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Sony Threatens PS3 Hackers With Legal Action

Posted by Zonk on from the tempting-targets dept.

Eurogamer reports that Sony is going after users sidestepping the PlayStation 3's protection software. Firmware 1.10 and 1.11 have both been cracked, and as a result illegal game copies can be booted from the console. "Booting games and playing them are two different things, however; so far, hackers have not been able to get any of the copied games to run, nor have they been able to run homebrew software. Every hardware launch brings with it a race for hackers to defeat the system's protections, whether for the technological challenge, to run copied software, or to allow for homebrew games. Despite Sony's attempts to prevent its emergence, the PSP has a strong homebrew community - and hackers are doubtless hoping to establish a similar base for PS3."

71 of 104 comments (clear)

  1. Obligatory by TheJerg · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You can't stop them anyway. So why bother trying. Etc, etc.

    1. Re:Obligatory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Why can't they be like Nintendo on this. There have been several updates to the DS (especially the lite) and as far as I know they haven't tried to limit the homebrew community.

    2. Re:Obligatory by cowscows · · Score: 5, Insightful

      While I'm not the hugest fan of these sorts of "protections", I think game consoles are one of the areas where the manufacturer can make a decent argument for why they bother. While they're never going to completely shut out the dedicated and skilled people trying to find their way in, they can keep a pretty good lid on casual piracy, because console cracks are usually just to much work, even if someone else has already figure it out.

      It's significantly different, from the average joe computer user point of view, than downloading mp3's or whatever. Once you have a cracked mp3, the file is easy to distribute and get at. Which is one of the reasons why music DRM is so dumb. The files are all pretty easily accessible online to anyone who wants to look at them. But with game consoles, downloading a game and putting it on a DVD generally isn't enough. You need to hack the console, sometimes through some software flaws, often through hardware modification. Even if the hardware mod is relatively easy, the need to crack the case is enough to keep most people out. If Napster required you to solder a chip onto your computer's motherboard in order to download music, it's doubtful anyone outside of tech nerds would've heard much about it.

      --

      One time I threw a brick at a duck.

  2. Hack the Planet! by phildawg · · Score: 2, Funny

    As Cereal Killer would say, 'Hack the Planet'.

  3. Not just about preventing piracy by drinkypoo · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They also want to prevent you from running Linux with full access to the hardware, because they won't get licensing fees if people play games that don't require that someone pay one. Preventing piracy [as much as possible] is of course a real goal, and important to protection of revenues. But this is just as significant, in the same ways.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    1. Re:Not just about preventing piracy by DrEldarion · · Score: 1

      It's pretty obvious that hacking the console at this point is mostly about piracy. Face it, you can do basically everything you'd like to do on the PS3 either out of the box or after a simple Linux installation (which they FULLY SUPPORT!). The only thing that's restricted is access to the graphics accelerator, and really, who buys a PS3 to play Tux Racer?

      With the XBox, it wasn't as clear cut. People would hack it to play video, to use emulators, etc. These are valid reasons. When you can actually do all this with the PS3 with full support, it's pretty plain why people are trying to break the protection.

    2. Re:Not just about preventing piracy by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Face it, you can do basically everything you'd like to do on the PS3 either out of the box or after a simple Linux installation (which they FULLY SUPPORT!). The only thing that's restricted is access to the graphics accelerator, and really, who buys a PS3 to play Tux Racer?

      Do you really think that Tux Racer is the only use for accelerated video?

      For example, as XBMC is ported to Linux, it will have to be substantially altered to run on either the Xbox (original) or the PS3. This is because it already uses the 3D hardware of the Xbox to run the GUI and the next version is expected to use pixel shaders to speed up the process.

      With the XBox, it wasn't as clear cut. People would hack it to play video, to use emulators, etc. These are valid reasons. When you can actually do all this with the PS3 with full support, it's pretty plain why people are trying to break the protection.

      There is absolutely no difference between deprotecting the Xbox so that you can run other software on it, and deprotecting the PS3 so that you can run other software on it. Both are necessary for reasons which have nothing to do with piracy, and both make piracy possible as a side-effect (some would say side benefit.)

      It's worth mentioning that we have these rights that apply to movies and music, with regards to being able to make backups and the like. But the moment we get to video games, those rights are taken away. Why is it that we have the right to make backups of movies and music, which are intellectual property covered by copyright and provided to us under a license to use, but that we can't do the same thing with video games? Because Sony said so? Maybe I just want to make backups of games I've actually paid for. But I suppose to you, it'd still be "pretty plain" that I just wanted to pirate games.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re:Not just about preventing piracy by mabhatter654 · · Score: 1

      this isn't even about necessarily playing "protected" media, but playing your software on their "protected" hardware. OF course once you open the system up to ANY software, it's trivial to run the software designed for it, but piracy is sideways in the case of something like XBMC where the purpose is to use different "IP" not associated with the Manufacture in any way. Just to find a new purpose for what the hardware can do outside its bounds. At a basic level it's a property rights thing... the physical hardware is YOUR property, "IP" in terms of only running "verified" software on a device is not a "natural" right, nor recognized by copyright law.. but the DMCA is an attempt to change that.

