Hackers run retail PS3 games on HDD [Update]

by Majed Athab { Feb 11th 2008 at 7:30PM }

[Update: This will only work on test PS3 systems. This will NOT work on retail systems. Sorry for the confusion.]

Yup, you heard it right: hackers have discovered a way to run retail PS3 games off the PS3's internal HDD and off external USB HDDs. While this is quite a neat trick, it might not be all that useful considering how much data is stored on a single layered Blu-ray disc -- about 25 gigabytes. That precious HDD space will probably end up being devoured in no time.

More tech-savvy gamers out there who want to know more about this development can go check out the tech mumbo-jumbo here. We're pretty sure this high-level jargon will scare away most. What countermeasures can Sony take to ensure this doesn't become an even larger problem? Rampant piracy has always cast its dark shadow over the PSP ... will the PS3 be next? Let's hope not.

[Via Maxconsole]

Tags: hack, hackers, homebrew, piracy

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

iStupid. @ Feb 11th 2008 7:40PM

i dont understand this, can someone explain, i dont know this "ps3" so say language, im guessing it has to do with free games off the ps store or something?

Tim Parsons @ Feb 11th 2008 7:43PM

it means RETAIL Games,. the ones you buy in a "retail" store ,. in otherwords any Blu-ray DISC game

Tim Parsons @ Feb 11th 2008 7:40PM

that link is useless

Tim Parsons @ Feb 11th 2008 7:45PM

nevermind it works

Tim Parsons @ Feb 11th 2008 7:47PM

Personally I think people who create this kind of software should get Jail Time, i hope SONY catches them and sues the hell out of their Asses

Tim Parsons @ Feb 11th 2008 7:48PM

Personally I think people who create software like this should get jail time. I hope SONY catchs them and sues them

nezromatron @ Feb 11th 2008 7:53PM

Personally, I think this should be feature of the machine. Why should I have to put in a disc every time I want to play a game, when I have all that storage just sitting there.

Tim Parsons @ Feb 11th 2008 8:07PM

@nezromatron

people will use this to rent a game and return it right away because they will have ripped it to their HDD so save your excusses

dartmerc @ Feb 11th 2008 8:24PM

@Tim Parsons
Don't come attacking people when your the one suggesting illegal use and putting it in peoples minds.
Nezromatron is simply explaining the use for this exploit, he's not suggesting anything illegal or giving any 'excuses'

The Truth-Mage @ Feb 11th 2008 8:57PM

Just because something can be used for evil, doesn't mean it shouldn't be done, if it benefits people using it legally.
Otherwise, we might as well ban everything ever.

AutumnBringer @ Feb 11th 2008 9:21PM

@dartmerc and The Truth-Mage
I'm all for convenience and features and all that - I'm NOT for always accusing people of being crooks - but let's face it, every time I've heard of people using hacks like this on other consoles, it was NOT so they could have the convenience of not having to insert the disc, it was for ripping a rented/borrowed game so they didn't have to buy it. If you use such a hack for convenience sake and continue to buy the games and stuff, then that's great, but I assure you that's not what many would use this for.

Wii60 @ Feb 11th 2008 9:57PM

Tim Parsons,
I'm going to go do this right now. Because I bought my games legally and don't want them damaged by an inferior storage medium. I have every right to play my games and copy them for my personal use.

If Sony comes after me for doing it, I'll sue them to oblivion. Its my machine and my game, I'll play however I want to. When I actually steal it they can feel free to "come after me".

yomama07024 @ Feb 11th 2008 7:53PM

Is there an actual download somewhere?

dartmerc @ Feb 11th 2008 7:58PM

This is a great step, I love the fact I can just browse and play all my PSN games without having to fumble through a pile of disks, and hopefully soon i'll be doing it with my retail games. A 250GB external drive is affordable, and if that can store 10 games then thats great. It also makes for easy portability if I want to take my games to a mates place or something, 1 HDD vs 10 disks.

rafael @ Feb 11th 2008 8:14PM

If anyone cared to read the article it is no where near public. It is currently only running on a special console that quote "99.9% of people don't have" And the firmware downgrade process is still a WIP so nothing is complete as the article suggests

dartmerc @ Feb 11th 2008 8:44PM

rafael, why do you assume no one read the artical.. well apart from that guy wanting the download ^_^

Daniel @ Feb 11th 2008 8:23PM

You people do realize that if this gets big it's going to mean less developers and publishers wanting to make games for the PS3 because they'll just be pirated anyway right? This is one of the worst things that can happen. Hopefully Sony stops it.

