Sony publishes, then pulls, new PS Vita software update

Sony jumped the gun on a software patch for its new handheld gaming system the PS Vita this week. The company quickly pulled update v1.65 after its Monday release, citing a “technical fault” that disables ad-hoc multiplayer modes for PSP games.

In a statement at the official U.S. PlayStation blog on Tuesday, Sony Network Entertainment Vice President Eric Lempel explained the decision to pull the software update after its initial release.

“We identified a symptom that users can not play adhoc play in PSP titles if they download the system software, so we have taken down the system software temporarily,” said Lempel. “The system software will be available to download again soon.”

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe also published — then removed — the software update, which added a new Power Save time limit, the ability to completely disable myriad notifications and caps-lock support for online chatting. PS Vita European Product Manager Adam Grant said that anyone who managed to download the update before it was yanked could “continue as normal” and promised Sony would notify customers when the fixed version was available.

How such minor Vita tweaks caused such a major disruption to backwards compatible PSP titles isn’t exactly clear. Such is the nature of updates; fixing one thing can sometimes break another. This isn’t the first time the Vita has seen software pulled, however.

Shortly after the device’s February 22 launch, Sony removed the Facebook app from both its American and European online shops when early users encountered a glitch that prevented them from signing in on the system. The Facebook-side error was quickly addressed; less than one week later the app was re-listed.