There’s a saying that goes something along the lines of “When you’re number two, you try harder.” Apparently, when you’re number three, you don’t seem to try at all. At least, that seems to be Sony’s thing right now. Sitting firmly in third place in the current console wars, Sony’s hard at work trying to improve their position by. . . pushing new high-end technology that the jury remains out on (3D) that only appeals to a small hardcore segment and costs thousands of dollars to adopt. Ok, fine, Sony’s been sitting on the bleeding edge for a while now with their tech, so maybe they’re just ahead of the curve, and this is consistent with their recent history.

Today, though, I’m giving Sony a “Way To Go” for the apparently imminent 3.41 firmware update. Look, I’m still waiting to be able to declare the PlayStation Plus subscription that I purchased to be a “good buy.” So it was nice to hear a new firmware update was coming. So, what are we getting? Cross-game voice chat? Backwards compatibility? Better trophy syncing? No, why would we get these frequently requested features. Hey, I’m not expecting much from third-digit update. In fact, I wouldn’t be writing this if it was even a stability update. No, what’s bugging me is that 3.41 is bringing us. . . Recommendations for the PlayStation Store.

. . .

C’mon, Sony. Fine, you’re not ready to give us some of the above mentioned features yet. But I’m considering it a borderline slap in the face to give us a mechanism where we get recommendations for more things to buy off of your store as the apparently only feature of this firmware update. This couldn’t have been included in 3.40? Or a bigger firmware update? You’re killing me, Sony. Way To Go.