A turn of the new year and good news to everyone interested in homebrew, the PS3 has recently been hacked by renowned iPhone hacker, George Hotz, better know as Geohotz.
In case anyone was wondering why I took so long to post this up, I did have to take the issue into greater consideration with regards to how sensitive this piece of news could be us as a company.
Let us emphasize once again that we do not support piracy and nor does the gentleman who has successfully hacked the PS3.
So, the PS3 has been hacked, so what now? I am pretty sure that many in the hacker community would be already rubbing their hands in glee as once a homebrew environment is created, programs can be easily be written to unlock DVD region codes or even offer true backward compatibility. Pirates rejoice! It could even mean pirated games for the PS3 in the near future.
Just like how the PSP enjoys update after update to keep out piracy (not add new features!), efforts have been more or less futile as many custom firmware applications are able to play the latest games. Score one for the hackers.
However, the game isn’t the same as it was in the past. Many games come with the form with connectivity to the Internet. Unless you are a serious gamer and just one that enjoys local multiplayer (think the Wii), you can bet that Sony would be more than willing to unleash their right to kill any system that they suspect has undergone illegal modifications the same way Microsoft did.
I’ve explained to many a customer that the cost of Blu Rays and their burners would not be cheap. But this has just hit me. Many games are multiplatform, and if most games can be squeeze into a single DVD for the Xbox 360 this means that pirated games on DVD format may very well exist. Not every gamer/ developer has that much time and resources to squeeze so much data to fill a Blu Ray. Even if they did, by the time they take advantage of the space offered, the price of the tech may have already fallen to more-than-affordable prices.
Bottom line is that piracy on the PS3 appears to be more or less inevitable. But with much emphasis on the social, multiplayer gamer & downloadable content, how much are you willing to trade enjoyment for the dollar? I suspect many do not care.
On the Playstation 3 [Source]
Contact the author of this post, Gerald Chan, at geraldchan@qisahn.com. Follow his tweets @changerald
