Geohot’s new fancy (but against the TOS of the PS3) modified firmware might let you dip into some old-school emulation but it appears Sony are watching, with your recently played games list getting pushed to their servers when you sign into the PlayStation Network (or, indeed, have your PS3 connected at all).
A post over on GAF, where people are trying out the firmware and the apps available, suggests that upon boot the PlayStation 3 connects to a number of various sites and servers to ‘talk back’ to Sony, regardless of whether you’re signed into PSN. The list is more comprehensive than you might think, with various ad, authentication and secure servers all making up the PS3’s start-up lookups.
Does this mean Sony knows what you’re running on the PS3? Certainly, that’s evident already from the gamercards that automatically populate and show your recent games. Does this mean they’ll be banning user accounts and/or consoles that appear to have been running customised firmware? Who knows?
Sony can track your console’s ID, that much is evident. What they’ll do with that remains to be seen – Sony has remained tight lipped so far, other than to say they’re aware of the recent movements. There’s an officially open thread on the EU forums for further discussion, but let’s hope we hear from the company regarding their next steps to close all this off for good.
For more on this subject, check Digital Foundry’s blog on Eurogamer.
TheSixthAxis does not condone piracy and does not recommend the modification of your console – doing so is against the Terms of Use of the console and is possibly illegal.
tonycawley
Ban them, at least a week to start on 1st offence, next offence a month, third strike permanent. That’ll sort them out.
BrendanCalls
Agreed, as long as there their is a fair and efficient review process in place. These things always end in someone wrongly being banned, and someone suing, mostly likely in America
cc_star
Needs to be a review process, the XBL banhammer reportedly caught some genuine customers
ARUMIR Sympozium
Well they’re breaking TOS so might as well be a perma-ban, they’ll just continue..
gaffers101
Here, here. I like the 3 strike and your out idea.
Bilbo_bobbins
I don’t see why people should get three strikes? You want to piss around with the console without permission, then except the consequences. Perma ban straight away IMO
Kevling
So the answer to the question, as answered in the article is, I quote, “who knows?”
Nice journalism ;)
Kevling
Sorry didn’t mean thiscommebt to sound harsh, I just thought TSA was above posting a provocative headline and no real content…
nofi
Thanks.
Kevling
Difficult to tell how that was meant but rather than take it as sarcasm, I’ll take that you’re happy to receive constructive criticism from a regular reader that wants to see TSA maintain its high standards. :)
nofi
Yes, that’s what I meant. :)
TURRICAN-808
Perhaps if and when the jailbroken PS3’s sign in, a warning message could appear detailing what tonycrawley mentioned above
mcphatty
Won’t the pirates just stop going online? Also, do Sony track our movie and music habits? It’s all a bit Big Brother.
cc_star
Sony track everything including any device that has been plugged in
Pretty sure anyone doing this will be doing it on a purely offline PS3, only an idiot would play on a connected PS3.
KillaScorp
Only an idiot would jailbreak their ps3 in the first place.
mcphatty
So, are Sony aware that I’m now listening to Gina G whilst googling the Spice Girls on my PS3? Because I’d rather that stay a secret.
cam the man
Yes, they know it all!
Crazy_Del
They can see my PS3 surfing the por…… eh portery.
Aw Gawd! I gotta reset and delete history and links and stuff, I’m gonna miss portery websites.
Grey_Ghost13
Ban them, ban them all! Then Sony, buy licences or broker a deal to bring software emulation to the PS3!
But surely they could have done this with the hacked PSP’s and never did?
Pedromr
I think every jailbroken ps3 should have it’s functions restricted to play “the golden compass” and britney spears’ albums. That would stop jailbreaking once and for all.
Pete_UK
I give it a week before the hackers have found a way to bypass these checks. Also, Golden Compass would have been fine if the sequel hadn’t been blocked by the church :)
plutoniumdragon
Some creative use of Wireshark and a Linux router may be able to spoof enough info – but it would hardly be user friendly :) :)
I’ve always asumed Sony spy on what websites I use the PS3 for, so I’ve never used it for anything other than a few simple family sites – wonder if they record stuff played from a DLNA media server as well?
icuyesido
Good, there’s no need to run emulators on the PS3, not one.
cc_star
Official PS2?
JamesF
But isn’t it the case that there is no official PS2 emulator now that BC is removed? And besides, I thought that was done in hardware (hence the removal to save cost)?
While it would be nice to see other official emulators, I can’t see it happening, and　Ｉ personally think PCs are better suited to the older emulators.
Charmed_Fanatic
Wow, never knew that! Hopefully Sony can do something about that
Severn2j
I wonder how long it well be before a custom firmware is released that stops the console reporting back? If it’s as wide open as they say, anything Sony do can be worked around quite easily, can’t it?