Sony Computer Entertainment confirmed earlier reported rumors about possible updates to the PS3 firmware, via a post on the official PlayStation Blog. Minor tweaks aside, the major change that this update will bring is integration with Facebook.
There is no confirmation on the release date; however, once the update becomes available, it will allow users to update their Facebook profile with their gaming activities on the PlayStation 3. These gaming activities are segregated into three types – trophy collection, purchase history and something called as ‘Game Events’.
Trophy collection information will be uploaded on Facebook and will continue to update your account each time you earn a new one. Additionally, each time you confirm download from the PSN Store, the console will prompt you with an option to update that information on Facebook. This ‘Game Events’ update capability will need to be explicitly coded by developers of the game and does not come as a global feature. According to the blog post, all these activities will be posted under your Facebook account as News Feeds.
Sony also posted a video walkthrough that shows the features in action. Going by the video, a Facebook icon will be available under (PSN) Account Information category of the XMB. Here, the user will be able to add or remove Facebook account information and toggle each of the features listed above.
Other minor changes include improvements to the photo gallery and PSN ID card. The photo gallery will display thumbnails of pictures in a tabular format, allowing preview of more images simultaneously than it currently does. The PSN friends list has been modified and additionally, the update will allow you to change color of your PSN ID on the XMB – although we wonder what good that will do.
For those interested, here’s the video itself: