PS3's 2.4 firmware dated
In-game XMB and trophies this week.
Sony has announced that the 2.40 firmware for PlayStation 3 will be released this Wednesday, 2nd July.
The update will introduce the long-awaited in-game XMB functionality as well as "trophies" to "recognise players' achievements in the online arena".
Yesterday Sony posted an in-game XMB video on its blog showing how you will be able to pause your PS3 game and see who's online, read and send messages, change (some) settings and even switch games.
The blog's been updated with another video today to explain how trophies will work. "Many online games will have gold, silver and bronze trophies - with platinum available for those who snag all three - all displayed on the XMB for everyone to see," says Sony.
Super Stardust HD will be the first game to offer trophies, and others to follow include Buzz! Quiz TV (out this Friday, 4th July), LittleBigPlanet, MotorStorm Pacific Rift, NBA 09, PAIN, PixelJunk Eden, Resistance 2, SOCOM: Confrontation and Warhawk.
As previously mentioned, 2.4 will also up the friends list limit to 100 people and add a "mini-control panel that you can use while playing music" and a Google search option similar to the one recently added to PSP.
2.4 will also introduce "a few more minor enhancements", but we'll have to wait until Wednesday to see what they are. A pony!
We found some PS3 firmware 2.4 pictures you can look at, too.