Sony has apologised for the faulty PS3 system update that has rendered a decent number of PlayStation 3's unusable for the time being.

Yesterday the company released firmware update 4.45 for the console, but its support forums were immediately flooded with reports that the update had caused consoles to freeze while booting up.

“We are aware of reports that the recent PlayStation 3 system software update (version 4.45) has caused the XMB to not display on a small number of PS3 systems," Sony told us this morning.

"We have temporarily taken 4.45 offline and are investigating the cause of the problem. We will announce when the system update is available for download as soon as possible. We apologise for the inconvenience.”

A fix is doubtless on the way. However the impatient and/or foolish are welcome to try this fix suggested by a Reddit user, or to access their games in the console's safe mode at their own risk as detailed on the PlayStation 3 forum.