Ruben @ Feb 11th 2008 8:23PM

Well I would use it, but just on my own games because I want to support the PS3 and pirating would be no way to. I would also use it if I wanted to let my friends borrow a disc.

"While this is quite a neat trick, it might not be all that useful considering how much data is stored on a single layered Blu-ray disc -- about 25 gigabytes."
Well not right now considering how much 360 and dvd 9 are limiting game development.

B1gC72 - PSN: KillaKornbread @ Feb 12th 2008 4:13AM

well PS3 games dont have to be compressed as much so use alot of that extra space even on multiplat releases. or at least i think i remember reading that somewhere.

wonway01 @ Feb 11th 2008 8:29PM

Holy pop up spam batman!

kentuckyfried @ Feb 11th 2008 8:31PM

To me, games have reached a point where copying them isn't going to be very practical anymore, at least not at this moment. Besides, if we, as gamers, don't support Sony (and as much as I hate to say this, Xbox too), we're going to see less and less quality games, the productions costs already getting more and more expensive.

Also, let's say that they were in fact, copiable like in the original PS days. imho it's still a waste of time having that many games. The ps3's demographic is typically the older working person who has limited time resources. Realistically, this kind of development isn't a threat.

Carlton @ Feb 12th 2008 6:39AM

Agreed. Piracy is often cited as a reason for the failure of the Dreamcast and for the pitiful software sales of the PSP, but in reality the Dreamcast failed because of a lack of third party support coupled with Sega's financial problems, and the PSP doesn't sell software because outside of Japan it is bought primarily as a media player.

Piracy hasn't had a noticeable impact on 360 or Wii software sales, despite the games being a lot smaller and therefore quicker to download, so I doubt it will significantly affect the PS3.

And as others have pointed out this hasn't even gone public yet, and is nowhere near the stage where you could just hire a disc, rip it to your drive and expect it to run.

TrentHaraku @ Feb 11th 2008 8:37PM

Why must people do this to Sony machines only?

Konchu @ Feb 11th 2008 8:54PM

Actually there is a firmware flash for the 360 that people have been using to bootleg games already. And I know there is already a mod chip for the Wii. So really was only a matter of time on the PS3.

Popfrogs @ Feb 12th 2008 9:36AM

The interesting thing to note is that the PS3 seems to be the hardest to crack. They're using a dev PS3 that has been downgraded to pull this off.

Grimjack @ Feb 11th 2008 8:42PM

Read the article sounds like to much work. I'll just stick to buying the games that get good reviews.

Tim Parsons @ Feb 11th 2008 8:49PM

I'll stick to buying my own games or renting them , and using the DISC ,. you know the old fashion~cough!legal way

dartmerc @ Feb 11th 2008 11:20PM

You think using a disk image (or data extracted off the disk) isn't legal?

Tim Parsons @ Feb 12th 2008 1:26AM

@dartmerc

Was referring to the people (most of those who'll use this) who'll use it on rented games that they'll never buy and will use this for that purpose.

you can all use accuses like Convenience, and/or don't wanna damage my disc all you like no ones buying into that, This is a tool create by Hackers for the purpose of Piracy and that's the only reaosn anyone who uses it will ever use it for:FACT , i'm as Lazy as Lazy can get so I can say pretty soundly that NO-ONE is gonna use this just so they won't have to switch DISC

Al @ Feb 11th 2008 8:56PM

Wow. Let's figure out the math here. 1 terabyte hard drive is about $350.00. Each game is 25 gigs right now. That's about 40 games you can put on a hard drive. At $59 a pop that's $2360. Wonder what Sony is going to do to stop rampant pirating of people renting games and just putting them on their hard drives now.

lorddshadow @ Feb 11th 2008 9:34PM

@ Dave

Good idea and all but if u look @ psp the hackers just find ways to exploit the new firmware and go back to homebrew

(not saying that homebrew is bad. only game pirates are bad even though i wont use homebrew cuz i'm afraid to brick my psp)

Carlton @ Feb 12th 2008 6:38AM

But the PS3 updates automatically when you go online, so you wouldn't be able to run hacked firmware if you intended to go online.

