Official blog of Sony PlayStation has just announced that the firmware update version 3.21 for PlayStation 3 (PS3) will be released on April 1.

This latest update will disable the ‘Install Other OS’ feature that was available on the PlayStation 3 slimmer models which was launched in September 2009. This feature allows PS3 users to install alternate operating system, but now this update will remove this because of security reasons.

This feature removal won’t have any impact on how you use your PS3. But if you are using ‘Other OS’ feature and don’t want to update your console then you can choose not to update your PlayStation console. However, if you didn’t update your console then the following features and improvements will not be available for you after the release of update:

• Playback of PS3  software titles and Blu-ray Disc videos – It requires firmware 3.21 or later
• Playback of copyright-protected videos that are stored on a media server
• Ability to sign in to PlayStation Network and use online features like chatting and PS3 games
• Use of new features and improvements that are available for PS3 consoles using firmware 3.21 or later

If you’re currently using the ‘Other OS’ feature and wanted to update your console to firmware 3.21, then to avoid data loss you must need to back-up any data stored within the hard drive partition used by the ‘Other OS’ because after update you’ll not be able to access that data.