New OS Required For Improved Online Experience
While the PlayStation 3 has a number of obstacles to overcome, its biggest problem comes right from within; the Cross Media Bar interface. Before Sony can improve the existing PlayStation Network, they may have to completely rewrite the XMB first.
Published: February 9, 2007
Reading Between The Lines
Let us take a closer look at the XMB to examine its benefits and faults. The Cross Media Bar (XMB) interface was first introduced for the PSX system in 2002. Sony quickly applied the same interface to its portable PSP console in 2004. This move made alot of sense, since the XMB was relatively simple, and fit well with a portable device. In addition, because the PSX was exclusive to Japan, many people had never even seen the XMB interface in North America or Europe by this point. While the interface worked nicely on the PSP, it was far from perfect. The transfer of multimedia files from the Memory Stick DUO cards to the PSP was painfully difficult to perform, as these files would need to be in specific directories and formatted in a specific way in order for the XMB interface to even locate them. This was hardly user friendly, and perhaps one of the bigger reasons why the PSP is a distant second to the Nintendo DS in the portable market.
With the PlayStation 3, Sony ironed out these hitches at launch, making it much easier to transfer video and music files from a memory card directly to the PS3 HD. However, the XMB still doesn't communicate perfectly well with other USB-based devices, including iPods. The XMB layout is designed to be as simple as possible, but it is hardly flexible. It will not recognize all system folders within MP3 players for example, and so users may be forced to dump all of their songs into a single vertical list, which can be extremely daunting to navigate through on the XMB.
The simplicity of the XMB interface also makes it impossible for multitasking to take place, at least in its current form. The interface offers a very interesting multimedia playback program, allowing music to be played alongside visualizations, and allowing photos to be presented in a very unique fashion. The interface also allows users to communicate with other PS3 users and even see the games that they are playing. The real problem here is that all of these features are generally useless, simply because they cannot be accessed during gameplay. While you can pause a game, and return back to the XMB menu, you must first exit the game to do so. You cannot play music or watch movies while also playing a game.
I do not believe that the XMB can offer any meaningful features in its current form. I mean, who wants to spend their entire time on the XMB simply to talk to friends? Messaging capabilities would be far more useful if they could be accessed when a game is paused. Furthermore, who actually wants to sit down and stare at the XMB in its current form in the first place? The interface is simply too boring and stale in its current form. Sure, it worked well on a portable console with a tiny screen, but it hardly looks exciting on a big 50" 1080p HDTV. But looks are only half the problem.
If you really take a closer look at the interface, and attempt to break it down into its various features and modules, you will realise that the XMB is hardly an true operating system at all. In fact, a better description to describe the XMB would be as a webpage with links to other websites and a few programs.
In this case, I know of at least 5 programs that exist on the XMB. There's the game environment program, that the OS will run as soon as you pop in a game. There's the movie environment program that handles Blu-Ray and DVD playback, as well as playback of movies from memory cards. There's also the photo environment program that provides a visual slideshow of your photos, and the music player that provides those funky visualizations during playback. Then there is the internet browser. That's five, and that's about all I can count at this point.
The XMB doesn't offer multitasking capabilities because perhaps, it may be unable to provide multitasking at all. Do you ever notice that short flicker that occurs on your screen before you run a PS2 or PS3 game? This flicker is common to optical-disc-based systems, and can be found in just about everything from the SEGA CD, Saturn and PlayStation consoles, to the current PlayStation 2, XBox and Gamecube consoles. It usually occurs when the system is booting up, and acquiring data directly from the system bios before it executes the application (the game). Usually this data arrives to the user in the form of a startup screen. Following the initial startup, you would normally see a flicker, signifying that the system is now loading up the game environment. Cartridge based consoles such as the Nintendo 64 never had this flicker, since the cartridge data was immediately accessed upon powering on the console.
The Dreamcast, PlayStation 2 and XBox consoles went above and beyond other consoles, to offer actual OS interfaces prior to loading up a game. However, like older CD consoles, you were unable to access both the game environment and the OS interface at the same time. The XBox 360 went even further and integrated the OS interface directly into the game environment. As a result, on the 360 you will never see these so-called flickers prior to booting a game, since the game environment and OS interface environment are really one and the same. This is how the 360 can handle true multitasking. You will notice this immediately every time you earn achievement points within an XBox 360 game - the achievement point messages are coming directly from the Dashboard and not the game itself. The PlayStation 3, interestingly enough, also produces this very same flicker as the previously mentioned consoles (and no, I am not referring to the video scaling and resizing flicker that will occur before movie and game playback), meaning that the OS interface and the game environment have still been separated from each other.