Ayrkain @ Feb 11th 2008 9:40PM

Just because it's PS3News, I call shenanigans. Dark_AleX himself has a beef with them, and they've produced plenty of faulty news before.

http://www.psp-vault.com/Article1119.psp

bombos @ Feb 11th 2008 10:11PM

It does not run Retail copies.

It specifically states in the article that this currently only works on non-encrpypted boot files used during development.

Tim Parsons @ Feb 12th 2008 1:28AM

you can all use accuses like Convenience, and/or don't wanna damage my disc all you like no ones buying into that, This is a tool create by Hackers for the purpose of Piracy and that's the only reaosn anyone who uses it will ever use it for:FACT , i'm as Lazy as Lazy can get so I can say pretty soundly that NO-ONE is gonna use this just so they won't have to switch DISC

Extinction @ Feb 12th 2008 2:07AM

Correction. They ran DEVELOPMENT copies of games, not retail ones, on DEVELOPMENT PS3s, not retail ones.

JaffaBoy @ Feb 12th 2008 3:25AM

Would much prefer people worked out how to get homebrew games to run on PS3

Tim Parsons @ Feb 12th 2008 8:25AM

How about we use stuff as it's meant. Homebrewers should create their own console if they're so smart and have it do whatever they want.

Bootes @ Feb 12th 2008 10:16AM

Uhm no, I will use my hardware the way I want to use it.

Until Sony is giving away the consoles for free, to just make money on games, they have no right to tell me what I can or can't do with my PS3.

Nicholas Campbell @ Feb 12th 2008 5:09AM

I think piracy is bad on games companies but also cheapens games. I had a "friend" who used to have copied 360 games and he got so bored of only completing the first level of each game that he brought a ps3 and has valued the games. I am all for homebrew though - be nice to play every DivX title I've got instead of 60%

Vertrucio @ Feb 12th 2008 5:24AM

One thing to remember is that this is happening for the 360 as well, and happened a lot to the original Xbox, not to mention PS2 games were pirated like crazy.

So this is really nothing new.

kentuckyfried @ Feb 12th 2008 3:15PM

I know a few people who bought like....alll of one game for the Xbox. All the rest were pirated.

Their justification: "I'm not a hardcore gamer. i like to play, but I don't play enough to warrant the cost."

This coming from a guy who owns a house and probably earns $90K, at the very least....

As I was saying earlier, I'd rather save my time, spend the money, and focus on the things that I truly want to play. If I pick up a couple that don't quite meet my expectations, that's what Ebay and the like are for.

Titty Pink @ Feb 12th 2008 6:02AM

Hell, I can't even get my PS3 to SEE my external HDD for copying my pictures over. Anyone have solutions? Seagate 250 GB external HDD...

kentuckyfried @ Feb 12th 2008 3:18PM

Hey, I had the same problem....The frustrating part is that it's a SATA drive, in an external case, formatted to FAT32. My PC sees it. My Mac sees it. Only the ps3 doesn't see it! It sees my iPod though, which is 20 GB.

My theory (untested, I need to clear off this external 60 gb drive) is that the partitions have to be 32 GB max. If anybody has input on this, please post!

SmallWallet @ Feb 12th 2008 10:15AM

Look I like to buy new games and I don't really like to have all my games pirated etc, because it just creates problems and you can enjoy it to the fullest, but I'm not some rich guy that doesn't know what to do with his/her money. Games cost a whole lot, especially here in Europe, since they don't bother with the exchange rates, 40 dollars = 40 euros when really 40 euros is really 64 bucks. So if they can cut prices a bit maybe people won't pirate games anymore.

b33eazy @ Feb 12th 2008 2:04PM

I may by a ps3 if this works out.I shouldn't have 2 buy ps3 games if I bought a ps3 I may by the 40gb n buy an external hdd n make hackers add ps2 support later.

b33eazy @ Feb 12th 2008 2:07PM

Sounds like ill be getting a ps3 soon n ill be getting sum free games with it.I shouldn't have 2 buy games since I already bought a ps3 u know.

Dave @ Feb 12th 2008 2:12PM

What sony should do is not cut off the hack right away and let them spend time and resources trying to hack it. And if it works many people will have a lot of games that they will get addicted to, then sony will update the firmware (which is mandatory to play most games, and also something they couldn't do with the ps1) cutting off the hack. Then the addicted will have to go buy all the games that they illegally backed up and are addicted to.