Sony quiet on in-game XMB talk

By Robert Purchese Published 30 May, 2008

Could be here as soon as June.

Sony Europe has declined to comment on suggestions the latest PS3 firmware update will include the highly sought after XMB.

Its stayed silent when asked if the 2.40 update will be out in June as suggested by numerous reports today.

The upcoming firmware is also said to contain the Achievement-like Trophies, although reports suggest both these and the XMB will not work with all PS3 games, but will instead be an optional feature developers can choose to support or not.

The only official word on in-game XMB and firmware version 2.40 is that it will be out this "summer".

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (39) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • jonsaan #1 4 years ago

    Expect nothing. Avoid guttment.

  • DFawkes #2 4 years ago

    Or expect everything, be gutted, whinge on EG forum. Plenty will choose that, but I'll go with your suggestion jonsaan, as long as it doesn't brick my machine I'll be happy :)

  • GamesConnoisseur #3 4 years ago

    Would prefer across the board implementation rather than optional for certain titles. Expect that the multi platform titles to accord the same 'awards' for Trophies as available for X360 Achievements, only without the gamerscore points.

    XMB cannot come soon enough, but would the expectations be too high and causes some disappointments?

  • Shadman #4 4 years ago

    I'm probably being really stupid, and I don't own a PS3. But what the hell is XMB? Best I can come up with is "peddling your bike backwards over stunt ramps".

  • ps3owner #5 4 years ago

    @Shadman

    XMB = XrossMediaBar

  • Kazzahdrane #6 4 years ago

    Shadman: XMB = Cross Media Bar. The word Cross has a silent X at the start, in this case.

    This is the main menu interface on both the PS3 and PSP. Specifically, people want Sony to add in-game XMB functionality to the PS3, so you can access the XMB while playing a game. I don't actually have one so I can't comment, but I believe currently stuff like viewing your friends list etc has to be included as a part of the game by the developer. A PS3 owner could probably set me right on that though.

    Basically, it works really well on the 360 as you just hit the Guide button you have access to a limited version of the blade system, and Sony customers think (quite rightly, IMO) that this is vital for the PS3.


    EDIT: FFS, when I said "a PS3 owner" I didn't expect someone with that as a username. Damn my slow typing!
    Edited by 1 at 30/05/08 @ 16:33

  • zuljin #7 4 years ago

    Funnilly enough though, I don't think Sony have ever stated in-game XMB was coming, so their "silence" over it now is really not very surprising.

  • Apostle #8 4 years ago

    It would be a very nice surprise, but I'll resist getting my hopes up.

  • mattigan #9 4 years ago

    Could be here as early as June, could be here as late as never.....

  • Uncle_Fishboy #10 4 years ago

    @ Kazzahdrane

    That was a lovely and informative post and made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Thank you.

  • moggsy #11 4 years ago

    They can't get it working can they? It'll be the same with making a recording using Play TV while playing a game. No chance.

  • ps3owner #12 4 years ago

    @Kazzahdrane

    hehe. now that is ironic :)

  • Foundry #13 4 years ago

    So how do you currently send and receive game invites/messages when in a game?

  • Huddy #14 4 years ago

    We use good old fashioned paper cup and string.

  • zedzee #15 4 years ago

    The funny thing about in-game XMB is that Sony didn't bother playing one single PC/X360 game beforehand and figuring out that maybe, just maybe, PS3 owners would also like/love/appreciate the same feature on the PS3.

    They just thought they could dump the whole thing on the developer's shoulders and let them implement proprietary interfaces for doing game invites/challenges, chat and other features in their own game code.

    It goes to show how bad Sony are at writing APIs and how easy it is for Microsoft to do so. But then again, one is a consumer electronics company, while the other cuts code for a living...so one shouldn't expect anything more and not be so disappointed when it doesn't arrive.

    I think that's the whole problem with Sony's inability to deliver in-game XMB; they didn't see it coming and they're dragging their feet delivering it. But again, Sony is an arrogant company that likes to dictate to its consumers and when it has to capitulate on something (which is extremely rare) it takes ages to deliver it. Almost in revenge for having being told that implementing this feature would help existing customers and bring it on a par with Microsoft's product.

    You'd think it would be grateful for the feedback but like I said, it is Sony we're talking about...

    Edited by 1 at 01/06/08 @ 20:31

  • dsmx #16 4 years ago

    Now all we need to wait for is in short xmb.

  • DAN.E.B #17 4 years ago


    could be here as soon as June

    should have been here a soon as launch!

  • rprince #18 4 years ago

    It's not a silent X. X just means cross, as it looks like a cross. As in King's X or Charing X train stations in London...

  • timberwolf #19 4 years ago

    please please please... plus, about damn time. plus, plus sony would have this feature by now if it wasn't working on home... plus, plus, plus isn't home just a graphical version of said feature anyway... i would have prefered a simple ingame xmb to years of homelessness.
    Edited by 1 at 31/05/08 @ 01:15

  • Ryze #20 4 years ago

    'could be here' means nothing in Sonyland.

  • Beano #21 4 years ago

    People expecting full XMB access from within games, will be sorely dissapointed. But in-game communication (friendslist and messaging) will be a big improvement IMO. Yes it should have been available at launch and no surprise to Sony that consumers would expect such a feature.
    I predict a lots of flaming from xbots then the 2.40 firmware comes out and there's no full in-game XMB support ;)

  • Netweb #22 4 years ago

    Great... just in time :D

  • DrunkenKillfish #23 4 years ago

    @ Jonsaan, good word...Guttment
    Got to slip that into a conversation!!

