Sony re-releases its problematic PS3 firmware update

Last week, Sony pulled its PlayStation 3 firmware upgrade (v2.40) after users began to report that it "bricked" their consoles. An updated update has been made available.

First promising that a fix was coming some time "midweek," in Playstation.blog, the new firmware upgrade is reportedly available worldwide already.

Though Sony has issued no official statement addressing problems caused by the upgrade, or even what percentage of downloaders were affected by it, the company said earlier that incidents were low in number. Of course, the numbers must have been substantial enough to warrant such a delay. Complaints on official PlayStation message boards were not in overwhelming quantity, but were nonetheless common.

Systems not under warranty face a flat repair fee of $150 from Sony, and the company has not said if it will waive the fee for users who lost total functionality due to the update. An inquiry with SCEA was outstanding as of press time.