On Thursday April 1st, the PlayStation 3 will be updated to firmware v3.21. But to call this an update, is a bit wrong since it actually removes a feature.
If you have a non-slim version of the PS3, this update removes the Install Other OS feature. This is not the most used feature on the PS3, but I still think it is wrong to remove a feature. If you don’t update, you miss the following featerues:
- Ability to sign in to PlayStation Network and use network features that require signing in to PlayStation Network, such as online features of PS3 games and chat.
- Playback of PS3 software titles or Blu-ray Disc videos that require PS3 system software version 3.21 or later.
- Playback of copyright-protected videos that are stored on a media server (when DTCP-IP is enabled under Settings).
- Use of new features and improvements that are available on PS3 system software 3.21 or later.
If you currently use the “Other OS” feature and you wish to update to system software 3.21, make sure you back-up any data stored within the hard drive partition used by the “Other OS,” as they will not be able to access that data following the update.
Removing this feature have upsetted a lot of gamers. The post on the European PlayStation blog have only 950 comments, while the US blog have 3600 comments (at the time of writting).