    4. Re:Not just about preventing piracy by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      It's pretty obvious that hacking the console at this point is mostly about piracy. Face it, you can do basically everything you'd like to do on the PS3 either out of the box or after a simple Linux installation (which they FULLY SUPPORT!). The only thing that's restricted is access to the graphics accelerator, and really, who buys a PS3 to play Tux Racer?


      Except said Linux distribution isn't running on bare-metal hardware, but instead inside a nice VM. Thus, the graphics accellerator isn't accessible at all because the VM insulates Linux from even getting the hint that there's more to it than a special area of memory known as a framebuffer.

      And believe me, the framebuffer is god-awful slow. Trying to view a DVD causes Xine to actually complain that it can't draw the screen fast enough! (yup, it's full framebuffer - no accelleration at all). I'm sure everyone knows how nice X is to use without accelleration, especially at the higher resolutions.

      I'm fairly certain there are faster framebuffers out there, too - the PS3's just happens to be one of the slowest possible framebuffers.

      Another restricted thing is the wireless. No bluetooth, no wifi. And no full hard disk access - it's all emulated SCSI, just like VMWare... I'm fairly certain it's not a fast implementation of a disk, either.

      Basically, the PS3 Linux is merely just for people to use it as a cell developer's kit, nothing more.
    5. Re:Not just about preventing piracy by Ant+P. · · Score: 1

      The only thing that's restricted is access to the graphics accelerator, and really, who buys a PS3 to play Tux Racer?

      I'm not quite sure what Sony expects people to do with Linux on a multimedia system capable of 1920x1080 which struggles to play youtube videos, or to redraw windows as they're dragged. I've seen Pentium non-MMX PCs perform better than that.
    6. Re:Not just about preventing piracy by tepples · · Score: 1

      Face it, you can do basically everything you'd like to do on the PS3 either out of the box or after a simple Linux installation (which they FULLY SUPPORT!). The only thing that's restricted is access to the graphics accelerator, and really, who buys a PS3 to play Tux Racer? The problems are that 1. even 2D acceleration is shut off, making window repainting slow, and 2. the RSX chip has 256 MB of RAM that could be used to delay the onset of swapping but is sitting unused.
    7. Re:Not just about preventing piracy by CronoCloud · · Score: 1

      It can't be that bad....can it? I've got a PS2 Linux kit and it can even play youtube video with ffplay (after I grab the flv with youtube-dl.py.

      It doesn't have too much trouble moving opaque windows under fluxbox, though it's a touch jerky. (I do normally have opaque window moving off.)

      The PS3 has much more RAM and a processor 10X faster. It ought to be able to brute force most stuff even without hardware acceleration.

    8. Re:Not just about preventing piracy by donaldm · · Score: 1

      I run Linux on my laptop (Fedora 7) with Xen for virtualization and since I have 2GB of memory this works well but to run Linux on your PS3 to play a DVD via Xine is a rather pointless exercise unless you want bragging rights which is fine by me. The best way to play a DVD is put the DVD in the PS3 running in native mode and if you have a HDTV and v1.8 of the firmware the DVD will be upscaled via HDMI. As for WiFi and Bluetooth on PS3 Linux I can't really comment but that would be useful although it works well on the native PS3.

      Now to no full disk access I think the best way of looking at this is a PS3 can dual boot so you still need some disk space for native PS3 infrastructure. I suppose if you want more disk you could always put in a larger drive which is a supported option but 2.5" drives are normally 5400rpm with 200GB and above being 4000 rpm. Why don't you attach a large disk drive by USB it will be cheaper and you can get 100's of GB and run at higher disk access speeds.

      I actually use Linux on my laptop or my son's Windows machine as a media server and the PS3 works well as a media center although not everything works yet. My son did get avi's to work but what looks good on a 20" display does not look good on a 37" HDTV. Issues with codec patents can slow or even prevent the PS3 acting as a full media server.

      You are partially right in stating "Basically, the PS3 Linux is merely just for people to use it as a cell developer's kit, nothing more" but you can with Linux do word processing as well as numerous other jobs that don't take up too much memory on the PS3.

      I am not a PS3 developer and don't have the time to get involved in designing games but to those that want to do this I think this is great. Personally I think the PS3 offers the greatest amount of flexibility out of the other two consoles although I am not against either one but this does depend on what you use the PS3 for and if you are satisfied with it.

