Rumor: In-Game XMB and Company Won’t Work With All Games

Let’s take a quick step back from the rumor earlier about the PS3 soon getting a firmware update (v2.40) that would include support for in-game XMB, custom soundtracks, and trophies. According to videogaming247, the in-game XMB may not work with all games, and both support for trophies and custom soundtracks will only be available to Sony starting now.

Some bullet-point facts, courtesy of videogaming247:

• Sony’s currently going through PS3’s library to check whether or not in-game XMB’s full compatible. While it’s expected that the the new menu system, in-game messaging, and so forth, will work with virtually all games, for a minority of titles the current black menu screen will be retained. It’s not known yet which games, if any, won’t be able to use in-game XMB.
• The user-music functionality is only included in the new development tools, which have now gone out to coders. This means that existing games won’t support it unless they’re patched. That’s right: you won’t be able to play GTA IV with your own music unless Rockstar updates the game, if what we’ve been told this morning is true.
• Same for Trophies. They tools required to add these are only just in the hands of developers, which means it’s going to be some time before you see the feature appear in a major game.
• Some aspects of the XMB, such as the photo viewer, won’t be available in-game after the 2.40 Firmware update. If you select these features in-game, you’ll be asked if you want to drop out of your game to access them.

This all would make sense, but I’d hope that developers will consider going back to older games and releasing updates to include all of this functionality.