Does this mean that the XMB is incapable of allowing users to play a game and access the system's music player? Perhaps. However, if you take a closer look at the evidence, you will see that the XMB is likely always running in the background and is capable of being pulled up during gameplay. For example, I have seen some evidence that reveals that the XMB can become "active" and even overlay itself over the existing game environment in the very same vein as the 360's Dashboard. When you save or load a level for certain games for example, you will notice a save/load prompt overlay itself onto the screen with the exact same style and format as the XMB interface. Furthermore, if users ever encounter problems on the PlayStation Network, connectivity issues will normally be displayed in the top right corner of the screen. These messages are displayed in both the XMB environment and the game environment, which again suggests that a Dashboard-like overlay scheme may be possible in the future. Finally, of the seven SPE's operating when the PS3 is running, there is a single SPE that is reserved for the XMB. This again would suggest that the XMB environment does in fact run in the background while the game environment is operational, and that with a System Update, gamers could potentially be able to call up their XMB on request during a game.
The PlayStation Store: Just A Fancy Webpage
Everyone keeps lamenting about the PlayStation Store and how it doesn't offer any interesting diversions when users download games and other software. The XBox Live Marketplace, by comparison, allows the user to perform other tasks and even play their games while downloads take place in the background. But why is this so? You'll notice that out of the five applications that are available within the XMB, the PlayStation Store wasn't one of them. That's because the PlayStation Store is actually being run directly from the internet browser - in fact the store is nothing more than a glossed up website. When the store first loads up, you will see backgrounds images loading up first before the other foreground elements pop up, just like a webpage. Furthermore, the navigation through the store is accomplished via the same controls offered by the internet browser. Even worse is that Sony is actually disabled some of the internet browsing functions within the store. For example, normally you would be able to use the analog sticks to quickly scroll through an entire website, both horizontally and vertically. These scrolling features have been completely disabled within the confines of the store, perhaps as a lame attempt to make it appear that you are not viewing a webpage. As a result, your interactivity within the store is limited to the functionality of a website. If Sony hopes to make the PlayStation Store more user-friendly and more interactive, they will need to eliminate this web-based approach and create a fully-functional application for it, in the same vein as the XBox Live Marketplace.
This now brings me to the PlayStation Network. In its current form, the network only allows users to chat with other PS3 users via the XMB. However, there is no central "hub" for this network, and all game-specific online functions must be accessed from within the game environment. In my mind, Sony will need to completely redo the XMB if they expect their online infrastructure to truly compete with the likes of XBox Live. They should highly consider offering a separate application that would act as a "front end" for all online gaming applications, and even incorporate the PlayStation Store into this environment. While online matches can be currently accessed from within the game environment, they should also be accessible from this front end environment. In addition, this front end could provide additional information such as ladder matches for certain games, online scoreboards and upcoming online events for specific games.
What The Competition Has Offered Up
Both the XBox 360 and Nintendo Wii offer more features and applications within their respective interfaces versus the PlayStation 3. Besides the obvious multitasking advantages, the 360 Dashboard contains individual applications for everything, including the XBox Live Marketplace. The Dashboard is more than a mere "line with links", as these applications can be accessed at any time and all at once.
I used to believe that the Wii interface was actually inferior when compared to the XMB. The Wii interface certainly doesn't look very dramatic when paired side-by-side with either the XMB or the Dashboard, but Nintendo's interface still offers more meat and potatoes versus the XMB. Yes, the Wii interface offers little in the form of a music player (which can only be accessed in photo mode) and movie playback (it cannot play DVD's at this time). Like the PS3, the Wii interface cannot be overlayed over a game environment either, and can only be accessed after exiting the game. However, the Wii channel arrangement is a far better approach at managing applications versus the vertical-horizontal-line hierarchy approach taken by the XMB. Each channel within the Wii interface can be considered to be its very own application, and each application offers a completely different style and environment to the user.
While one may argue that accessing any non-game channels within the Wii interface would be just as boring as performing non-gaming activities on the XMB, I would argue that Nintendo has done a better job with their channels, and has successfully made these more attractive. Rather than relying on multimedia features, Nintendo focused their approach on internet browsing, communication, weather and news information. While it would be nice to see weather and news updates while playing a game (or pausing a game), Nintendo has presented these features in such an interesting fashion that you would more likely to use and enjoy them when not playing a game.