      --
      There ain't no such thing as proprietary standards only proprietary formats. Standards are by definition open.
    9. Re:Not just about preventing piracy by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      It can't be that bad....can it? I've got a PS2 Linux kit and it can even play youtube video with ffplay (after I grab the flv with youtube-dl.py.


      Well, it depends how many times you upscale it. I'm sure if you play it at 320x240 it'll work just fine. Upscaling it to 1080p... the PS3 can't redraw the screen fast enough.

      It's apparently not just the framebuffer, but accessing the framebuffer's that slow. One of the tasks consuming the most time is the one handling the framebuffer (ps3fb). I wouldn't be surprised if to draw a pixel requires triggering an exception into the VM, the VM copies the pixels to the RSX, then returns back. (Most framebuffers on saner systems is a memory mapped area - you write to memory so updating the framebuffer's just as fast as hitting memory).

      Doing this over many pixels runs into a fundamental limit in the number of exceptions that can be handled.

      It's probably faster on the PS2 as the PS2's probably got a saner memory mapped framebuffer, or even direct bare metal hardware access (I think you have access to the GraphicsSynthesizer, no?). Here, the real framebuffer's in RSX memory, and the only way is to trigger a VM exception to update the real framebuffer from our "virtual" framebuffer (the one Linux knows about).
    10. Re:Not just about preventing piracy by senatorpjt · · Score: 1

      Well, to be fair, the people you should be complaining to about RSX access are Nvidia, not Sony.

    11. Re:Not just about preventing piracy by CronoCloud · · Score: 1

      Yes, one can code to the GS on the PS2 under Linux VU assembler and whatnot. (Though I'm not a coder, I bought the kit to "use" it and learn more about Linux), though X is not 3D accelerated and Mesa only has "limited hardware acceleration".

    12. Re:Not just about preventing piracy by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      Reading graphics memory content to the main RAM happens at 16MB/sec (or possibly Mb), not sure you want that.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    13. Re:Not just about preventing piracy by tepples · · Score: 1

      Reading graphics memory content to the main RAM happens at 16MB/sec (or possibly Mb), not sure you want that. You're talking about the slow channel that this article mentions. But it happens only if the copy is initiated from the Cell. A block copy initiated from the RSX runs much faster; the RSX can write to main memory at 10.6 GB/s.
  4. Hackers beware!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Sony reserves the sole right to hack your system. Please use one of their root-kits for your hacking needs. All others will be sued!!

    Get real Sony!!

  5. And the oblig counter-point by Moraelin · · Score: 1

    Sure, if it helped _piracy_, I'd even understand that. But here's what irks me: region codes. And that's one thing that's circumvented by those modchips and such.

    _And_ please consider this: Sony likes to present circumventing region coding as some form of piracy. Heck, even without any copying or hacking the console or anything. Even just buying an original DVD from Japan to play on your imported PS2 counts as piracy for Sony, or at least they'll try to handwave it as such.

    Now I'll admit I don't know whether the PS3 has region coding or not, but Sony did annoy me with that before. Repeatedly.

    Region codes on games serve _no_ legitimate purpose. The excuse on movie DVDs was that it eats into theatre ticket sales: someone who bought the US DVD early has often seen the movie that way before it even gets into the theatres. OK, I can even live with that mercantile reason. But that just simply doesn't apply to games. There simply is no big-screen theatre version of, say, Gran Turismo. Here at most... it replaces the sale of a localized copy, which, wtf, is the same price anyway. (After you subtract the VAT.)

    I just refuse to feel like an evil pirate for buying an imported game. Sony got my money fair and square there. It's _not_ piracy.

    Better yet: for some games it actually made them _extra_ money. Some games were never released in Europe. So they wouldn't have sold a single copy here and made Sony a single cent, if it weren't for imports. Those imports that Sony tries to choke actually are extra copies sold.

    I look at my shelves of PS1 games for example, and about a third of that stuff is... well, stuff I bought imported, in _spite_ of Sony's doing their best to not sell it here. Really, I'm that evil a pirate: I gave them some money they were trying not to take.

    I don't even know why companies pull that kind of crap and treat the European market as some pariah to be avoided. I can understand that there are costs and delays related to localization, but, really, I can live with an US version. Most people down here understand English, even if you have to coax them into actually admitting it. And some of the die-hard manga fans took Japanese lessons too, so they can even play the Japanese versions.

    At any rate, it's irking to see Sony demonize us too. "Auugh, those evil importers and modchip sellers and their customers are a bunch of evil pirates. Must stop them!" WTF.

    --
    A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
    1. Re:And the oblig counter-point by turnipsatemybaby · · Score: 1

      Okay, maybe I'm naive here... but why did you go out of your way to support a company that is bent on vilifying you?

