Following the news that the PS3 had been hacked and that the keys to the kingdom were thrown to the proletariat, it has now been announced that you can now install your own custom Firmware. Something tells us Sony's not going to be fond of this.
A tech ninja known as KaKaRoTo has released tools allowing you to create custom Firmware via Linux. Right now you can't do a lot with it, but in the future you should be able to run Homebrew applications without trouble. KaKaRoTo stresses that piracy isn't the aim.
"This firmware will not allow you to run the currently available homebrew application," he writes. "Once the homebrew developers re-package their files in a ‘retail’ .pkg format with signed executable, then it will work ... Since the kernel is left unmodified, this means that this custom firmware is really meant for future homebrew installation, and it will not allow piracy. I plan on keeping it that way."
This is just another dent in the PS3's armor, which some hackers claim is now totally non-existent. I'd like to say that this proves endless official Firmware updates are a waste of time and that Sony should stop their bullshit, but we all know that's not going to happen. Thinking about that, custom Firmware ain't such a bad idea ...
PS3: First ‘Custom Firmware’ now working! [KaKaRoTo's Blog]
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
8:00 AM on 01.05.2011 | 
Then I'm all for it.
This article pleases me. No piracy + custom firmware, I like it.
STOP FUCKING PIRATING AND HACKING AND JUST PLAY GAMES?
If you want to create custom firmware and fuck around with kernals and shit, hop yourself onto a PC, put linux on it and knock yourself out.
Personally I wanted to buy a box. Buy some games. And play them.
Also, the most important question: Can you connect to PSN with custom firmware?
And remember kids, even the US Government will somehow be happy with the news, considering they use a rack of PS3s to crack pedophile passwords.
And remember kids, even the US Government will somehow be happy with the news, considering they use a rack of PS3s to crack pedophile passwords.
yes it can conect
Because a company trying to keep their security up to date is such a bad thing. Again Sterling I want to know what crazy backwards world you live in.
@Nic128--that would be SO AMAZING if the finished translation will let me play the Japanese import with English subs!!! But what about Vesperia???
Kakaroto
Kakaroto's work will be successful but I seriously doubt his work won't be used to pirate the shot out if everything around.
@sexual chocolate
By your own admission you've hacked shit before. I know its your precious Sony that's about to get it's butthole plundered but a hacker (ex or otherwise) really shouldn't be shouting like you are.
Its like a whore bride wearing a White wedding dress.
http://talesofgraces.com/
This should make you a happy bunny. I am.
and like I said before I expect a massive firmware war as a result of this.
However, somebody else will likely use the general vulnerability for piracy.
Can I get an Amen!
Anyway, it would be foolish to think that piracy won't eventually become an issue. Yesterday Geohot claimed to release the root key, which is what Sony actually uses to create certificates. That's opposed to the private keys released by fail0verflow, which allows for spoofing of a legitimate certificate. The only fix would be for Sony to change the key, which would invalidate all software to date. Technically, Sony could change the key and have a special whitelist for existing software, but CFW would allow everyone to circumvent it anyway.
Long story short: Sony has very little defense.
I'm just kinda past it, and i think the industry as a whole has out grown acceptable piracy these days too.
Back when games cost a few thousand dollars to make, while piracy was still wrong, it was almost acceptable.
But now we're looking at games costing more than blockbuster movies to make, millions and millions of dollars. it's a bit of a different ballgame.
Plus I used to DL games that were shit. Back in the PS2 days there was a massize library, filled with crap, with a few gems in there. Now every game must be good or the devs will go down faster than yo momma on the Titanic.
Wait, what?
"sony has very little defense"
so they're like Akuma?
So it's alright to steal, as long as you aren't stealing something that costs a lot to make? I'll be sure to remember that.
Morally bankrupt bullshit.
Bullshit. Piracy "then" is as bad as piracy now. Your justification that games were cheaper to make is nonsense seeing as those cheaper games sold to fewer people thus profit made (and profit lost) would stay at roughly the same ratio.
The ball game is the same and you're still the whore bride trying to convince us you deserve the white wedding dress.
OK, so put it this way. When i was a kid I couldn't afford to buy loads of video games. So i pirated some and got what I could as presents and such.
Now I'm an adult i'm buying the sequels to all those games i pirated.
So it's essentially marketing in that respect. I mean there are at least 10 games I've bought, brand new, this generation which are sequels, or spiritual successors to the games i pirated as a kid.
i'm not trying to justify my piracy as a kid, but just to put forward that things have changed since those days. Developers are going out of business now because piracy is so rife.
Back when i was a kid, it was me and one buddy, the only people either of us knew who could pirate full PS2 games. He went on and got himself a chipped Xbox too.
Flash forward a few years and you've got the DS, where techno-mum's will sell other mum's R4 cards full of games outside of schools.
A little piracy here and there is one thing, who is to say those few people who pirate the games would have bought them anyway? It's negligable.
But widespread piracy is actually damaging.
