Shortly after we published a speculative discussion article on whether Sony would be banning PlayStation 3 users who circumvent their console’s security via the recent ‘Jailbreak’ method, the evergreen Digital Foundry came up with a more comprehensive, detailed report.
He covers many of the same points, albeit with a decidely more educated vocabulary. However, one of the things we weren’t aware of was that Sony – according to the post – can remotely ‘disable’ your PS3 if they choose to, known as a ‘kill switch‘.
“The amount of access Sony has to your machine is greater than you probably suspect,” says the report. “The company even has the means to irrevocably disable your console should it so wish, and if that happens, it will remain non-functional whether you’re online or offline.”
This, to our understanding, wasn’t public knowledge, and assuming Digital Foundry is right (we have no reason to suspect otherwise) this could be crucial in Sony’s defence against those that choose to hack their PS3s – remember, it’s against the Terms of Service and you’re asking for trouble…
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.
Serebii.Net
Apple did that once for jailbroken iPods and IPhones did they not? :P
3shirts
There is no way Sony should be allowed to do this. Blocking consoles from going online is fine, that would have consequences for other players and they have a duty to protect the online community. Killing consoles completely is unacceptable and immoral though, how exactly are they going to differentiate between consoles ‘hacked’ for homebrew and those used for piracy? Not to mention the potential for false positives!
I hope this is just a ruse to put off potential pirates.
toutski
You do know that Microsoft effectively does this once a year? Usually round November time when the big games release.
a inferior race
MS ban console from XBL, but they do not “kill” a console as it is not their property and they have no legal grounding on which to do so.
l C0D3 M0NK3Y l
Hmmm… well, if you’re not doing anything wrong, then it sounds like you have nothing to worry about. Besides, what if Sony releases a patch that causes all of the PS3 consoles around the world to become self aware and they in turn collectively decide to take over the world… yeah… see that “kill switch” isn’t sounding so bad now… eh? :)
hazelam
you honestly believe that?
you honestly believe that if this is true that it’s impossible they would ever kill the wrong machines?
if you answered yes to one or both those questions let me ask you one more, you looking to buy a bridge?
and if they became self aware? just wait till a leap year, then take em down on feb 29th. :)
l C0D3 M0NK3Y l
Yeah… so I was being facetious… remain calm. lol
To be perfectly honest, I don’t think it actually exists. But hey, it makes for some good fodder for conspiracy theorists out there… any it wouldn’t be the first time I was wrong. :)
l C0D3 M0NK3Y l
…AND it wouldn’t be the first time I was wrong. :)
*sigh*
hazelam
the bridge thing was meant as a joke, forgot the smiley.
what’d you think about my leap year idea though? :)
l C0D3 M0NK3Y l
Very nice… sorry, I forgot to applaud the remark in my reply. :)
hazelam
if this is true then i am absolutely horrified.
i know sony are paranoid about piracy, have been since the ps1, but this, this would be disgusting.
and you know the worst part, i can well believe sony would do something like this.
and to those congratulating sony on this no doubt highly ilegal, if true, design, what would you say wif you found your ps3 dead because sony made a mistake and activated the killswitch on your machine because they got the wrong machine?
would you still say how great they are.
if this turns out to be true then the ps3 would be my last ever sony machine, and i’m not just talking consoles.
and i think once word got out into the mainstream media that sony was willing to do something as despicable as this, there would be a lot of people taking a similar stance.
and the court cases that would result from something like this could finish sony, the eu courts fined ms millions for bundling internet explorer with windows, they’d chop sony up into little bits and feed them to the pigeons if this is true.
l C0D3 M0NK3Y l
Final thought… if this does exist, I would think it would be used VERY sparingly… a “last resort” option, so to speak. If you read the article, they discuss how Sony has approached these hacks… so far… *insert evil laugh here*
“However, despite the options Sony has available, to date there have been no ban waves that we’ve been aware of, despite Jailbroken consoles being easily detectable. Sony’s approach has been very responsible – issuing security updates via new firmwares that automatically lock Jailbreakers out of the PlayStation Network as opposed to issuing outright bans. Sony effectively offers PS3 jailbreakers the opportunity to “go legit” in order to preserve their PSN access.”
hazelam
assuming it does exist, just the fact that sony would implement something like this in their hardware concerns me greatly.
it’s not how often they can do it, it’s that they can do it at all.
one of the big issues i’ve had with this industry lately is the disregard it has for the rights of it’s customers, and something like this would show they have absolutely zero regard for their customers.
it’s funny people said i was silly to, half jokingly, suggest sony would disable the drive because of their paranoia over piracy, now there seems to be serious suggestion that they’re willing to deliberately sabotage their customers property.
the reason i despise drm is the way it can allow publishers to take away something somebody has paid for, this is the ultimate extension of that.
if it is real and they use it, they will use it on the wrong person at some point, it’s inevitable, and then the shit will really hit the fan.
look how much stick ms got for the 360’s unreliability, imagine what the reaction would be to sony being able to kill the ps3 at will.
but hopefully all this is moot anyway and the thing doesn’t exist, we may never know for sure, i guess the only way we’ll find out is if it proves real and they use it.
in that case i think ignorance is for once actually bliss.
l C0D3 M0NK3Y l
Well… all I can say, is it has been just over 4 years since the PS3 was released… and so far, no substantiated reports of random “kill switch” engagements… yet. So, let’s hope it stays that way, and this remains speculation and rumor. Thanks for the banter… I thoroughly enjoyed the word play. :)
gazzagb
Don’t like the sound of that. Would be very harsh if you got kill-switched by mistake…
Dexter17
Me neither. If they had concrete evidence that a console was repeatedly hacking I haven’t got a problem, but mistakes would be too easily made.
jikomanzoku
What an utter load of BS this story is, conspiracy theorist nonsense at its finest. If I’m proved wrong I’ll spell out those words with alphabetti spaghetti and eat them.
Serebii.Net
Is it weird that I now want this to be true so you will do that? XD
jikomanzoku
:D
Pete_UK
This type of feature would be against basic consumer rights; when I bought the console I bought the console, not a license for a console. I’m with those that think this is actually nonsense – if it turns out to be true though, then Sony just lost a long-established customers loyalty.
ElGuason
i want them to use it and use the hackers as an example of what not to do. :D
Gaztee
It can be done with mobile phones,(usually if they have been lost or stolen) so I wouldn’t be surprised if it was true. If you’ve done nowt wrong, you shouldn’t have anything to worry about!