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PlayStation 3 'Hacker's Paradise', Sales Up

Posted by Zonk on from the probably-unrelated dept.

Via Game|Life, a story on The Age site suggests that password crackers are really enjoying their PlayStation 3s ... and not because Ratchet is a great game. An NZ-based security researcher stated at a local security conference that the supercomputing power of the PS3 is being put to more nefarious uses than Folding@home. "Speed is important to "brute force" password cracking, which relies on guessing all possible combinations of the characters that make up the password. The accelerated technique means passwords protecting Office, PDF, ZIP and Lotus Notes ID files can be cracked with breathtaking speed. However, many other password types are handled more securely in software and remain unaffected by Breese's claimed speed increase." Sony does have some good news this week, though. Either the holiday season or a price drop here in the states has led to a massive sales increase.

11 of 101 comments (clear)

  1. Ratchet and Clank really is an amazing game by Serge_Tomiko · · Score: 5, Informative

    I just got it yesterday, and I was blown away. It really does look like a Pixar movie. The background detail is just incredible. Hopefully, future PS3 games will show the system's potential as well as Ratchet and Clank.

    1. Re:Ratchet and Clank really is an amazing game by RogueyWon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why was parent modded off-topic? The game is mentioned in the summary and is probably one of the factors behind the big increase in PS3 sales. I've not picked up my copy yet (too many other things to finish off first - Persona 3, Mass Effect and Crysis at the top of the list), but it does look astoundingly good.

      I think, more than anything else, the factor behind the PS3's sales increase will be the fact that it is finally getting some games worth playing. For almost a year, Resistance: Fall of Man has been the only really top-notch title on the system, but this is definitely starting to change now.

      Last time around, the PS2 won the sales war by on overwhelming margin despite being both the most expensive system and the least impressive technically. Why? The games. First of all, it had the key, core exclusive franchises that move systems like no other; Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid and Gran Turismo. However, this alone wouldn't have been enough. More important was the fact that the PS2 was effectively guaranteed to pick up any game that wasn't a 1-platform exclusive. Plenty of games didn't get an Xbox or a Cube release, despite appearing elsewhere, but despite the pain involved in the development, the PS2 got basically everything. If your family only plans to own one console and doesn't intend to change it for a good few years, this is a huge factor.

      So far in this generation, no system has managed to establish a similar position on games. The PS3 is notoriously short of titles and most PS3s, my own included, are still mostly used as shiny and expensive PS2s. None of the franchises that helped Sony out so much last time have hit the machine yet. The Wii is an absolute desert for quality titles outside of a tiny number of Nintendo's own franchise games. In Japan, at least, its monthly sales lead has evaporated as the PS3 makes a fightback. The 360 is probably the best placed on games, due to its greater age, but it hardly has what I would call a commanding lead. MS have done a good job of attracting a more balanced line-up and, in Forza 2, have almost neutralised the advantage held by Sony with one of their "big" games (Gran Turismo), but they've still got a long way to go in some markets and in throwing off their image as the "fps" console.

    2. Re:Ratchet and Clank really is an amazing game by vux984 · · Score: 2, Informative


      In Japan, at least, its monthly sales lead has evaporated as the PS3 makes a fightback.

      You had me nodding until you got here.

      Yeah, technically that's true. They went from ~65k+ per week, to ~35k+ per week. And the PS3 recently spiked up (from ~15k to ~55k) But its a very small myopic view of a much bigger picture.

      To start, vgchartz.com (which you have to take with giant grain of salt mind you), is showing that the Wii sold some 640,000 units last week world wide. That, if true, is more than it acheived in a single week during its launch frenzy. And while I don't give too much credence to the exact numbers there, I'm sure there was a -massive- surge in the Wii over the last couple weeks. So in any case, Wii sales haven't evaporated in the big picture, not by a long shot.

      Additionally, other less disputable facts include:

      1) The wii is still largely supply constrained.

      2) The wii is still setting sales records all over the place, in the UK, in Japan, in Australia...

      3) Wii Fit launches in Japan next week, and I'll be stunned if it doesn't sell extremely well.

      4) The Wii is sold at a profit, and hasn't had a price cut yet. Nintendo is doing extremely well and could easily afford a price cut to boost sales (if it actually had more units to sell - see #1 above) The PS3 has been through a couple rounds of price cuts and is sold at a loss. That says a lot. Sort of reminds me of the situation where someone observed that the brown zune at blowout pricing is outselling ipods on amazon.com. It just doesn't mean much.

  2. Useless by seebs · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Tripling as opposed to last year's supply-constraints is hardly informative.

    Note that Nintendo gave concrete numbers, not ratios as compared to unknowns...

    --
    My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
  3. Massive increase by hibiki_r · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The massive increase they talk about is just in relative terms. Nintendo claims they sold 350k wiis last week:more than Gamespot claims the PS3 did all month, and that's because the Wii is still supply constrained. The 360 sold over 200k the same week too.

    Even with the price drop, they are still third in the US week to week. The fact that Uncharted, the PS3s best reviewed exclusive this year, is doing poorly just makes it more painful: It seems that people aren't even buying the good games. Not even 300k so far in the US for Ratchet & Clank?

    I wish the best to Sony, but I don't think they have a prayer until their biggest names come out. Maybe Final Fantasy, Metal Gear and Gran Turismo can stop the bleeding.

  4. Bah, "Hacker" meaning "cracker" by TeknoHog · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I was expecting something about Linux/OSS development on the PS3 :-P~

    --
    Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
  5. "Sony does have some good news this week" by RHSC · · Score: 4, Funny

    they just saved money by switching to geico?

  6. Nick Breese's Presentation by this+great+guy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I haven't been able to find the presentation that Nick Breese gave at Kiwicon. It's not on kiwicon.org, it's not on the websites with which he is associated. However I found a 10 min of audio recording excerpt of his presentation on this podcast (between 9:38 and 21:06).

  7. Re:Most Powerful and Open Console yet? by pembo13 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sucks for you. I have been logging several hours with mine. Luckily, you not enjoying it has no effect on the rest of us.

    --
    "Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
  8. Re:New PS3 Commericials by scot4875 · · Score: 3, Funny

    I disagree with this statement 100%. The commercials are stupid -- but then, I like to be informed by commercials, not entertained or given "warm fuzzy" feelings about the advertised product.

    I have no idea what good exclusive games are out yet for the PS3 (if there is any)

    And this is exactly why the commercials were stupid. I think I saw a couple flashes of Ratchet & Clank in the spots, but honestly I have no clue what games they were even trying to advertise to me. Basically the ad said to me, as a gamer who loosely follows the releases on platforms I don't own, "We don't have any specific games worth showing to you, but the PS3 sure is awesome. You should get one." To which I say, "Screw that."

    --Jeremy

    --
    Jesus was a liberal
  9. Re:Botnets for Cracking Maybe? by tmasky · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Heya, Nick B here..

    The above author made a very valid point =)

    However, in the initial "grand scheme of things", Sony wanted Cell processors in every piece of consumer electronics to create a sort-of distributed computing model within your home. More processors and more potential entry points. Who knows if that'll still happen.

    In any case, the point I've been trying to make is that vector processors can do crypto very well. The Cell's SPUs are just a very good example of that. Who knows what other vector processors could be used..

    I want to apologise for the lack of technical detail available. I absolutely hate it when I read a news piece and can't find further info. The media piece came out of a pre-release talk I did at the Kiwicon security conference.

    The full presentation will (hopefully) be done at some international security conference. All technical information and source code will be made available then. No software patents are involved ;)