Firmware Question (Hypothetical)

[Groo The Perverted]

I had a thought today (not a regular everyday occurrence, so bear with me), and felt like getting some feedback on this.

We've seen in the past where certain firmware updates have been mandatory, and if you don't update to that firmware, then you can't access the PSN.

And we get people upset at having to upgrade, because it removes a certain functionality, whether it's the "Other OS" or whatever.

Now, what if they were to say, "Okay our new firmware, 3.8 is going to be a VOLUNTARY update which removes a specific functionality". You have the choice to update or not, and if you don't, it doesn't affect the PSN access or anything. Everything goes according to normal.

Then Firmware 3.9 comes out which addresses other things and is MANDATORY. There's nothing being removed, just added benefits like Cloud storage or cross game chat, or whatever.

Now if you are at 3.7 firmware because you did not update to 3.8 which was voluntary, but you DO upgrade to 3.9, does that also automatically apply 3.8 or does it just skip that one and you go from 3.7 to 3.9 without implementing the removal of services that 3.8 did?

Cause I was thinking that would be a slick and dishonest way of doing things, but I could see a company doing that.

But I didn't know if updating to a later firmware would also apply the effects of the skipped firmware as well.