With the ongoing rumors of the PlayStation 5 and other potential next generation consoles, you’d think that the last thing anyone would expect from companies is to update any of their older systems. Yet that very thing happened as the PlayStation 3 received a brand new firmware update that merely “improves the quality of the system performance.” It’s the same message we’re used to seeing over and over again on Sony’s smaller updates for the PlayStation 4, and yet almost no one would think that a console over a dozen years old would be serviced, especially in today’s video game market.
Interestingly enough, the last time the PS3 had an update was in October of last year, where it removed the PS3Xploit, a homebrew software that enables users to access areas of the console they wouldn’t normally be allowed into. Even though the PS3 is way past its life cycle, Sony seems intent on ensuring that no one can break into their systems. It makes sense to a point, as they have been rather stern with specific firmware and online connectivity ever since the PSN was taken down for 23 days in 2011 by hackers.
While Sony’s attempts to keep the PS3 hacker free is admirable, don’t expect them to last much longer. Sony has been going through a number of changes as of late. The company has already mentioned that they are currently working on the next installment of the PlayStation family of consoles, as well as their first party developers shifting focus to begin developing games for it. In addition, they announced last year that they wouldn’t be attending this years E3. As the Playstation 4’s life cycle slowly comes to and end, we’ll just have to wait and see what they will do in the next couple of months. Although, chances are it won’t be any more PS3 updates.
