You may have read that a USB dongle went on sale that basically put Playstation 3s into debug mode, thus allowing you to do things not normally allowed. Well, Sony sued and stopped them selling it, but of course the software on the dongle has been reverse engineered and made available online.
Where is the code? Well, slashdot linked to it. It’s on github and there’s a slight mod required to play “backups” of games. On a brighter note, any potential pirates will need a compiler to use the code but I guess it’s only a matter of time before a USB iso becomes available.
I hope Sony figure out a way to stop this working. It’s bad news for software publishers if users can copy their games by just plugging a USB dongle into their machine.
I differ. The Xbox has had a huge piracy problem and they are so successful they can increase their prices. This was inevitable – you simply cannot put something into someone’s hand and say it’s not crackable. Would I try it? Sure. I’d buy a dongle just to see how easy it is to install this stuff.
The only console that arguably was killed by piracy that I know of was the PSP and even then Sony have to take the blame for not locking it down, not promoting it and not getting damn good games out. Their inertia did for it too. The PSPGo is a joke.
As for games cheats – they can afford the dedicated servers now they are charging late-comers a tenner to join in.
Have no fear, Sony will just put out a firmware update disabling USB ports.
The main issue for us as consumers here is not the “piracy” issue but the debug mode consoles. For ‘debug’ read JTAG. Look at all the bullshit that goes on on the Xbox lobbies – that’s a bigger problem than the minority of people who’d use hooky copy games (and let’s be honest here, if EA is planning on charging a tenner for after market buyers to access online their pockets would not be that badly hit).
The only people who will actually be hurt by this PS3 JTAG crap is us. Not Sony, not the game developers, us – the legitimate consumers who actually keep the machine fed.
But who cares! The Xbox720 and PS4000 will be out in a year or so and then there won’t be any problems (for six months).
We have been lied to ever since the “CD’s are cheaper, prices will drop” times. The XB has the piracy and look at their game prices. Now look at Sony’s and see that Sony have had their fat cushion of profit from ps3 users and that this – if it becomes as widespread – simply puts them in the same price/profit/loss as their XB titles. Or maybe we have been subsidising the XBox piracy because we had no choice in how to play in which case the games companies just lost some – some – of that profit.
What we can expect is huge claims by Sony to the press about the millions of £$ a day it loses and it’s effect on future gaming blah blah blah. All lies.