Thanks to Eric Lempel, Director of the Playstation Network Operations, we have official confirmation that the v2.36 firmware is on its way.  As a nice surprise, Eric confirms that trophies are going to be included into v2.40, and that same update will be bringing PS3 users In-Game XMB as well.

A new PLAYSTATION 3 firmware update (v2.36) will be launching soon, improving system stability when playing select PlayStation format software titles. We’re also happy to officially report that the 2.40 system software update for PS3 will include “XMB” access in-game. The update will also include “trophies,” an exciting new feature that we’ll be providing more details on soon, as well as some other new enhancements. We’ve talked about some of this on the blog previously and know that many of you can’t wait to get your hands on these features. You can expect us to share all of the official details shortly.

Good news for PS3 users, and we’ll be waiting for v2.40 just as anxiously as you will be.  Stay tuned for more updates concerning the new firmware coming to the Playstation 3.