      I just don't understand that. You're pissed off at how you're treated by a company, yet you continue to buy its products?

      Sony has pissed me off to high heaven for numerous reasons. I will never buy ANY Sony product. EVER.

    2. Re:And the oblig counter-point by Moraelin · · Score: 1

      Good question and good point indeed, I'll concede that.

      I guess mostly because it took a really long time to get sufficiently pissed off about it. Generally I just cared about playing the games, and I didn't really care about Sony's bullshit games. Sure, it was an annoyance that Sony doesn't want to sell me those games, but, meh, I cared about the game, not about making a point.

      Now you can say that that's just contributing to the problem... and you'd be right too.

      --
      A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
    3. Re:And the oblig counter-point by brkello · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yes, region codes don't make sense to me either. I am trying to think of some reason they might do it...but I can't come up with any thing that makes it logical.

      But you have to understand, the people who install modchips on their consoles are far far more likely doing it to play pirated games than to avoid the region codes. I understand why they do that. And if they would just get rid of the region crap, you wouldn't be frustrated at all. Really, I am sure you aren't the person Sony was trying to target...it is the people who want to do bad things.

      But all this is moot to you if the PS3 doesn't have region encoding. And I am not sure if this is true now, but here is a past /. article: http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/23/ 0021243&from=rss. So it looks like you wouldn't have a problem with the PS3 if that is still true!

      Really, you have to be careful on slashdot or you turn in to the same type of sheeple. Everything Sony does isn't evil. Everything that Nintendo does isn't good. Everyone out there wants your money and some just pretend to be nicer than others.

      --
      Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
    4. Re:And the oblig counter-point by Saige · · Score: 3, Informative

      Region codes on games serve _no_ legitimate purpose.

      I have to disagree with you here.

      Region codes on games have purposes. Games sometimes have licensed content - and the costs of licensing that content can very depending on where the game will be distributed. It may be cheaper to license that music track for US audiences only, or the company they licensed the content from may themselves have the rights to the content for only certain countries. Japanese DDR games are a prime example - they're region coded because they've licensed the content for Japan only.

      There are probably games that region code when they don't serve a purpose, but I'd like to believe that this is minimal because doing so can only hurt profits. I suspect that most game region coding is there for a reason.

      --
      "You know your god is man-made when he hates all the same people you do."
    5. Re:And the oblig counter-point by amuro98 · · Score: 1

      While I agree with your point that region lockouts are a stupid, pointless technology, the reason they exist is to protect local distributors.

      When a game is localized for another country, it's often done through a different company - for instance Atlus does a lot of English translations of smaller Japanese titles for the US market.

      If you imported a copy of one of the games they did, then you aren't paying the local distributor (Atlus) for your copy.

      Granted - this is a VERY tennuous argument here. Usually, the game that's being imported is a version that hasn't been localized (ie. it's still in Japanese-only) and the copyright holders ARE getting their money for the title... However, the argument is that by buying a non-localized copy, you're depriving the local distributor of the sale. Yes, this is basically like saying "well, we WOULD have localized that title, but now that YOU bought your copy already, why bother?" And yes, the response to this is "Well, I WOULD have bought the localized version...IF YOU HAD EVER DONE ONE."

      This assumes, of course, that said title is even available in your area. A lot of games that make it to the US, never make it to Europe which just seems downright stupid to me. I'm certain a lot of European players do import titles from the US (and Japan) that aren't otherwise available there. This was one of the reasons Sony wanted to shut down LikSang so badly.

      This also doesn't even get into the problem of when games are altered/censored due to corporate or government stupidity. A good example of this would be turning the "blood" in Metal Slug from red to white for the US version, because apparently Americans are too delicate to be exposed to the fact that red stuff comes out when you shoot people...in a war.

      Overall, it's just very stupid. Unfortunatly, since the modchip to disable the region lock, also allows pirated copies, the manufacturer just lumps all modchip users into the same category - much the same way that region free DVD players are considered "illegal".

    6. Re:And the oblig counter-point by bombshelter13 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      This should affect retailers, not consumers. The liscencing is an issue, and as such it should be illegal for a retailer to either sell the game from an outlet outside the one it's region coded for, or to ship it from a location in the region to a consumer outside. What it shouldn't affect is a consumer physically travelling to the region in which the product is legal for sale, purchasing it, and bringing it back home with them. That's just ridiculous.

    7. Re:And the oblig counter-point by Saige · · Score: 1

      It affects consumers because the technology is there to make it harder to import games from another region and play them, so surely the license holders expect the technology to be used. And I wouldn't be surprised if not using region coding, when it's possible, could be grounds for a legal action.