For example, the Weather Channel is so detailed that one can actually locate real star formations if they look hard enough. The News Channel is also presented in a very unique manner, with headlines placed around the globe, near the origin of the news story. This is a very interesting way of presenting news, and after trying out the News channel for a few days, I can't imagine myself accessing news from anywhere else. The Mii channel is quite possibly the most interesting channel within the Wii interface as it allows users to visually interact with other Wii players - this easily trumps the way instant messaging is performed on the relatively stale XMB. In fact, if Nintendo went a little further with this strategy and allowed for file transfers within the Mii environment, they would likely be able to trump Xbox Live as well.
The internet browser, which was more of an afterthought on the PS3, has been given a completely new life on the Wii, due to the innovative control schemes. Because all of the standard mouse movements have been mapped directly to the Wiimote, users can actually control flash games and other web-based software directly through motions produced with the controller. Perhaps Sony should take a page from Nintendo's playbook and implement Sixaxis-controlled internet browsing. Nintendo's browser has also been better optimized for standard definition televisions, making viewing much less painful on the eyes. By comparison, you will need a good HDTV in order to make out text for certain websites on the very derivative PS3 browser.
Final Conclusions
In conclusion, I believe that Sony has quite a long way to go before they can ever meet the expectations and standards set by Microsoft's Dashboard interface and XBox Live online infrastructure. Even Nintendo has made more headway with their simple and easy-to-use Wii interface, yet the XMB seems out of place, and downright primitive by comparison. Does this mean that Sony won't ever stand a chance against their competition, and are doomed to fail? Of course not. The gaming industry is constantly changing, and if anyone has followed up on previous console wars, they will also know that the first place leader in the console market can change hands several times within a single era (the SNES/Genesis competition quickly comes to mind). However, Sony must make drastic changes to their current interface, and they must be prepared to make these changes quickly.
In order for Sony to implement a meaningful online infrastructure, they will first have to take a long hard look at their PlayStation Store, and consider restructuring that into an application/environment rather than leaving it in its current webpage format. Sony should highly consider following Nintendo's lead and offer a visual chatroom where PS3 owners can get together to coordinate games and transfer files and messages. Perhaps Sony can also incorporate the PlayStation Network "front end" directly within this visual environment, so when you communicate with players, you can also start up new games with players and examine leaderboards, share and access files and also browse the PlayStation Store, which perhaps could be an actual store within this visual environment. If Sony wanted to go even further with this, they could consider eliminating the XMB interface entirely in favour of a visual environment that would handle all of your non-gaming needs.
Providing the capability to access other XMB software/environments while playing a game or downloading a file would place Sony's interface on par with the Dashboard. Most of all, Sony desperately needs to remodel the XMB in order to make it more visually attractive, and they should highly consider dumping the current horizontal-vertical browsing hierarchy in favour of a proper file explorer application. If Sony really wants to earn brownie points, they should highly consider making it possible not just to browse files from memory cards and USB devices, but also stream and transfer files (in both directions) via the built-in wireless connection available on the 60 GB units (sorry 20 GB owners, but you would be SOL here). It's true that piracy and virus concerns could play bigger roles here, but if Sony simply restricted the file explorer to only video and music transfers, they would likely be able to eliminate any of these problems. If anything, Sony should start from scratch and consider unveiling a completely new OS interface in time for the summer.
Perhaps all of this discussion is a moot point, as Sony will be incorporating major system updates into the XMB for March, in coinciding with the European launch of the PS3. The update will likely offer more file streaming capabilities (and perhaps full file transfer capability?), the ability to play PSone games directly on the PS3 (right now they can only be downloaded to a PSP) and offer multitasking capabilities. All of these features would collectively mark huge improvements for the XMB and for the PlayStation 3, however the details regarding this new System Update remain rather vague. In addition, we still haven't heard much with regards to the PlayStation Network other than that the network's infrastructure and feature set will be constantly changing and updating. Hopefully, Sony will come up with a proper front end for the network within their new update, along with a better, more robust and interactive PlayStation Store.
In its current form, I believe that the XMB is simply too simplistic, unattractive and downright useless. The interface is dated and unoriginal. The interface is also preventing the PS3 from gaining more favourable reactions when compared to the XBox 360 and Wii consoles. Improving the XMB or starting over with a completely new interface (XMB 2?) would be a starting point for Sony to build back their reputation in the gaming industry, and help the PlayStation 3 reinvent itself.
