For starters, a moderator of NeoGAF started the revival thread for the in-game XMB rumor:
OK, what does a moderator know, right? Wait a minute, what’s this? An EA employee CONFIRMING this rumor?!:
OK, he’s telling us that we’re getting MORE than in-game XMB? A more rational assumption would be a Trophy feature but I’m going to go overboard and say that the extra addition to firmware 2.40 is HOME!!! OK, I’m horrible, I know…
And if that is not enough for you, directly from the mouth of a second-party Sony official:
Hopefully, James Stevenson will mention something about this on the next Insomniac Full Moon Show. You have to hand it to James Stevenson, though: he knows how to set us up for a tease. Who else got goosebumps from that Resistance 2 teaser trailer?

Koncern Sony zamierza jeszcze dzisiaj sfinalizować umowę z IGA Worldwide Inc. na mocy której już w krótce w grach online wyświetlane byłyby różnego rodzaju reklamy, na których japońska korporacja mogłaby zarobić dodatkowe pieniądze.

Szkoda tylko, że nikt nie pyta się o zdanie Graczy, którzy mogą nie chcieć oglądać reklamy podpasek w Killzone 2. Oczywiście jeśli tylko przyjdzie nam zapłacić za te gry taką samą cenę jaką płaciliśmy do tej pory.

Yes after it was announced that Qore is on the way out to U.S. users already on Thursday, then reported the matter to the part of many users, what about Europe? We have hevet hold of the Danish distributor of Sony Playstation and has received a preliminary response.
"SCEE search for new ways to offer the best digital content on the PS3 owners and PSN users in Europe. With this in mind, SCEE currently in dialogue with a wide range of media partners including. With this in mind, SCEE currently in dialogue with a wide range of media partners including. Future Publications (red: magasinerne PSM3, OPM and others) in order to examine a wide range of options on this" said Peter Steen Rasmussen.
Based on the foregoing, it could indicate a slight softening of electricity from SCEE, and their willingness to take the European users seriously and give them a proper committee on the PSN. There are currently nothing concrete, but as soon as we know more, so we will come back and tell you all about it.

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.
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2008/06/17/...es-in-game-xmb/