We’re currently chasing up rumours coming in to TheSixthAxis overnight that suggest the next PS3 firmware update might well be coming soon.

We’re told System Software version 3.40 was released to developers late last week, and although parity between dev and retail firmware updates isn’t always guaranteed (or indeed timely) recently they’ve been pretty close, with, our sources say, just a few weeks between testing and public release.

At the time of going to press the contents of Firmware 3.40 aren’t known to TheSixthAxis, but you can bet your bottom we’re on the case. We’re hoping it’s the start of the background patching system we revealed last month.

Update: we’ve been told that the update has vanished.