Let us take a closer look at the XMB to examine its benefits and faults. The Cross Media Bar (XMB) interface was first introduced for the PSX system in 2002. Sony quickly applied the same interface to its portable PSP console in 2004. This move made alot of sense, since the XMB was relatively simple, and fit well with a portable device. In addition, because the PSX was exclusive to Japan, many people had never even seen the XMB interface in North America or Europe by this point. While the interface worked nicely on the PSP, it was far from perfect. The transfer of multimedia files from the Memory Stick DUO cards to the PSP was painfully difficult to perform, as these files would need to be in specific directories and formatted in a specific way in order for the XMB interface to even locate them. This was hardly user friendly, and perhaps one of the bigger reasons why the PSP is a distant second to the Nintendo DS in the portable market.
With the PlayStation 3, Sony ironed out these hitches at launch, making it much easier to transfer video and music files from a memory card directly to the PS3 HD. However, the XMB still doesn't communicate perfectly well with other USB-based devices, including iPods. The XMB layout is designed to be as simple as possible, but it is hardly flexible. It will not recognize all system folders within MP3 players for example, and so users may be forced to dump all of their songs into a single vertical list, which can be extremely daunting to navigate through on the XMB.
The simplicity of the XMB interface also makes it impossible for multitasking to take place, at least in its current form. The interface offers a very interesting multimedia playback program, allowing music to be played alongside visualizations, and allowing photos to be presented in a very unique fashion. The interface also allows users to communicate with other PS3 users and even see the games that they are playing. The real problem here is that all of these features are generally useless, simply because they cannot be accessed during gameplay. While you can pause a game, and return back to the XMB menu, you must first exit the game to do so. You cannot play music or watch movies while also playing a game.
I do not believe that the XMB can offer any meaningful features in its current form. I mean, who wants to spend their entire time on the XMB simply to talk to friends? Messaging capabilities would be far more useful if they could be accessed when a game is paused. Furthermore, who actually wants to sit down and stare at the XMB in its current form in the first place? The interface is simply too boring and stale in its current form. Sure, it worked well on a portable console with a tiny screen, but it hardly looks exciting on a big 50" 1080p HDTV. But looks are only half the problem.
If you really take a closer look at the interface, and attempt to break it down into its various features and modules, you will realise that the XMB is hardly an true operating system at all. In fact, a better description to describe the XMB would be as a webpage with links to other websites and a few programs.
In this case, I know of at least 5 programs that exist on the XMB. There's the game environment program, that the OS will run as soon as you pop in a game. There's the movie environment program that handles Blu-Ray and DVD playback, as well as playback of movies from memory cards. There's also the photo environment program that provides a visual slideshow of your photos, and the music player that provides those funky visualizations during playback. Then there is the internet browser. That's five, and that's about all I can count at this point.
The XMB doesn't offer multitasking capabilities because perhaps, it may be unable to provide multitasking at all. Do you ever notice that short flicker that occurs on your screen before you run a PS2 or PS3 game? This flicker is common to optical-disc-based systems, and can be found in just about everything from the SEGA CD, Saturn and PlayStation consoles, to the current PlayStation 2, XBox and Gamecube consoles. It usually occurs when the system is booting up, and acquiring data directly from the system bios before it executes the application (the game). Usually this data arrives to the user in the form of a startup screen. Following the initial startup, you would normally see a flicker, signifying that the system is now loading up the game environment. Cartridge based consoles such as the Nintendo 64 never had this flicker, since the cartridge data was immediately accessed upon powering on the console.
The Dreamcast, PlayStation 2 and XBox consoles went above and beyond other consoles, to offer actual OS interfaces prior to loading up a game. However, like older CD consoles, you were unable to access both the game environment and the OS interface at the same time. The XBox 360 went even further and integrated the OS interface directly into the game environment. As a result, on the 360 you will never see these so-called flickers prior to booting a game, since the game environment and OS interface environment are really one and the same. This is how the 360 can handle true multitasking. You will notice this immediately every time you earn achievement points within an XBox 360 game - the achievement point messages are coming directly from the Dashboard and not the game itself. The PlayStation 3, interestingly enough, also produces this very same flicker as the previously mentioned consoles (and no, I am not referring to the video scaling and resizing flicker that will occur before movie and game playback), meaning that the OS interface and the game environment have still been separated from each other.
