As Sony makes changes to their network (in preparation for the PS4) it is normal to see updates pop up on for older devices. The latest update showed up yesterday and for many users installing it resulted in a bricked PS3. No one seems to have put their finger on why this is happening as the effects appear to be sporadic. Still as of right now Sony is advising people not to update their PS3 if they want to keep playing.

What is funny (in an ironic way) is that the update was intended to address system stability. It also included the option to turn off trophy notification (and we are sure a few other items). We are guessing that something in their additions to the core of the system is the culprit here as the symptoms are a failure to boot all the way into the XMB. As the core OS does not load properly games will also not launch even if the disk is in the drive when powered up. Sony is working to correct this, but we do not know if there is a “fix” for the bricked machines. Sony is under some pressure to make this right as a bad customer service experience now id liable to impact their new position for next generation consoles.

We wonder when someone will try to link the two and claim that Sony did this intentionally to sell more PS4s… The coverage of this will be very interesting to watch.

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