      I'm not saying it's a GOOD idea or that I like it. I'm just saying that I see reasons why it's done.

      --
      "You know your god is man-made when he hates all the same people you do."
  6. I disagree by tkrotchko · · Score: 1

    "I think game consoles are one of the areas where the manufacturer can make a decent argument for why they bother."

    I disagree. Microsoft has shown a better way to control this: when you detect it, just don't let them hook up to the online service. Threatening people to stop them from *modifying their own equipment* is just crazy and isn't backed up by any sort of common sense.

    --
    You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
    1. Re:I disagree by amuro98 · · Score: 1

      The hackers already found a workaround for Microsoft's workaround to detect the hacker's first modchips. And so the cycle continues...

      As for modifying equipment, unfortunately that's actually illegal thanks to the idiotic congress that passed the DMCA some years ago. Before that, modchips weren't illegal at all.

    2. Re:I disagree by cowscows · · Score: 1

      I certainly don't agree with a company threatening or suing their customers for modifying their machines. I don't even care for region encoding or any of that. But in general, I find the built-in anti-copying features in game consoles to be of absolutely no concern to me. Unlike, for example, Apple's music store, where I have to register my various computers to listen to my music on all of them.

      --

      One time I threw a brick at a duck.

  7. Re:Nintendo's better than that by brkello · · Score: 4, Informative

    Your citation is missing because you are wrong. Nintendo did not announce nor are they sponsoring a homebrew contest on the Wii. Other people are sponsoring this which is no different than if it happened on the PS3 or PSP. So no, Nintendo is not better than that.

    Ironically, it appears that you don't RTFA.

    --
    Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
  8. Re:Nintendo's better than that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny
    Makes me glad my roommate bought one, although my arm hurts today.

    The Wii is a great console and all, but I don't know that I'd go quite that far to convince someone to let me use theirs. Have a little dignity.

  9. Here's an idea Sony by Kamokazi · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Maybe you should try spending the cash you are using on piracy prevention to develop...*gasp*...games worth buying?

    --
    As our way of thanking you for your positive contributions to Slashdot, you are eligible to disable Slashdot 2.0.
    1. Re:Here's an idea Sony by Kamokazi · · Score: 1

      Actually I haven't owned a console since the original Nintendo (unless you wanna count the Gameboy Color I haven't played in 4 or 5 years)...so I wouldn't consider myself a fanboy of any system (but I'm no fan of Sony, I'll admit that much).

      The simple fact is, there aren't many good games yet for the PS3 and they really need to work up their library.

      The Wii isn't much better off...there aren't a lot of great titles yet and they keep on worrying about hardware revisions to prevent piracy. The 360 has more titles now, but they're just as guilty of the same thing.

      My point is if they make it so you have to solder a mod chip in the console to pirate games, then the majority of the people will not pirate games...they don't need to keep working at it at that point. The same money could be invested making games that sell millions as opposed to preventing maybe one or two-hundred thousand pirates.

      --
      As our way of thanking you for your positive contributions to Slashdot, you are eligible to disable Slashdot 2.0.
  10. You know. by Pojut · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This is where things get fucking stupid. Why homebrew applications are not ENCOURAGED is beyond me. Granted, it's not a massive number, but I would be willing to bet my car that if the big three made their consoles open to homebrew developers without any kind of sidestepping, hacking, or putzing around required, they would find the sales of their gaming consoles go up. Yes, there will be people that pirate games, but you know what? The people that want to pirate games WILL find a way. I am quite confident that people wouldn't say "What? Homebrew apps are ENCOURAGED? Well fuck that, I'm not buying that open system!" ::sigh::

    --
    Living With a Nerd
    1. Re:You know. by Wesley+Felter · · Score: 1

      What's the difference between a homebrew game and a major-label game that just doesn't pay any royalties to Sony? If you want to play, you gotta pay.

    2. Re:You know. by Pojut · · Score: 1

      ....you do realize "homebrew" does not necessarily mean games, don't you?

      --
      Living With a Nerd
    3. Re:You know. by MasterOfDisaster · · Score: 1

      Simple. Dual-licenced APIs.

      One free/very cheap for homebrew, restrictions being you either can't sell the resulting applications at all, or are restricted to making, say, under $100,000 a year.

      The other licence would be what they have now, more expensive for creating retail games.

      --
      The opinions in this post are ficticious. Any similarity to actual opinions, real or imagined, is purely coincidental.
    4. Re:You know. by neverhadachoice · · Score: 1

      If you can do things on a console that don't require you to give them money, they lost money. Since they're taking such a painful hit on the hardware costs, they want you to buy games to recoup that. Any way that you can use your console without spending money is another minute you didn't spend on a game that's subsidising their loss.

