PS3 Firmware 3.42 mandatory update available now

@RKN Last time was 3.15, which was optional when it first came out.
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/12/08/psp-minis-playable-on-ps3-with-firmware-update-3-15/

@RKN also, 3.41, if i remember correctly.

@RKN

Can anyone confirm that external hard drives still work?

Confirmed that 3.42 disables Jailbreak.
But you can't stop flod of clones and open solutions that are already freely distributed.
Any 3.41 PS3 can be unlocked (google PSFreedom) using:
Nokia N900 ; Palm Pre ; Dingoo (console) ; Google NexusOne ; HTC Desire (Bravo)
in tests and soon to be released are
iPhone , Android phones
Dualshock pad (LOL)

The promised features are PS1 and PS2 emulation on ALL consoles, Linux with full hardware access, emulators, homebrew and more.

If they start modifying firmwares as PSP scene did even Sony updates will be meaningless.

@(Unverified)

PS1 emulation on all PS3s?

Something tells me you don't really know what you're talking about and are hyping a product you also don't really understand.

Every PS3 gamer realizes that PS1 games are already playable on all PS3s. It's not even legit to call it emulation.

Maybe you're a console warrior, or maybe you just love piracy, or maybe you hate Sony (lots of people do). Maybe you are one of the few who, like me, love homebrew on the PS3.

Fact is, rampant piracy will ruin this great console's future game library. It will hurt great devs who have families to feed. It's wrong. The PS3 is, mostly, an entertainment device. We can make homebrew on something else these days.

I'm glad Sony won this round, but I have no doubt they will find it difficult to beat greedy pirates. you guys are the reason I lost OtherOS. Not Sony.

@Nintari
I've always wondered about that. You've been able to get modded 360s forever now, yet the 360 still tends to sell more software.

@RKN I was really excited for those PS3 jailbreak, especially that last trick wherein you can use a N900 or Palm-Pre just to hack in the PS3. http://minyurl.org/5zm

But at the back of my mind, I was sure this won't last. And certainly Sony isn't blind. And today, all of those fears came into reality.

@Nintari

Two things you are forgetting:
1) Games didn't cost $60 million to make during the PS1 era.
2) The N64 was actually the biggest success out of the two, in terms of how much money Nintendo made compared to how much money Sony made. This is due in part to piracy being rampant on the PS1 and near-nonexistant on the N64.

@Fuzzyhammers

+1. Support the honest gamers.

@Fuzzyhammers I don't, at least not right away, only because the jailbreak is getting updated to allow the PS3 to play PS2 games. Proving it's possible on any PS3 model. Proving many people's (including my own) suspicions that Sony is purposely holding back PS2 b/c on the PS3 in order to sell more PS2s. I want the jailbreak to be a threat to them so that they're forced to finally add B/C to all PS3 models via fw update in order to encourage less people to use the jailbreak...

...although I don't care as much about playing PS2 games on my PS3 anymore, since I recently discovered PCSX2. Playing FFX on my computer in 1680 x 1050 resolution = beyond awesome. And BTW, since we're talking jailbreaks (and basically piracy), yes, I mean playing PS2 games that I already own on my computer.

@(Unverified) Source? or is this BS?

@(Unverified)

Forced? Are you delusional? All that will do is force Sony to fix the jailbreak. They're not going to say "Oh no, they found out our secret! Now we have to give everyone free PS2 emulation!"

@danthe57
That is complete BS. They can try to use as many asinine excuses as they can, but homebrew will never be possible with this exploit and all they are doing is opening up piracy and stealing games.

Wowie, you want to play PS2 games? Dreamcast games too? Boo hoo, go buy a PS2 if you care much; I still have mine. Friggin game changer for sure.

@Fuzzyhammers - I don't really mind one way or the other. Playing games I own off of the HDD instead of having to mess with discs would be nice. Having said that, I can trust myself not to steal, and it is becoming pretty clear that like most other jailbreaks, the main feature people are clamoring for is the ability to play games they either download off the internet, or borrow from friends/rent from Gamefly/etc.

The day OtherOS was taken away, I knew it would only be a matter of time before the console was jailbroken. A hornets nest of angry coders was prodded that day, and we're seeing the results now. Ports to calculators (of all things...), Phones, other game consoles, and everything in-between. There were tons of coders just waiting to sink their teeth into this.

Right now I'm just hoping that The Last Guardian sells really, really well so we can say "Look! It sold really really well!". The alternative is "Why didn't you people buy it? Pirating dicks!" and I'd like to avoid that scenario.

Oh, and this F/W Update does break the jailbreak in its current configuration. Whether or not it has closed the hole for good is still unknown. If you were planning on using this thing ethically, I'd say hold off on updating. If you just wanted to pirate games....by all means, update.

