Firmware Update was Bricking PS3sFollow

Gamers whose PS3s were rendered unusable by last Tuesday's 4.45 PS3 firmware update will find relief on Thursday, June 27, with the release of a new system update that Sony believes will fix things.

"We have identified the issue related to the PlayStation 3 software update (version 4.45) that impacted a small number of PS3 systems earlier this week," a PlayStation spokesperson told Kotaku. "A new PS3 system software update is planned to be released on June 27 that resolves the issue." Sony also issued a heads-up about the update on its Japanese site and has apologized "for the inconvenience."

Sony has not said how many PS3s were affected but had pulled the 4.45 firmware only a few hours after setting it live. A company rep confirmed to Kotaku earlier this week that affected users were failing to get their XMB (the PS3's dashboard, basically) to load.

The firmware problem all but rendered the affected consoles unusable, which might raise the question of how affected users could fix things with new firmware next week. Readers have suggested that power-cycling the console into its "safe mode" could do the trick, but Sony isn't walking people through whatever the correct steps are just yet, noting on their forums: "We will also update on 6/27 when it is available, and steps on how to implement the solution."

We had heard from one reader whose only solution had been to wipe his harddrive, costing him his game save files. Here's hoping the proper fix isn't quite so drastic and that those affected by this are few. We're checking with Sony.