    5. Re:You know. by Sparr0 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Or they could just sell their console for a profit, so they don't have to rely on licensing.

    6. Re:You know. by IrquiM · · Score: 1

      What car do you have?

      I actually think Sony knows this, but the fact is that if people are just gonna buy the PS3 to use it for Free software, they will lose alot of money... The restrictions might start to fall one by one as soon as they start making money on the hardware...

      --
      This is blinging
    7. Re:You know. by Pojut · · Score: 1

      My point was if sony (and the others) took all the money they invest in trying (which is the operative word here) to prevent hackers and homebrew folks, they could instead inject that money back into the development of a console and thus make a BETTER console.

      Hackers will ALWAYS find a way. Pirates will ALWAYS find a way. Make your system completely open, let them in, and use the extra money to make the system BETTER, thus potentially increasing sales. Don't forget, contrary to what many people believe, pirates do NOT make up the majority of gamers.

      BTW, I drive an '04 RSX Type-S Aspec

      --
      Living With a Nerd
    8. Re:You know. by Is0m0rph · · Score: 1

      Well MS did this with the 360 and XNA Game Studio Express. http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/directx/aa937794. aspx

    9. Re:You know. by ShorePiper82 · · Score: 1

      the pressure from shareholders makes this very difficult. Corporations have to guarantee shareholders return on investment. A "large" shareholder might say something like "well this homebrew thing is nice, i don't understand how it helps us make money though. in fact, piracy goes up and we lose money? right? ok, i vote we don't do it, and if you do, i'm pulling my money out of this company." When the shareholder's reach 51% agreement,.. quite a bit of pressure can be placed on the e-board regardless of what they think is good or not.

  11. Re:Region games by Panzergheist · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Yes, it is still true that PS3 games have no region encoding. The PS3 will honor the region encoding of DVDs, PS2 and PS1 games, and Blu-Ray movies. But no, there is no region encoding for PS3 games.

    I really don't see a legitimate reason for trying to hack the PS3. If you want home brew apps, install Linux on it. If you want that game from Japan that you can't get in your own country, buy it and place the disk in the drive. Apart from hacking it just for bragging rights, or to play pirated games, there really isn't a good excuse to bypass the protections on the PS3.

  12. Re:Nintendo's better than that by OmegaBlac · · Score: 2, Informative

    Nintendo recently announced (citation missing) a homebrew contest on the Wii.
    Wrong. Read again: http://wii-news.dcemu.co.uk/nintendo-wii-amp-gamec ube-coders-contest-2007-65730.html

    Makes me glad my roommate bought one, although my arm hurts today...
    Another night of furious jerking of your "Wii" to images of Princess Toadstool? :)
  13. Re:Nintendo's better than that by compro01 · · Score: 1

    So no, Nintendo is not better than that.

    yes, aside from the part where sony is threatening to sue and nintendo is not (yet, but i'll give them the benefit of the doubt).

    --
    upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
  14. Sony's Linux strategy by qweqwe321 · · Score: 1

    If Sony's trying so hard to keep third-party hacks from working on their boxes, why the hell did they make such a big deal about the ability to put Linux on them?

    1. Re:Sony's Linux strategy by CronoCloud · · Score: 4, Informative

      Sony doesn't care what you do on your PS2/PS3 as long as you do it under Linux (and under the restrictions Linux on the PS2/PS3 has). That's the sandbox you get to play in.

      Trying to do stuff outside of that, they don't like. That's the sort of thing that enables the running of "backups".

      Running Nethack under Linux: OK
      Running Nethack via a hack/exploit that also lets one run ISO/backups etc. Not OK.

    2. Re:Sony's Linux strategy by TeknoHog · · Score: 1

      Sony doesn't care what you do on your PS2/PS3 as long as you do it under Linux (and under the restrictions Linux on the PS2/PS3 has). That's the sandbox you get to play in.

      That doesn't explain the major restrictions of Linux on the PS3, for example the lack of graphics acceleration. Or does it?

      • Could some homebrew Linux game take a noticeable share of PS3 game sales?
      • Could the pirates copy and run PS3 games under PS3/Linux somehow? (perhaps using the curses library of black perl?-)

      I don't think these scenarios have much of an effect, since even if they happen, they require the installation of Linux which already weeds out many users.

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
  15. 17 USC 602 by tepples · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Even just buying an original DVD from Japan to play on your imported PS2 counts as piracy for Sony, or at least they'll try to handwave it as such. See Title 17, United States Code, section 602, which bans importing more than one copy of a game. This means that imported handheld games and those imported console games that lack split-screen mode have no multiplayer.

