Sony announced that the next software update for its gaming console, PlayStation 3, will add Blu-ray Disc (BD) Profile 2.0 capabilities, turning the game console into the world's first Blu-ray player to support the new format enhancements. The new firmware, 2.20, is scheduled to be released later this month

Thanks to the BD-Live, PS3 owners will be able to experience interactive features when playing enabled Blu-ray discs, such as downloadable video content, ringtones, games, and more. Besides BD-Live, the new update, which is labeled as 2.20 will add other new features such as the ability to copy photo and music playlists from PS3 to PSP.

"With these regular firmware updates and future-proofed technology, SCEA is making the 10-year life cycle of PS3 possible," Scott A. Steinberg, VP of product marketing for Sony Computer Entertainment America, said in a statement.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is releasing April 8 two movie titles that will include exclusive downloadable content through BD-Live. The titles are Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and The 6th Day.

Sony turned to Microsoft for a possible Blu-ray drive for the Xbox 360, reports said earlier this month. Everyone is curious to know how this collaboration would materialize in terms of prices, as Sony has kept a pretty high price tag on its Blu-ray players so far.

In late February, Sony announced two new BD-Live (Profile v2.0) ready Blu-ray players, priced at $400 and $500. The BDP-S350, which will ship sometime in the summer for $400, will feature 1080p24/60 output via HDMI, one Ethernet port and decoding of 7.1 Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD.

The high-end BDP-S550, which will ship this fall, will cost $500 and will feature in addition to the slightly cheaper S350 1GB of persistent storage and decoding of DTS-HD High Resolution and DTS-HD Master Audio, as well as 7.1 analog outs. Both models have an external port for adding local storage and will support Bonus View for viewing picture-in-picture content.

The question here is why in the world would anybody buy the BDP-S350, which has the same features as the Blu-ray-packing PlayStation 3? The only thing lacking in the PS3 is a bitstream audio output, but you can compromise if you think you get a powerful gaming console for free. It looks like just weeks after it won the high-definition format war, Sony is out to rip off customers.

Sony also unveiled a list of the new features that will also be included in the PS3 2.20 system software update:

- "Resume play" will enable PS3 system to start playing a Blu-ray disc and DVD at the point it was stopped, even if the disc had been removed.
- "Audio Output Device" will be a new Remote Play setting, enabling PSP to serve as a remote control for music played through PS3.
- PS3 system's Internet browser will be enhanced: Video files directly linked from a Web page will be able to be streamed, and the browser's view speed will be improved.
- DivX and WMV format videos that are larger than 2GB will be playable.
- "Mosquito Noise Reduction" will be added as an AV setting in the control panel of the DVD/BD player for improved movie playback.