After what seems like years of failed efforts, there may finally be a simple solution for hacking Sony’s PlayStation 3. Amusingly enough, the person with the golden ticket is an Australian online store called OzModChips, which claims to have the world’s first PS3 Modchip available for the pre-order sale price of $169AUD, all within a USB thumbdrive.
Some may ask why would you want to hack the PS3.
One of the primary reasons people have wanted to hack the PS3 is that you can copy PS3 games from discs and install them on your hard drive. It would no longer require you to insert a disc to play, and could blow open the door for a massive PS3 piracy renaissance. This would allow anyone to install pirated PS3 games on their PS3’s hard drive. There are also claims that games may run faster on the PS3’s internal hard drive compared to being played on a Blu-ray disc, as the PS3’s Blu-ray drive has a 2x read speed. OzModChips also reports that this hack can run with the latest firmware (v3.41), and can work on any model of the PS3 (including the slim).
We are still skeptical of the authenticity of this product and whether or not the world has fallen into an incredible marketing deception by some clever Australians. If the modchip is real, there will be a surge in activity within the PS3 homebrew/hacking scene, and inevitable firmware updates from Sony to counter this development. Read further analysis at Kotaku and Ars Technica.
Here is a video of the modchip in action:
