UPDATE: Rockstar has removed the support question pointing the finger at PS3's most recent firmware update. There are still references to Rockstar's theory in a separate support answer (scroll down in the comments), but it appears this accusation made some waves. Stay tuned...

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Rockstar Games has received enough complaints about L.A. Noire players experiencing lock-ups on PlayStation 3 to, after internal testing, publicly respond and theorize the recent 3.61 firmware's to blame. The studio answer came in response to a question asking about a PS3 turning off while playing L.A. Noire.

According to Rockstar, there are two scenarios: the PS3 shuts down automatically or locks up, requiring the user to turn off the machine.

"We have confirmed locally that multiple games (Rockstar and non-Rockstar) overheat or freeze only when 3.61 is installed," said the company.

I've contacted Sony about the issue but Sony had not responded as of this writing.

"At this time we are recommending contacting Sony directly to report the overheating issue," continued Rockstar. "However, this is not the end of our support; we are continuing to test L.A. Noire on all firmware versions and hardware models to isolate the issues and see what can be done."

In the near-term, a patch is incoming. Rockstar cannot, however, guarantee it will solve the issue.

"We are continuing to take this overheating issue very seriously," said Rockstar.

There are some issues on Xbox 360, as well, and Rockstar has some recommendations to solve them.

UPDATE: Rockstar has removed the support question pointing the finger at PS3's most recent firmware update. There are still references to Rockstar's theory in a separate support answer (scroll down in the comments), but it appears this accusation made some waves. Stay tuned...

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Rockstar Games has received enough complaints about L.A. Noire players experiencing lock-ups on PlayStation 3 to, after internal testing, publicly respond and theorize the recent 3.61 firmware's to blame. The studio answer came in response to a question asking about a PS3 turning off while playing L.A. Noire.

According to Rockstar, there are two scenarios: the PS3 shuts down automatically or locks up, requiring the user to turn off the machine.

"We have confirmed locally that multiple games (Rockstar and non-Rockstar) overheat or freeze only when 3.61 is installed," said the company.

I've contacted Sony about the issue but Sony had not responded as of this writing.

"At this time we are recommending contacting Sony directly to report the overheating issue," continued Rockstar. "However, this is not the end of our support; we are continuing to test L.A. Noire on all firmware versions and hardware models to isolate the issues and see what can be done."

In the near-term, a patch is incoming. Rockstar cannot, however, guarantee it will solve the issue.

"We are continuing to take this overheating issue very seriously," said Rockstar.

There are some issues on Xbox 360, as well, and Rockstar has some recommendations to solve them.

God of War 3 also locks up but I don't know if it's to do with 3.61.

I thought 360's too had this problem...

dd

dd

Sony must be really happy right now.

Grade A news making! Hopefully the patch will come hand in hand with the Europeano release.

dd

@Grissefar said:

dd

WHO IS DD?!

Well that sucks if true. I hope its fixed or debunked before Friday.

@Grissefar said:

dd

EDIT: Quoting the dude gave me the first post quest complete. Weird!

Oh, for fucks sake!

@Grissefar said:

dd

EDIT: Quoting the dude gave me the first post quest complete. Weird!

God of War 3 also locks up but I don't know if it's to do with 3.61.

I've been playing on my PS3 for a few hours straight and didn't have a problem. Can they really blame this on a small firmware update, and not the fact that L.A. Noire is a pretty advanced game that pushes the hardware to its limits?

Oh, Sony.  I continue to feel bad for you.

@Xeiphyer said:

@Grissefar said:

dd

EDIT: Quoting the dude gave me the first post quest complete. Weird!

IS THERE NO JUSTICE?!

Sony is fucking up.

I've been playing on my PS3 for a few hours straight and didn't have a problem. Can they really blame this on a small firmware update, and not the fact that L.A. Noire is a pretty advanced game that pushes the hardware to its limits?

Will it ever end?

It's not just LA Noire.

My PS3 has been getting very load with the fan and getting hot when playing Demon's Souls too. It's frozen on me like 3 times.

And it has never frozen on me while I played Demon's Souls before.

Between this, and the whole xbox update thing, I'm kinda scared to turn on my xbox now.

YOU CAN'T STOP JUSTICE, SONY.

Never had this issue yet on the new firmware. I do notice that my PS3 gets louder though when playing Noire, nothing crazy yet though.

lol, directing people to Sony because LA Noire is freezing? It's up to the developer to patch the game. What's Sony going to do? Rewrite their firmware just for Rockstar?

I remember Red Dead Redemption had a really bad freezing issue too. You'd turn it on, start loading your save, and it locks up.

All you had to do was delete your saved "Gameplay Options" folder from the save data utility.

Someone try to see if that fixes it.

EDIT: Also, I've been playing games all the time with no freezes at all.

@Grissefar said:

dd

EDIT: Quoting the dude gave me the first post quest complete. Weird!

Will it ever end?

Wow... somebody wants Sony dead somewhere. Never seen such a trail of destruction in gaming.

Remember when game consoles just worked?

oh ffs........ Now I'm afraid to play whatever here and end up overheating the thing, my ps3 is quite old already.....

Yea, I had it lock up on me once already.

 Dragon Age:Origins on PS3 had a firmware freeze problem way back when. Took Bioware a month to patch it. They couldn't figure out the problem because their dev consoles didn't have the new firmware, it only did it on home systems.

Not having any problems so far. 

I remember when a ''patch for a patch'' was such a humorous novelty. Now it's almost becoming a common hurdle to pass.

In other news, Sony killed a dolphin today, with it's bare hands.

In other news, Sony killed a dolphin today, with it's bare hands.

It. Never. Ends.

This happens every now and then when I play Fallout: New Vegas (since the firmware update, I have experienced my PS3 randomly shutting itself twice when I am playing). It used to freeze occasionally when playing New Vegas, but I had never had my PS3 shut itself off when playing the game.

Shame that this had to happen with L.A. Noire (since my copy should be arriving tonight), but hopefully they can patch this unfortunate issue and resolve it.

@StriderNo9 said:

In other news, Sony killed a dolphin today, with it's bare hands.

That's ridiculous. Dolphins don't have hands!

I'm just going to stop reading gaming news for a while. If my stuff turns on and plays games I'll play them, if it doesn't I'll do something else.

but but.. my PS3 version is coming in the mail tomorrow :(

lol, directing people to Sony because LA Noire is freezing? It's up to the developer to patch the game. What's Sony going to do? Rewrite their firmware just for Rockstar?

I've been playing for 3 hours straight no, no issues so far. Running a phat, too.

God of War 3 also locks up but I don't know if it's to do with 3.61.

been playing infamous for 15 hours never freeze,after update it already stopped 4 times, finally i know why, beginning to regret bought my 2 months old ps3

sick of this shit, i officially say. fuck ps3, get your shit together sony.

Had my ps3 running for the past 9 hours non stop with no issues, also no freezing since the update - might be the minority though

Me and my brother have probably put about 8 to 10 hours together in this game, never once has it froze.