Does this mean that the XMB is incapable of allowing users to play a game and access the system's music player? Perhaps. However, if you take a closer look at the evidence, you will see that the XMB is likely always running in the background and is capable of being pulled up during gameplay. For example, I have seen some evidence that reveals that the XMB can become "active" and even overlay itself over the existing game environment in the very same vein as the 360's Dashboard. When you save or load a level for certain games for example, you will notice a save/load prompt overlay itself onto the screen with the exact same style and format as the XMB interface. Furthermore, if users ever encounter problems on the PlayStation Network, connectivity issues will normally be displayed in the top right corner of the screen. These messages are displayed in both the XMB environment and the game environment, which again suggests that a Dashboard-like overlay scheme may be possible in the future. Finally, of the seven SPE's operating when the PS3 is running, there is a single SPE that is reserved for the XMB. This again would suggest that the XMB environment does in fact run in the background while the game environment is operational, and that with a System Update, gamers could potentially be able to call up their XMB on request during a game.
The PlayStation Store: Just A Fancy Webpage
Everyone keeps lamenting about the PlayStation Store and how it doesn't offer any interesting diversions when users download games and other software. The XBox Live Marketplace, by comparison, allows the user to perform other tasks and even play their games while downloads take place in the background. But why is this so? You'll notice that out of the five applications that are available within the XMB, the PlayStation Store wasn't one of them. That's because the PlayStation Store is actually being run directly from the internet browser - in fact the store is nothing more than a glossed up website. When the store first loads up, you will see backgrounds images loading up first before the other foreground elements pop up, just like a webpage. Furthermore, the navigation through the store is accomplished via the same controls offered by the internet browser. Even worse is that Sony is actually disabled some of the internet browsing functions within the store. For example, normally you would be able to use the analog sticks to quickly scroll through an entire website, both horizontally and vertically. These scrolling features have been completely disabled within the confines of the store, perhaps as a lame attempt to make it appear that you are not viewing a webpage. As a result, your interactivity within the store is limited to the functionality of a website. If Sony hopes to make the PlayStation Store more user-friendly and more interactive, they will need to eliminate this web-based approach and create a fully-functional application for it, in the same vein as the XBox Live Marketplace.
This now brings me to the PlayStation Network. In its current form, the network only allows users to chat with other PS3 users via the XMB. However, there is no central "hub" for this network, and all game-specific online functions must be accessed from within the game environment. In my mind, Sony will need to completely redo the XMB if they expect their online infrastructure to truly compete with the likes of XBox Live. They should highly consider offering a separate application that would act as a "front end" for all online gaming applications, and even incorporate the PlayStation Store into this environment. While online matches can be currently accessed from within the game environment, they should also be accessible from this front end environment. In addition, this front end could provide additional information such as ladder matches for certain games, online scoreboards and upcoming online events for specific games.
What The Competition Has Offered Up
Both the XBox 360 and Nintendo Wii offer more features and applications within their respective interfaces versus the PlayStation 3. Besides the obvious multitasking advantages, the 360 Dashboard contains individual applications for everything, including the XBox Live Marketplace. The Dashboard is more than a mere "line with links", as these applications can be accessed at any time and all at once.
I used to believe that the Wii interface was actually inferior when compared to the XMB. The Wii interface certainly doesn't look very dramatic when paired side-by-side with either the XMB or the Dashboard, but Nintendo's interface still offers more meat and potatoes versus the XMB. Yes, the Wii interface offers little in the form of a music player (which can only be accessed in photo mode) and movie playback (it cannot play DVD's at this time). Like the PS3, the Wii interface cannot be overlayed over a game environment either, and can only be accessed after exiting the game. However, the Wii channel arrangement is a far better approach at managing applications versus the vertical-horizontal-line hierarchy approach taken by the XMB. Each channel within the Wii interface can be considered to be its very own application, and each application offers a completely different style and environment to the user.
While one may argue that accessing any non-game channels within the Wii interface would be just as boring as performing non-gaming activities on the XMB, I would argue that Nintendo has done a better job with their channels, and has successfully made these more attractive. Rather than relying on multimedia features, Nintendo focused their approach on internet browsing, communication, weather and news information. While it would be nice to see weather and news updates while playing a game (or pausing a game), Nintendo has presented these features in such an interesting fashion that you would more likely to use and enjoy them when not playing a game.
