Firmware 3.61 causing PS3s to overheat?

UPDATE: A spokesperson for Sony told Eurogamer "We don't comment on rumours or speculation about our products."

ORIGINAL STORY: PlayStation 3's recent 3.61 firmware update is causing some consoles to overheat and shutdown, according to Rockstar Games.

A post on the developer's support site points the finger at Sony's recent firmware tweak after a number of L.A. Noire users reported their machines were turning off mid-game.

"We have received some reports of PS3s overheating while playing L.A. Noire or beeping three times before shutting down/turning themselves off, mostly on older 60GB and 80GB fat models," it read.

"Primary reports seem to be that updating to firmware 3.61 will cause PlayStations to overheat. There have been various reports of this on a few different games now, all reporting their PS3s turning off or 'Red Lighting' after having installed 3.61.

"This can range from games randomly freezing to PS3s turning off anywhere between 30 mins use to two hours. We have confirmed locally that multiple games (Rockstar and non-Rockstar) overheat or freeze only when 3.61 is installed."

Rockstar instructed users to get in touch with Sony, but promised to look into the matter further internally as well.

"At this time we are recommending contacting Sony directly to report the overheating issue. However, this is not the end of our support; we are continuing to test L.A. Noire on all firmware versions and hardware models to isolate the issues and see what can be done. As always, we will update this article as soon as we have updates."

We've contacted Sony for comment and will update when we get a response.

Update 3.61 was released earlier this week to prepare consoles for the return of PlayStation Network services following last month's massive security breach.