the PS3 and Xbox had to be exactly the same with the same features and everything. I could give a shit about this voice chat stuff. That's y I have a cell phone, Skyke, and oh yeah, a life lol. I don't see the point of sitting in front of my PS3 with a headset on talking to people while playing a game. I'd just find it be annoying. Maybe it's because I grew up w/Nintendo and Atari and don't really worry about all this shit. I bought my PS3 to play games on, and it does a great job.

Still no MKV support?!
Damn-it!

Any word as to weather the Flash player has been improved in the browser?

PS3 owners wanting voice chat can just buy an Xbox and use the chat feature while you are playing your PS3.

The New Update Freezes my PS3 whenever I plug in my PS2-to-PS3 controller adapter...........does that happen to anyone here?

My developer iPhone has Copy/Paste!

By the way, at least 30 people have posted to say Sony dropped the ball. Anyone about to post something like that, consider this: WE DON'T FUCKING CARE! After so many people have said it, your clever sarcastic comment is more annoying than whatever it is you're annoyed about with sony.

i really, really dont give a flying shit about cross game voice chat, and dont see why its such a big deal?
the only way i would ever use it is team sneaking in MGO, with a friend spectating giving me locations of enemies ( xD ), thats called cheating, cross chat would bring alot of this so its kinda pointless.

Previous 50 Comments

PS3 firmware 2.70 brings 16-player in-game text chat [update]

Reader Comments (195)

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