After spending tens of thousands fighting hackers and distributors in an Australian Court, Sony Computer Entertainment, who are currently suffering from falling revenues and sliding profits, has rolled out a software fix that prevents pirated games being played on the PS3 console. The move is set to upset hackers who shortly before the court case finished, released the software for free online.
The update blocks both the PSJailbreak and PSGroove applications which were at the centre of a bitter legal fight earlier this month in the Australian Federal Court.
Mathieu Hervais, one of the developers behind PSGroove, told BBC News that it was “safer not to update” if users wished to continue using the hacks.
The BBC said that the update is the latest step in Sony’s ongoing battle against the commercial dongle – PS Jailbreak – that allows users to play pirated software. It also targets open source code, known as PSGroove, which allows homemade games to be played on the console.
Last week the Federal Court allowed Sony to block the distribution of a hack for its PlayStation 3 (PS3) console. The company was also granted with orders preventing local distributors, OzModChips, ModSupplier and Quantronics from importing or distributing the device in Australia.
The device which was being made by Chinese firm China Sun Trading Limited, housed software that allowed homemade games and those unauthorised to be played on the console without any payment being made to Sony.
The PSGroove software, which can be downloaded from Bit Torrent sites, was specifically designed not to allow the playing of pirated games however hackers got hold of the software and modified it to allow third Party games to be played.
Despite the court case findings, Sony has decided to tackle the problem head-on by releasing a software update for the consoles that block the hacks.
The new patch received a mixed reception from the gaming community, with some users praising Sony for its prompt action, while others were more critical.
“Every time there is an update, it’s a security patch I don’t care about,” wrote one.
“Give me something that will keep me occupied like more visuals on the music player, a way to delete trophies for a game I don’t have anymore, backward compatibility for PS2 games, better video chat.
“You guys don’t take to many suggestions from your players. If you listen, I mean really listen, to the ideas you will be top,” they added.
