Sony's decision to keep the PlayStation 3's online service free meant that, compared to Microsoft's Xbox Live, it was fairly pared down to the minimum requirements for gaming.

But now PS3 gamers will be able to chat with fellow players as they blast, beat and belittle them as a VoIP service has been adapted to run on the games console.

By using the inbuilt internet browser, users can find the Jajah website, connect to other consoles and chat through their USB headsets.

Jajah recently received a $15 million (£7.5 million) investment from tech giant Intel and co-founder Roman Scharf claimed that, by adapting its service to work through the PS3 browser, it "now brings free or cheap calling into the living room and away from computers".

Although not as integrated or intuitive as Microsoft's system, which charges a monthly fee for its use, the fact that a work-around was felt to be necessary suggests that there is much enthusiasm for VoIP to be workable and people to be connected no matter what system or device they are using.