Prior to the release of firmware 4.88, the previous update (4.87) had been released in December 2020. The release of a new update in mid-2021 was surprising to the gaming community, as the PlayStation 5 had already launched, and the PS3 was well past its end-of-life cycle for active software development.
Some games require a minimum firmware version. With 4.88, you can run virtually any PS3 game ever released, as Sony stopped major updates after early 2022. rps3 firmware 2021