    The excuse on movie DVDs was that it eats into theatre ticket sales: someone who bought the US DVD early has often seen the movie that way before it even gets into the theatres. And because some movies are based on underlying works, and copyrights on these underlying works expire at different times in different countries. For instance, Peter and Wendy and other pre-1923 works in the Peter Pan universe are public domain in the United States, but they are copyrighted in the European Union until the end of this year, and they are copyrighted in the United Kingdom until Great Ormond Street Hospital goes out of business. In this case, region 2 DVDs would be subject to a royalty payable to GOSH, but region 2 DVDs would not.

    OK, I can even live with that mercantile reason. But that just simply doesn't apply to games. There simply is no big-screen theatre version of, say, Gran Turismo. At one time, the video game industry's counterpart to theatrical release was arcade release. In the case of Street Fighter II and its clones, this was true for a long time.

    Sony got my money fair and square there.

    But Sony Computer Entertainment America stole your money from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.

    Still, PSP and PS3 are largely region-free for gaming.

    1. Re:17 USC 602 by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      See Title 17, United States Code, section 602, which bans importing more than one copy of a game. This means that imported handheld games and those imported console games that lack split-screen mode have no multiplayer.

      That limit is most likely not nationwide so if you need multiple copies to play MP it's sufficient if everyone buys his own copy, just as it's intended with locally released games (they don't expect a single user to, say, amass 16 copies of Faceball 2000 just to set up a multiplayer game). Of course if the online service rejects you for living in the wrong region that's something else (you'll probably rejected for modding the console in first place) but AFAIK at least imported DS games can be played online.

      But Sony Computer Entertainment America stole your money from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.

      I believe the capitalists call that competition: If SCEE can't get the games out fast and cheap enough that the importing delays and costs are cheaper than their wares they will lose customers to the faster parts of the company. Sony may not want their regional subsidiaries to compete against each other but they could easily prevent most imports by simply kicking the right butts inside SCEE and making sure those games are released without delay like every PC game dev (and many console publishers that also handle PC games) seems to be capable of.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
  16. RSX lockout, PS2 lockout, PS1 lockout by tepples · · Score: 1

    I really don't see a legitimate reason for trying to hack the PS3. If you want home brew apps, install Linux on it. How do I access the extra 256 MiB of RAM in the RSX chip from Linux, even if only to use it as a RAM disk for a swap file? How do I access the RSX blitter, even if only to speed up 2D operations in X?

    If you want that game from Japan that you can't get in your own country, buy it and place the disk in the drive. Then how do I convince the publisher of the PS1 or PS2 game to port it to the PS3 so that it won't have a region lockout on it?
    1. Re:RSX lockout, PS2 lockout, PS1 lockout by Panzergheist · · Score: 3, Insightful

      How do I access the extra 256 MiB of RAM in the RSX chip from Linux, even if only to use it as a RAM disk for a swap file? How do I access the RSX blitter, even if only to speed up 2D operations in X?

      Even though your question is a moot point in this case, I will address it. In short, you cannot access the RSX directly. But here is why your question in this case is moot: The hack doesn't affect hyper visor functionality under Linux. It bypasses the copy-protection on the PS3. That is all it does and was designed to do.

      To answer your second question, you can convince any publisher as long as you show them enough money.

      In all seriousness, why don't you ask Sony on their new blog to allow region free gaming on ALL PlayStation games? Given their current need to win over the hearts and minds of gamers, if enough demand was shown on their new site I would be surprised if they didn't decide to implement it. The issue with the RSX chip is, unfortunately, in a sticky patent situation beyond the complete control of Sony or nVidia. The best bet there would be nVidia releasing a closed Linux driver for the RSX.

  17. Konamix? by tepples · · Score: 1

    Japanese DDR games are a prime example - they're region coded because they've licensed the content for Japan only. Then why was Dance Dance Revolution Konamix region-coded? It contains only those songs written and recorded by employees of Konami. And why are GameCube and Wii games published by Nintendo region-coded if they contain only works of Nintendo and its subsidiaries?
  18. French, Spanish, German, and Italian by tepples · · Score: 1

    A lot of games that make it to the US, never make it to Europe which just seems downright stupid to me. A game for the United States and Anglophone Canada needs to be translated from Japanese to English. A game for the British Isles and Mainland Europe needs to be translated from Japanese into French, Spanish, German, and Italian in addition to English.
    1. Re:French, Spanish, German, and Italian by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      Not necessarily. Some games are released without any translation (often with a hastily thrown together manual but sometimes not even that) so it's quite possible to just skip that, especially for games that don't involve much text.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    2. Re:French, Spanish, German, and Italian by amuro98 · · Score: 1

      What, so people who speak French, Spanish, German and Italian don't play video games?

      If they're already localizing into 1 language (English into Japanese or Japanese into English) why not do the other languages at the same time? It's not rocket science, just smart project management.

