XMB and Trophies Announced for Wednesday's Update

Gamespot reported today that the much anticipated in-game XrossMediaBar (XMB) functionality and trophy system for the PS3 will be made available after the launch of Sony's 2.4 firmware update on Wednesday.

However, details of these new functions show that Sony's attempt to mimic Microsoft's Xbox Live content is lackluster.

Included is the introduction of the new trophy system which acts as accomplishments that players achieve while playing various titles. This will include bronze, silver, gold, and platinum awards for various accomplishments at various levels of difficulty on select Playstation 3 titles.

There will be some sort of obscure numeric value given to each trophy that will be unknown to the player, but accumulates into an overall rating/ranking.

Sounds like you receive "experience" points and "level up."

Sadly, you will not receive any retroactive trophies for games you have already played and Sony's list of supported titles is incredibly thin: PixelJunk Eden, Super Stardust, Warhawk, BioShock, LittleBigPlanet, MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, NBA 09, Resistance 2, and SOCOM: US Navy SEALs Confrontation.

The additional update involves in-game usage of the XMB.

As of now, players have to exit their game in order to access video, music, picture, internet, and game content.

With this update you should be able to chat with friends while in-game, check your trophy status, and integrate personalized soundtracks to select games from the system's music on the hard drive.

No word on any games with be customizable with this option.

Nevertheless, this sounds just as lame as the trophy system.

There is no incentive to attain trophies other than to brag about your level rating and the in-game XBM doesn't seem to serve any revolutionary purpose.

It feels like Sony is trying to mimic the Xbox Live system, but only doing half of the job.

This content should have been made available at the systems launch.