PS3 firmware update breaks games, replicating Microsoft’s "Screen of Death"
PS3 players had the chance to experience all the joys of a Windows PC with the release of recent headliner “Assassin’s Creed”. The game features stealth, murder, and console-crashing freezes.
Already dubbed the “White screen of death”, the sort of parallel that no hardware ever wants to make, PS3 forums were flooded within hours of the game’s release (as reported by Kotaku).
Problems also included frame rate slowdown, geometry flaws, loading problems, and a bunch of other things you never thought you’d hear happen with “the most powerful console on the market”.
The majority of the problems have been traced to the firmware 2.0 update, downgrading that ill-starred bit of software from “underwhelming” to “actively harmful”. Worse, the problems seem to be coming from the “news ticker” application – crashing a game like Assassin’s Creed for shoddy feature that is like wrapping a Mercedes around a telephone pole to avoid an empty soda can in the street.
We can only hope that Sony can get a handle on the software issues that have plagued titles like this and Pro Evo 2008. The increased difficulty of developing games to harness the almighty Cell processor is one game publishers have been wrestling with, and the makers of the PS3 can’t allow its “technical superiority” image to be tarnished by broken product.
After all, it’s the only superiority they’ve got. Still lagging behind in total sales, game library and even media content (with recent Blu-ray troubles) the promise of future excellence is their only selling point. If they allow broken games and outraged customers to erode that advantage there’ll be no reason for third-parties, or gamers, to invest the effort anymore.
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10 Responses to “PS3 firmware update breaks games, replicating Microsoft’s "Screen of Death"”
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November 21st, 2007
I have a PS3 mine works fine with the same games people complain about. Sounds like its there internet at the time there downloading or the way they download it if its not changing the way I play it, then its got to be the way there downloading the SOFTWARE unlike the RROD, like I said before mine works more than great.
November 21st, 2007
yea,but its fixed in 2 days.like now its alredy fixed.M$ cant fixed nothing like windows or 360s.
November 21st, 2007
Luke McKinney your a M$ lick ass,keep licking there ass and buy over and over ther products egain that dont work.
November 21st, 2007
Man I got two ps3’s both with dual lasers!!!! See me in the streets!!!
November 21st, 2007
didnt microsoft start all this
“release wathever you have, no matters bugs or quality check, we will fix later witch patches, etc”
damn you microsoft, you make all game publishers release shitty games under the umbrella of patchs.
damn you microsoft, for enter the windows patch system to the world of console games.
damn you microsoft, i remember how good and well done were the games before you enter the console market and ruin the console game industry with your system and politics.
damn you microsoft, you show to a new generation of gamers, that crappy consoles that break are OK, that you need to pay for play online.
damn you microsoft, damn you
November 21st, 2007
Don’t think it’s fair to compare a few freezes as being just as bad as the RROD, the game freezes restart ur console, u get the RROD it won’t start again, u send to MS and get an even faultier one back and no explanation as to what went wrong. I don’t know what everyone is complaining about, Assassin’s Creed has oly frozen once for me and i’ve played through the whole game.
November 21st, 2007
The village idiots posts again.
1/ many users have no issues at all with either Firmware 2.0, not AC.
2/ Sony have already released 2.01 to fix the slowdown bug caused by the information bar.
3/ I like how you totally ignore all the other great PS3 games at the moment, and focus on one game, with a few isolated issues.
What an idiot. He must be feeling the heat now, for choosing that crappy Xbox thing..
November 21st, 2007
This twat is obviously unaware of the existence of a game called Uncharted or he is choosing to ignore it.
November 21st, 2007
Did you have a look at Microsoft’s products before judging a console that is facing some issues because of a bugy game that was developed by Ubisoft’s bad programmers?
I would like you to know that me as a programmer, I analyze a problem starting from its source and not by looking at the machine that is compiling my code. This means that you should analyze this problem, looking at Ubisoft’s programmers first and not Sony’s console. Go and have a look at http://www.gametrailers.com specifically at User’s trailers. There, you can find stupid bugs (such as a broken leg horse and a dancing crusader) that prooves how bad Ubisoft’s programmers are. Finally, what I want to say is that Ubisoft is the main reason behind all these bugs. Have a look at all other PS3 titles and specificaly at exclusive ones, they compile perfectly on the PS3. Now ask yourself the question again is Assassins creed issues the fault of Sony’s console or Ubisoft’s BAD programmers?
November 21st, 2007
I love my ps3 but these problems are begining to suck ass a bit when 360 has the same games that work.
I preferred the days when if any 360 owner gave me flack for having no games I would just respond in 3 words. “RING OF DEATH”