For example, the Weather Channel is so detailed that one can actually locate real star formations if they look hard enough. The News Channel is also presented in a very unique manner, with headlines placed around the globe, near the origin of the news story. This is a very interesting way of presenting news, and after trying out the News channel for a few days, I can't imagine myself accessing news from anywhere else. The Mii channel is quite possibly the most interesting channel within the Wii interface as it allows users to visually interact with other Wii players - this easily trumps the way instant messaging is performed on the relatively stale XMB. In fact, if Nintendo went a little further with this strategy and allowed for file transfers within the Mii environment, they would likely be able to trump Xbox Live as well.
The internet browser, which was more of an afterthought on the PS3, has been given a completely new life on the Wii, due to the innovative control schemes. Because all of the standard mouse movements have been mapped directly to the Wiimote, users can actually control flash games and other web-based software directly through motions produced with the controller. Perhaps Sony should take a page from Nintendo's playbook and implement Sixaxis-controlled internet browsing. Nintendo's browser has also been better optimized for standard definition televisions, making viewing much less painful on the eyes. By comparison, you will need a good HDTV in order to make out text for certain websites on the very derivative PS3 browser.
Final Conclusions
In conclusion, I believe that Sony has quite a long way to go before they can ever meet the expectations and standards set by Microsoft's Dashboard interface and XBox Live online infrastructure. Even Nintendo has made more headway with their simple and easy-to-use Wii interface, yet the XMB seems out of place, and downright primitive by comparison. Does this mean that Sony won't ever stand a chance against their competition, and are doomed to fail? Of course not. The gaming industry is constantly changing, and if anyone has followed up on previous console wars, they will also know that the first place leader in the console market can change hands several times within a single era (the SNES/Genesis competition quickly comes to mind). However, Sony must make drastic changes to their current interface, and they must be prepared to make these changes quickly.
In order for Sony to implement a meaningful online infrastructure, they will first have to take a long hard look at their PlayStation Store, and consider restructuring that into an application/environment rather than leaving it in its current webpage format. Sony should highly consider following Nintendo's lead and offer a visual chatroom where PS3 owners can get together to coordinate games and transfer files and messages. Perhaps Sony can also incorporate the PlayStation Network "front end" directly within this visual environment, so when you communicate with players, you can also start up new games with players and examine leaderboards, share and access files and also browse the PlayStation Store, which perhaps could be an actual store within this visual environment. If Sony wanted to go even further with this, they could consider eliminating the XMB interface entirely in favour of a visual environment that would handle all of your non-gaming needs.
Providing the capability to access other XMB software/environments while playing a game or downloading a file would place Sony's interface on par with the Dashboard. Most of all, Sony desperately needs to remodel the XMB in order to make it more visually attractive, and they should highly consider dumping the current horizontal-vertical browsing hierarchy in favour of a proper file explorer application. If Sony really wants to earn brownie points, they should highly consider making it possible not just to browse files from memory cards and USB devices, but also stream and transfer files (in both directions) via the built-in wireless connection available on the 60 GB units (sorry 20 GB owners, but you would be SOL here). It's true that piracy and virus concerns could play bigger roles here, but if Sony simply restricted the file explorer to only video and music transfers, they would likely be able to eliminate any of these problems. If anything, Sony should start from scratch and consider unveiling a completely new OS interface in time for the summer.
Perhaps all of this discussion is a moot point, as Sony will be incorporating major system updates into the XMB for March, in coinciding with the European launch of the PS3. The update will likely offer more file streaming capabilities (and perhaps full file transfer capability?), the ability to play PSone games directly on the PS3 (right now they can only be downloaded to a PSP) and offer multitasking capabilities. All of these features would collectively mark huge improvements for the XMB and for the PlayStation 3, however the details regarding this new System Update remain rather vague. In addition, we still haven't heard much with regards to the PlayStation Network other than that the network's infrastructure and feature set will be constantly changing and updating. Hopefully, Sony will come up with a proper front end for the network within their new update, along with a better, more robust and interactive PlayStation Store.
In its current form, I believe that the XMB is simply too simplistic, unattractive and downright useless. The interface is dated and unoriginal. The interface is also preventing the PS3 from gaining more favourable reactions when compared to the XBox 360 and Wii consoles. Improving the XMB or starting over with a completely new interface (XMB 2?) would be a starting point for Sony to build back their reputation in the gaming industry, and help the PlayStation 3 reinvent itself.
