PlayStation 3: Sony versus Hackers
PlayStation 3
The PlayStation 3 has recently been cracked by a group of Wii hacking fame. They exposed the ease with which one can retrieve the root key of the system, which would easily allow homebrew and pirated games to be played, similar to the Wii. Sony, however, has recently vowed to fix the issue via a firmware update. However, is it actually worth fixing? Which side of the fence is the right side, the hackers who merely want freedom on the console, or Sony who stripped the console of many of its beloved features.
The hacking community comes in several shades and colors when it comes to consoles. There is one shade that is for allowing the public masses to pirate games as they wish, while not publicly condoning it for their own safety. Then there is another shade that merely wishes to have an open console in which they can create homebrew applications and find other unintended uses of the console that can benefit them.
Which ever shade you fall under or identify with, one major possible consequence of the root key exploit being announced is the boost in piracy. Sony has built the PlayStation 3 as a security-strong console, having lasted around five years. However, with the reveal of this new and seemingly un-patch-able exploit, everyone and their mother will be making use of emulators and downloading masses of pirated games that they wish they had.
Legit gamers will usually say there is no excuse for piracy unless you already own some form of the game. Some gamers choose to justify piracy as a revolt against Sony; considering that one of the firmware updates seemingly nullified the DVD drive. Other gamers merely want their backwards compatibility back, and this is certainly an easy way of accomplishing the feat.
In any event, Sony looks down on piracy and is probably face-palming at the sight of this news. Knowing that there is a potentially console-breaking exploit out there seriously puts their name on the line and the handling of this situation decides whether there will be an impulse of pirated games or not.
For any video game console creator, a hacked console definitely results in lost profit for the video game developers. Many consoles will probably be sold since pirates will be buying the console with hopes of being able to pirate to their hearts content, but then that means little to no revenue for the developer. This situation exists on the Nintendo Wii and NIntendo DS; two easily hacked consoles, both of which developers tend to avoid for that exact reason.
It will be interesting to see how Sony handles the hacking situation with the PlayStation 3. If they fail, the root-key exploit will prove to be the downfall of the console.