  • oreillymj #24 4 years ago

    Actually, I didn't realise this (until the IGN review) but Singstar has in-game XMB implemented.

    Ht the Start button |> to bring up Shortcuts, and you'll see an item called "Friends lists".
    Selecting this brings up the Friends portion of the XMB showing who is online and allowing you to message them.

    The only possible use I can think of having this in Singstar is to tell them that you've uploaded a video, which they can't watch, unless they also own a copy of the game.

  • Beano #25 4 years ago

    "in game xmb has been already partially implimented in some games, hv bowling, super stardust and resistance spring to mind, so its certainly possible."

    True but is a different scenario. Game developers have been able to include some XBM features into their games but at the cost of memory. The new firmware will have to squeeze the new XMB features into the same memory space which is reserved for the in-game menu today, or swap some game memory to HDD to make room - not an easy task.

    A bit like building a basement for a house after the house have been constructed - it's possible but may cause problems ;)

    Unsurprisingly (to me) not all existing games will be able to use in-game XMB because of incompatibility - but it sounds like most games will. All future PS3 games will of course.
    Edited by 1 at 31/05/08 @ 09:53

  • Marshall2008 #26 4 years ago

    This is such a mammoth task for any console maker to do 'After' the console has been out for ages.

    Developers have built their games using the maximum memory space allowed to them this means that Sony must design the XMB to operate within the reduced memory space which exists when games are running (At this time they only reserve a fraction of memory to pop up the game exit/shut down PS3 screen).

    To enable XMB to work with all games that are out at this time they have to stay within that reduced memory space for the in-game XMB and enable the friend invite/chat settings and functions otherwise the games will crash/not load due to the lack of memory.

    I expect that when the XMB in-game feature comes out it will only be supported in a handful of games and wont work with older games until they are patched (unlikely as fitting a game into a target memory space is no easy task to do and you would have to retarget the entire game code to do this for a smaller memory allocation). I also fully expect to see that larger games will also not support XMB in-game but will choose to add those chat features etc themselves and utilise a larger memory space.

  • callum9999 #27 4 years ago

    I dont really understand the technical stuff, but wouldn't the game be basically paused when the XMB comes up? Wouldn't that then mean there was plenty of "temporary" memory that the XMB could use or does it carry on streaming even when paused?

  • Execta #28 4 years ago

    I am really looking forward for trophies / achievements. They really give all the games a nice boost for their living age and they're really fun to complete and then compete your achievements with your friends. ;)

    Hopefully those reports are bullshit because it would really suck if you couldn't open up the in-game XMB in all the games while you are playing. And all the games may not support achievements. That would be really bad thing too.

  • davisorle #29 4 years ago

    wtf? werent the PS3 owners and sony themselves making fun of the achievement thing going on and the gamerscore? WTF? Are all the fucking Sony funboys such smooth bitches? damn it. Its so pathetic that i wont even log back on this to check replies I swear. You are either not worth of wearing pants either just freakin teenagers who are also excused to change ur minds. Just get a life at least soon. Have sex and drink some beer. Take care. ( Im not talking to the ones that have nothing to do with what im saying ofc. They know who they are and talked shit before.)

  • Widge #30 4 years ago

    whoa! the cliche machine rolls one out!

  • Beano #31 4 years ago

    "Hopefully those reports are bullshit because it would really suck if you couldn't open up the in-game XMB in all the games while you are playing"

    True but again - sound like far the most old games will work wiith in-game XMB. Only very few should not work according to the original article.

  • Beano #32 4 years ago

    "wtf? werent the PS3 owners and sony themselves making fun of the achievement thing going on and the gamerscore?"

    Yes, ALL PS3 owner have the same options about achivemnts. PS3 are drones made in a factory and imprinted with the same opinions.

    Oh wait... I'm a PS3 (and 360) owner and STILL don't give a rat's ass about achivements/tropies. It's just a nice-to-have feature for those people like that kind of thing IMO. I just want more and better games and not ways to "show off".

  • Widge #33 4 years ago

    They are an interesting addition rather than a must have. Although depends on the achievement setup, Drakes Fortune and Warhawk's ones are pretty interesting, conversely, I've just seen them added to Day Of Defeat:Source and they're not so interesting....

  • attep #34 4 years ago

    "Beano" - true - but i've found i replay my 360 games more often so would greatly welcome scoring achievements (trophies) or whatever they implement - but want somewhere where they can be seen.

    Vainty is a dangerous thing....apparently : )

  • Trigga_Tybalt #35 4 years ago

    please please please let it be true.

  • Quiiick #36 4 years ago

    Anything's fine as long as they don't introduce a gamer-score!
    Trophies though are ok.

  • betahoven #37 4 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:36:16 17-12-2011

  • Sevens #38 4 years ago

    "It goes to show how bad Sony are at writing APIs and how easy it is for Microsoft to do so. But then again, one is a consumer electronics company, while the other cuts code for a living...so one shouldn't expect anything more and not be so disappointed when it doesn't arrive.

    I think that's the whole problem with Sony's inability to deliver in-game XMB; they didn't see it coming and they're dragging their heels delivering it. But again, Sony is an arrogant company that likes to dictate to its consumers and when it has to capitulate on something (which is extremely rare) it takes ages to deliver it. Almost in revenge for having being told that implementing this feature would help existing customers and bring it on a par with Microsoft's product.

    You'd think it would be grateful for the feedback but like I said, it is Sony we're talking about..."

    RROD.

  • miiiguel #39 4 years ago

    "RROD."

    MGS4LOL.