PS3 Engineers on Firmware Future

Next Generation has the word from PlayStation3 software engineers, SCE chief technology officer Kawanishi and AV manager Kanehide. In an interview with AV Watch, the pair speculated there is room for an upscale of 30 to 40 percent in audio and visual quality.

The duo expect that future firmware updates will allow improvement of audio and video quality without increasing fan noise, and envision a fanless PS3 available in the future.

Kawanishi says remote play is now possible for developers to incorporate into their games.

“There are SDKs out to allow game developers to integrate remote play into their games, so it is a matter of time before such games arrive.”

The team also pointed out that the future development of firmware is driven by feedback from fans. The PS3 is capable of development in many areas and the direction taken will be determined by the consumers themselves.

“Sony produced many products, and I could forsee the PS3 becoming a “mother ship” to all the equipment,” said Kawanishi when contemplating the positioning of PS3 as a music or Blu-ray player.

“The scary thing about the PS3 is that we can continue to add updates as long as there is space on the HDD,” he added. “We won’t stop though, since adding new functionality is a lot of fun. We really enjoy getting feedback from the customers, and finding things we really hadn’t thought of.”