Uh-Oh.
Sony have made plenty of mistakes with the PlayStation 3, but one area where the system has experienced almost unanimous success over the last few years has been in the fight against piracy. Although other consoles have become fraught with widespread problems relating to pirated software, including Sony’s own PSP, the PlayStation 3 has long been regarded as the last safe haven against such activities. There have been warning signs before, and Sony had to upset plenty of people to remedy them, but they always got the job done. As things stand right now, the PS3 remains safe from the world or pirated games and homebrew.
That could all be about to change courtesy of “PSJailbreak”, a USB dongle that claims to unlock your PS3’s security features without opening up the console or even voiding the warranty, which could enable game back ups, homebrew software and even the restoration of the previously removed custom firmware option. The dongle allegedly works with all PS3 models both fat and slim and even claims to be able to bypass future firmware updates. At $150 though, PSJailbreak doesn’t come without risks, and you can bet your bottom dollar technicians at Sony will already be trying to patch this out of existence. Ars Technica have a video of the hack at play, but Joystiq have raised questions relating to tests only being carried out on debug machines at present. This probably goes without saying, but this could be something to keep an eye on. Particularly if you happen to be Sony Computer Entertainment.
Email the author of this post at matc@tap-repeatedly.com
I’m confused. What’s with the tons of ads on craigslist claiming they can crack your PS3 to play pirated games. I even talked to a guy once who said he did this for money. He told me he could do a PS3 without voiding the warranty, but not a 360.
As long as SCE doesn’t go bankrupt before The Last Guardian comes out and digitally zap all existing consoles with some Snake Pliskinesque doomsday device, it’s all good.