PS3 Cross-Game Chat is Impossible in Future Firmware Updates

Written by Mark Raby on August 24, 2011

PS3 Cross-Game Chat News: Don't expect the next PS3 firmware update to support cross-game chat like the Xbox 360 does.

PS3 Cross-Game Chat, one of the most requested updates to the PS3 system software, will never happen, according to a new interview from Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida.

It's due to technical limitations. The way the PS3 works is that when a game is launched, the entire system's RAM becomes dedicated to that game. In order for there to be cross-game chat, that RAM would need to be divided.

As Yoshida explained in his interview with Eurogamer, "Once a game gets RAM we never give it back. It's not possible to retrofit something like that after the fact."

Now, PS3 fans will either be annoyed at the fact that cross-game chat will never happen, or that Sony never revealed the technical impossibility until now. Whenever a PS3 firmware update was posted on the PlayStation Blog, there was invariably a comment or two (or several) asking for cross-game chat. Those comments were never addressed.

The reason this has come to light now is to showcase the fact that the upcoming PlayStation Vita handheld will in fact have cross-game chat support. There will be more RAM in the little device than there is in a PS3, making the oft-requested feature finally a possibility.

Of course, the Xbox 360 does cross-game chats like it's no big deal, so to each his own.