The official US PlayStation 3 blog has posted a confirmation of the forthcoming firmware update. I think we can accept this as being genuine, seeing as how it has come from the Director of PlayStation Network Operations, Eric Lempel, himself. So no more speculation and rumor, the truth is finally out there.

In what is, admittedly, a rather short posting Lempel confirms that the update will include the long awaited XMB access in-game to enable players to access the console menu without first having to quit the game they are playing. About time too. I am sure I cannot be the only PS3 gamer fed up with the already long load times, and then faced with having to wait all over again just because I need to access the system menu!

Actually, that does seem to be pretty much it on the official confirmation side of things. Other than the ability to download gamer graphics, or 'trophies' as Lempel calls them which can be thought of as similar to the Xbox 360 gamer graphic download packs I guess. Indeed, the blog has already spoken about these downloads and made them sound a little like Xbox 360 achievements. Which is cool. As is the new and more dynamic UI that has been promised...