A report has emerged that suggests the upcoming PS3 Firmware 2.4 will include in-game XMB, Trophy support, as well as the option to play music while in-game. There are also rumors that software tools have already been distributed to developers. No official date has been set for this release, and this is an unconfirmed report at the moment, but Sony are on record as saying that in-game XMB will be added by the summer.

There are three ways to look at this piece of nearly-news.

1. The PS3 owner: Woot, at last! In-game XMB and my own music! And I bet the trophy thing works in a similar way to Xbox 360’s Achievements. With this and HOME being just around the (very big) corner, PS3 surely will win the console war and shut up those 360 fanboys once and for all.

2. The Xbox 360 owner: Huh. Only just managed to do in-game XMB nearly two years into the console’s life? We had that right from the start. Why didn’t Sony manage to do this from the outset? When you are paying that much cash for a console the least you can expect is that they get the operating system right. How many updates have there been now? Eight, nine? Just shows how broken the PS3 was when they launched. Rubbish.

3. The Wii owner: I think I can hear the noise of two fleas arguing.

Personally I put myself somewhere between the first two (does that make me a 1.5?). I think it’s great that Sony keep adding new features to the PS3 but I also wish they had got it right a bit quicker. I am still waiting for them to improve the web browser and codec support for videos. Some of my Family Guy episodes still wont play.