Will the PS3 piracy floodgates open now four years after launch?
The PlayStation 3 has one of the best copy protection schemes in the history of consoles. In the near-four years since its launch, the machine will only run with legitimate games. The Xbox 360 and Wii, on the other hand, were cracked to run home-burned games years ago.
While there's been much work behind getting the PlayStation 3 cracked by those in the pirate industry, there wasn't much success – until maybe now. According to an Australian mod chip source, hackers and crackers in China and/or Hong Kong have developed a USB stick that will allow the PlayStation 3 to boot games copied to on the hard disk drive.
Kotaku has been in contact with OzModChips regarding this product, and the seller claims that the device is real and is most definitely not a hoax. OzModChips is currently taking preorders for the USB stick, which is called the "PS JailBreak," for $169.99 AUD.
The contact at OzModChips doesn't know much about how the USB device works, other than "it tricks the ps3 into thinking its a dev unit…"
The chip is supposedly going to be available at the end of the month. Check out the video below to see it in action.
♥ This is not an exploit - it's a clone of the JIG Tool used by Sony to enter machines into service mode for repairs and the like. The term and methodology may be familiar to those of you whom have used "Pandora" batteries for the venerable PSP.
♥ This is not a USB Memory Key. Nobody is going to "upload the files" so you can have it for free. It's a complex device with its own FPGA. Will it be cloned? Probably. Will it be cheaper? Probably. Will it be free for you to torrent? No.
♥ This can not be software patched - ever. The methodology of the device is that it sends the required handshake to the SYSCON which then allows the PS3 to enter a Package Management mode. This is very similar to a service or debug mode insomuch as the unit relaxes security policies while in this mode. This could, for example, allow for a custom firmware package to potentially be installed, thus circumventing the requirement to use the device at each and every boot time. The SYSCON is not writeable by the console and as such no software patch can fix this; only a hardware revision ala the PSP 3000.
The bottom line is this, however - this device does work. It does everything as advertised.
yup. worth the wait.
Bunch of free leechers.
so what?and im proud of it!
yeah i'll setup a dummy account so my psn account doesnt get shutdown but i certainly will still buy games (on the assumption that online games require legit games!) - i'm sick of buying games which last 2 days.
That's freakishly expensive for a temporary crack.
It might be a hardware + software to make it work. But yea, if it was just a software, people will just pirate it.
I Agree...But would like to add ALL games need a free download DEMO...If they are going to ask 50 to 60 for a game I need to know if it sucks or not...I dont know how many wii games my friend has Downloaded that was not worth the time it took to download much less the 30 - 50 bucks it would have cost...So it would be nice to do the same for the PS3...But Sony could prevent the need by providing demos (to weed out sucky games) and lower the price.
Demo is good idea.. but it should be the first level or act.. then you don't have to re-download the whole game just the other levels or acts.
♥ This is not an exploit - it's a clone of the JIG Tool used by Sony to enter machines into service mode for repairs and the like. The term and methodology may be familiar to those of you whom have used "Pandora" batteries for the venerable PSP.
♥ This is not a USB Memory Key. Nobody is going to "upload the files" so you can have it for free. It's a complex device with its own FPGA. Will it be cloned? Probably. Will it be cheaper? Probably. Will it be free for you to torrent? No.
♥ This can not be software patched - ever. The methodology of the device is that it sends the required handshake to the SYSCON which then allows the PS3 to enter a Package Management mode. This is very similar to a service or debug mode insomuch as the unit relaxes security policies while in this mode. This could, for example, allow for a custom firmware package to potentially be installed, thus circumventing the requirement to use the device at each and every boot time. The SYSCON is not writeable by the console and as such no software patch can fix this; only a hardware revision ala the PSP 3000.
The bottom line is this, however - this device does work. It does everything as advertised.
I hear a lot of people claiming they pirate because of the absurdly strict security on modern games, but this draconian protection exists because of the pirates...