      It can't cost more than a few hundred grand per language and when we're talking millions for just the initial game development, that's a small price to pay to gain access to millions of additional customers.

    3. Re:French, Spanish, German, and Italian by tepples · · Score: 1

      If they're already localizing into 1 language (English into Japanese or Japanese into English) why not do the other languages at the same time? Because the number of customers per language in mainland Europe is smaller than the number of customers per language in Anglophone North America.

      It can't cost more than a few hundred grand per language How much do the developer and publisher sell to each language's speakers, especially if it's a game that needs a lot of voice acting, a lot of signs to be redrawn in another language, and a lot of puns to be rethought?
    4. Re:French, Spanish, German, and Italian by amuro98 · · Score: 1

      I've been working on internationalization and localization projects for over a decade.

      Again, that $100k per language I stated includes translating the manual, re-performing the spoken dialog (if necessary - sometimes just subtitles are acceptable), and even rewriting the jokes/puns or making other content changes. The majority of the difficulty and cost for handling different languages is built into the primary development of the product. Really, adding an additional languge just isn't that expensive.

      Even at $200k per language, and the game company making $10-20 in profit on each copy sold, I'm pretty sure there'll be no problem selling enough copies to make back the money you spent on localization, and then some. Especially when you consider that French, Spanish and German are all used in other countries beyond their namesakes.

  19. Wiimote for PC by tepples · · Score: 1

    Just imagine what cool homebrew stuff could be done on the Wii, and I certainly do not mean just games. Why not Wiimote + Bluetooth receiver + native PC apps?
    1. Re:Wiimote for PC by mad_psych0 · · Score: 1

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev9ZhYiUs4g
      That, and many many other things like it, began popping up within weeks of the WII launch.

  20. Re:yep, thats right by Doctor_Jest · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Like Nintendo and Microsoft do (and have done...)

    Of course MS just bans your console from live (for now), and they go after modders...

    Nintendo goes after everyone... with a big stick, just like Sony.

    Imagine that.... acting EXACTLY the same. This doesn't alienate me from their playbase, because I'm not too cheap to buy games...

    Homebrew my ass.

    --
    It's the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.
  21. Bah,,ga...eh.....umm...yeah by Assassin_for_Atari · · Score: 1

    Thats what I think when I think of this. I understand they want to protect their revenues, and I for one don't understand pirating games as writeable media, to me, is more assessable to damage and really, how long do you want that junk on your pc's hd. But I do get fustrated that home brew can't "bloom" the way I think it should on these consoles. I think homebrew is a viable way to get people interested in a console and I really hope at some time in the future they can provide a means for Homebrew while keeping the "badies" out

    1. Re:Bah,,ga...eh.....umm...yeah by Aazn · · Score: 1

      <quote>I for one don't understand pirating games as writeable media, to me, is more assessable to damage</quote>
      Seriously, how is a hard drive accessible to damage? Do you regularly flip the power switch on your computer back and forth during a lightning storm after rubbing your boots across your rug?

  22. Re:Nintendo's better than that by Evanisincontrol · · Score: 1

    The Wii is a great console and all, but I don't know that I'd go quite that far to convince someone to let me use theirs. Have a little dignity.
    It took me a second, but I picked up on it after some thought. Very nicely executed.
  23. Re:Nintendo's better than that by antime · · Score: 2, Informative

    By indie developers they mean people like Introversion, not hobbyists. You will still have to be a real company with real money to get a developer license.

  24. Parents with more than one child by tepples · · Score: 1

    That limit is most likely not nationwide so if you need multiple copies to play MP it's sufficient if everyone buys his own copy Not if you have more than one child and they all have Nintendo DS systems. Then the parent has to buy more than one copy.

    they don't expect a single user to, say, amass 16 copies of Faceball 2000 just to set up a multiplayer game Not sixteen, but even two or three for the two or three children in the household is still a copyright violation.
  25. Re:Region games by (A)*(B)!0_- · · Score: 1

    "I really don't see a legitimate reason for trying to hack the PS3."
    Because you bought it and you have a right to? That's not good enough? If I were to ever buy a Sony product again (unlikely), it is my right to do whatever I want with it once I get it home. That's a legitimate reason whether you like it or not.
  26. Has Sony lost their minds??? by sunsfan1991 · · Score: 3, Funny

    So nobody is buying you $600 console what do you do? 1) Lower your price 2) Make games people want to pay that much to play 3) Sue the few people who bought your overpriced console

  27. Games cannot be played. by bagofcrap · · Score: 1

    Its in the article, but perhaps it should be (re)noted that games are not actually playable. The article is light on details, but the hack originates from the debug firmware included with the dev-kits. Sony is well within their rights to pursue the leak of that firmware, as the developers signed NDA's with Sony.