What exactly does this mean? What does Sony and Microsoft do to approve a patch? What do they check for? It can't be stability considering what 1.3 did to the ps3 or could it?

I assume they double check it a little just to check it doesn't harm the PS3 system or destroy the game itself.

Only devs really know... the information on exactly what it must pass to get certified is restricted knowledge.

but basically yah... make sure ti doesn't fry your system, delete your data, and a # of other things

obviously they don't catch everything... but it's an expensive and slow process devs have to go through for every bloody patch and cotnent update

Apple does this to for apps. You submit an update and you have to describe what changed. Then they run your code through and give you the thumbs up! I think what makes it take so long do this is that there are 1000's of games out there now and chances are there are several dozen submitted everyday which need to be reviewed.

This might not be the right place to talk about this. Sorry.

Actually I heard it is some kind of conspiracy. They are watching for potentional terrorist activity in the gamer world.... JK JK

I heard that one reason they do that is so devs. focus on making a new game and/or DLC instead of patchs (as M$ and $ony don't make money from patches).

Then don't

It is a simple matter that Microsoft has to approve the patch for the 360 and Sony has to approve the patch for the PS3. They have nothing to do with each other and may not even come out on the same day.