Sony’s Eric Lempel Talks PS3 Firmware, Interface, Voice Chat

There’s been a lot of rumors lately about a new PlayStation 3 firmware that’ll bring a complete overhaul to the console. Well, Game On has tracked down Sony’s head of PlayStation Network Operations, Eric Lempel, and asked those questions we desire to be answered.

On the rumored 3.0 firmware update that’s said to be similar to the Xbox 360‘s New Xbox Experience, Lempel said that “You’ll definitely see another firmware update this year, but it won’t be like what the rumors say. We’re working on some consumer features that consumers will definitely like, but it’s nothing like what you’re reading about, and at this time I don’t want to confirm any of those features because they’re not completely locked down yet. We’re looking pretty good, and timing is a little rough, but just in terms of that rumor, it’s not the case.”

On the subject of doing a complete interface overhaul like the New Xbox Experience, Eric said: “What we find is that people really like our current interface. We did redesign the PlayStation Store last April to make some improvements, make it faster, make it better, and we’re always listening to consumers. But right now the XMB [XrossMediaBar] is an Emmy Award-winning interface and people like it. They’re very comfortable with it. So we’re not looking to do anything radical. We’ll still do some research behind the scenes and see what can we do to make things better, or how can we make it so consumers find content faster, but right now we’re pretty happy with it. No plans right now to do anything like what the competitor has done.”

Regarding universal voice chat, Eric Lempel says that he knows “it’s one of the most requested features, and it is something we’re looking into. It’s a very complex feature, but we are looking into it.”

Well, it looks like Sony’s working on things. Let’s hope they get some things (universal voice chat) down soon.