PlayStation 3 finally hacked?

The PlayStation 3 has enjoyed many pirate-free years, but if the rumours are true then those days are over. An unknown company has apparently created a USB modchip going by the name of PSJailbreak which once inserted lets gamers install software onto the PS3’s HDD.

Potential pirates won’t even need to buy a Blu-Ray disk burner to get copied games. The hack works by streaming game data either from the internal HDD or via USB flash drives/hard disk drives.

Videos have appeared on YouTube from companies such as OzModChips who have been sent the USB modchip. The USB device appears to be activated when the system is booted by holding down the power followed by the eject button, which suggests that it’s derived from debug equipment used by Sony themselves. OzModChips says that their nameless packages have been sent from a company based in Hong Kong.

Even more worrying for Sony is that the PSJailbreak will reportedly work on any model on PlayStation 3 with any firmware.

We should know within the next few days if this is just one elaborate hoax or not. Unfortunately for Sony though, it would appear that it isn’t the case.