You might have noticed your PS3 telling you to update to system software version 4.45 last night. If you downloaded it, you also might have noticed that your PS3 is nothing more than a brick now.
Sony confirmed last night that its latest firmware update is bricking a “small number” of PS3 consoles. The update, which was meant to add the ability to turn off trophy notifications, would cause the XMB UI to vanish on some machines.
What makes this particular problem more concerning is that it’s hard to pinpoint a cause. Affected PS3 owners on the official PlayStation forums are saying that it’s affecting those who have upgraded their hard drives, but there are some with upgraded units that haven’t been affected.
So, what’s Sony going to do about it? The PlayStation Europe Twitter account fills us in:
Hi guys, we're aware of reports that the recent PS3 update (4.45) has caused. We have temporarily taken 4.45 offline and are investigating.
— PlayStation Europe (@PlayStationEU) June 19, 2013
We will announce when the system update is available for download as soon as possible and we apologise for the inconvenience.
— PlayStation Europe (@PlayStationEU) June 19, 2013
In a statement to the BBC, Sony says that affected gamers should wait for a solution from Sony instead of trying to fix it themselves. Unfortunately, many PS3 owners on Sony’s messages boards already tried to do a system restore only to find that their hard drives were corrupted and required reformatting.
Well, it was only a matter of time, right? Sony had “won” E3 with its pro-consumer approach to used games and online DRM, but the good will it was earning couldn’t last forever. Here’s hoping Sony pushes out a quick fix to this latest problem before gamers get really mad.