(don't forget, i'm not talking like last week i was pirating, this week i'm anti. This was like getting on for a decade ago.) - although i did borrow that DS and R4 cart for a couple of weeks a few years ago.
I just recently paid £35 for Prof Layton, THAT'S NEARLY AS MUCH AS A PS3 GAME!!!! while a buddy offered me a DSiXL card with 90+ games on it (all the laytons included) for £40. - just to give you perspective of where i'm coming from.
Why the Tales games haven't made it to the US is beyond me. I'm always baffled that developers won't get someone to translate an already COMPLETE game to release it to a much bigger market. Even if it only sold 100 thousand more copies it would still make them considerable money.
I mean it only takes a few months for a couple of fans to make a fan translation in their spare time. There's no way it would take a professional team of a few people more than a month to do it. That'd cost pennies for a company like Namco.
Current-gen piracy is, and never was acceptable. Whether it's an indie designer who does it at home after work with a budget of $0 or a multi-million dollar blockbuster, it's flat out unacceptable. You're literally stealing something that people are relying on to make their living.
And the fact YOU don't think the games were good is no excuse whatsoever. I know people who say, quite seriously, that some of the crappiest games are worth every penny. I've got a friend who likes freaking Bulletwitch. for fuck's sakes.
Sounds to me like the only reason you stopped pirating was because the PS3 was unhackable for so long and you didn't think you'd be able to play PSN online, and you've got a good enough job now that Piracy isn't worth the headache. Saying that the industry has outgrown the need for it in one generation is pure sophistry: Budgets, studios, and development spans haven't grown THAT much in the major studios.
Dude, please tell me your pretending not to see the massive holes in your defense.
PC Piracy not big until recently?
Ignore me. I'll be over in the corner cackling like a hyena.
We won't discuss anything bad then incase other people think about doing that bad thing.
You sound like the scare freaks who think playing violent games actually makes you violent.
Fuck it, this probably isn't my argument....
why is everyone obsessed with games being pirated on the ps3? its been happening for months now and it wont stop. so is about time you accept it and stop the drama.
Yeah but some freak of nature will create a firmware just for the sake of piracy...anyways, I am speaking out against opening the gate of piracy. But it seems that gate is already ajar and will soon be burst wide open soon enough.
do you really need your ps3 to play emulators? use your PC its easier. plug in a usb controller. tons of disk space for all sorts of roms.
and the linux whiners, why do you want to use it on the ps3 anyway? isnt your PC all godly anyway? prob much better than the ps3.
and ive never really seen an original homebrew game that ive heard people talking about like a console game. its worthless. "dude you need to hack your ps3 and downgrade your firmware to play this awesome version of homebrew snake some random dude made."
It's kind of hard to argue the whole "stealing new shit" thing. I still get shit from people with my own personal code of conduct for software piracy:
-At least two generations back (so, PS1/N64/Sega Saturn, Gameboy Color)
-At least ten years old (so, released on this date in 2001 or earlier)
-No viable method of purchasing a copy which supports the developer of the software
The biggest difference is that a PS3 has built-in HiDef outputs and is already hooked up to my TV with a controller ready to go. I don't have a controller for my PC...because I use my PC for PC games, not console games.
Thats bullshit to the 5th power...if you are trying to say that its because you don't have a controller for your PC that you rather download a custom firmware and all this other mumbo jumbo to play "homebrew paraphernalia", rather than just download the free and readily available drivers so you can use your already owned PS3 controller with your PC? Nice try buddy...
When someone else does it though, it's bad. Very bad. But it's ok for you. Makes PERFECT sense.
and yet cod still breaks records every year.
halo does great.
mario does great.
professor Layton does great.
the only one really hurt at all would have to be the psp, but i don't think that so much has to with piracy as it has to do with sony fucking the machine over.
oh yeah, the iphone does gret too, blackrain and all.
so you wont play emulators on your pc because you only use it for pc games, nothing console related?
and you will wait years till the ps3 is hacked so you can POSSIBLY do homebrew emulators on the ps3 because its hooked up to your tv already?
thats just dumb. and your missing out on alot of games you could easily be playing on your pc, not to mention you can set up your ps3 controllers on a pc now. and if its because you want to play 8bit games in "high def" thats even more ridiculous.
Do i need some special wire to plug my 360 controller in?
@meteorscrap - That's a very thoughtful and considerate way of doing things pal, I'm impressed.
mine was
used to pirate EVERYTHING
Now pirate everything but games.
maybe it's because i don't want the hassle, maybe it's becaus eI like to play online, maybe i just like the boxes. i dunno.
Still, a Spotify subscription is the closest i've got to paying for music since the 90's. I was there before Napster. I can't even remember what the old one was called, it was a weird name, yellow logo perhaps.
That's gonna annoy me.
But yeah, Games and gaming has a different level of respect to me than music and film.
but yeah, piracy, it's wrong, and don't you dare do it to games, but it's fucking awesome too.