PS3 3.61 firmware causing consoles to overheat?

According to LA Noire publisher Rockstar Games, the recent PS3 3.61 firmware update is causing some older 60BG and 80GB PS3 consoles to overheat and shutdown.

Players of LA Noire have been reporting problems when playing, but rather than the game being at fault, Rockstar says Sony is to blame.

“We have received some reports of PS3s overheating while playing LA Noire or beeping three times before shutting down/turning themselves off, mostly on older 60GB and 80GB fat models,” explained a post on the developer’s support site.

“Primary reports seem to be that updating to firmware 3.61 will cause PlayStations to overheat. There have been various reports of this on a few different games now, all reporting their PS3s turning off or ‘Red Lighting’ after having installed 3.61.

“This can range from games randomly freezing to PS3s turning off anywhere between 30 mins use to two hours. We have confirmed locally that multiple games (Rockstar and non-Rockstar) overheat or freeze only when 3.61 is installed.”

Rockstar’s recommendation is for gamers to contact Sony, but will also look into the problems internally.