@Fuzzyhammers
ps3news is confirming reports now that it does in fact block the psjailbreak. Score one for Sony!

@(Unverified)

http://cristgaming.com/pirate.swf

@(Unverified)

Considering this allows "unsigned code" to run, this proves NOTHING.

@Fuzzyhammers
I hope it DOESN'T. I bought Final Fantasy XIII sometime ago and (thanks to my lovely 4-yr-old niece) it was slaughtered. As much as I love the game, I'm certainly not going to waste more money to buy it again.

Jailbreak is good for ps3 game backups. Until they make these game discs and those damn cartridges with some invincible material, I say let the hackers and pirates continue the onslaught.

Quality entertainment usually never includes durability.

@metamorphic - I forgot to address your comment in mine. This jailbreak absolutely allows for homebrew. It literally just opens the PS3 to allowing unsigned code to be run, and we're already seeing a few homebrew apps such as one that downloads things off of the PSN with multiple threads (like your classic download accelerator).

I have no doubt that we'll soon see NES, SNES, and a few other emulators ported to the PS3. Eventually there may even be a PS2 emulator.

Piracy is certainly what this jailbreak will mostly be used for unfortunately, but it's incorrect to say that the only thing it does is enable piracy.

@Fuzzyhammers.

To the guy wanting to play PS2 games on the PS3, I wouldn't bother waiting. I have used tonnes of different firmwares and different emulators on PC, Playstation 2, PSP, my phone etc., and while most of the time the emulation is good, othertimes it's complete shit. Probably not worth waiting for.

Similarly, the problem with your argument is that while you may think you're an ethical gamer, you'll always be tempted. More likely than not, you'd end up pirating a game anyway because "it's not worth buying" or "just to test it out." Pirates always come up with reasons why pirating is ok, when in reality, they're just dicks. :(

@(Unverified) Yeah, that's not gonna happen. They'll just keep banning anyone who jailbreaks their system and life will go on.

@jmood88 - I kind of feel for the kids that will immediately do this jailbreak and then go online with their PS3's and get banned.

Actually, no, I'm having flashbacks of public matches on Xbox Live featuring the same kids, and I no longer have any sympathy.

@pluupy just want to point out something, blu-ray disks...at least for in my experience, they've been tough.. I mean for being a disk its pretty darn durable. I think its because of the coating it has. its why i tend to buy used games only on my ps3. I have yet to have one scratch on all my library of games, and that with my brother leaving them on top of the desk and sometimes even dropping them. ( I slap him behind the head still) :D

@(Unverified)

What are you talking about? Do you have any idea of how a console such as the PS3 or Xbox can do b/c? It is not something "already in the system" that some hacker can just unlock. Far from it. The jailbreak does nothing to allow b/c.

Put it simply, there are two ways to get b/c: 1) you have the hardware from the previous console inside of the new machine (like the original 20 and 60gig models), or 2) you use software emulation (like the 360 and the 80gig PS3 from 2007).

With the former you have no issues- just put in the game and it will run perfectly. With the latter, however, it ain't that simple. You can do a generic emulator to run the old games (after all, the hardware is not the same) but that means that many games will have issues on the graphics or sound departments. There is a reason why Sony had to put up a compatible PS2 games list back when the software emulated 80gig model came out. Many games had some sort of bug as a result of that. This is also the reason why the X360 catalog of b/c games is small: software emulation is not perfect by any stretch.

In order to make software emulation work right you need to patch each game separately meaning that you need people working exclusively on games that won't turn a profit. After all, if you already have them you ain't buying a new copy.

So, stop complaining about the lack of b/c. That shipped sailed long ago. Sony is not holding back anything. If they were to put people to software emulate every PS2 game they would need to move resources from current PS3 games or raise the cost somewhere.

If you want to play PS2 games then get a PS2. With what you pay for a new console and a PS3 you would be paying what the original hardware b/c 60gig model would cost these days.

@BananaBoat i don't feel bad for them id laugh my ass off at them stupid moron cheating brats lol too funny

@BananaBoat lets face it they kept the hacking/cracking community muted with the Linux support, as soon as that was removed you know it was going to be all bets off..

I still rate Geohot as a huge douche bag, he done Sweet eff all his crack was absolutely effing useless and he got the Linux functionality removed, above him I rate the idiots at Sony that removed the feature as the biggest Douche bags, they ultimately deserved this for promising and selling consoles with a feature and then removing it.

Piracy is still not possible because of the medium, blu ray disks are huge some of the games are truly massive downloads (~40GB) and the ps3 only supports the vfat (fat32) file system (4GB file size limit all games are larger than 4GB) are all limitations that have to be circumvented to be be able to successfully distribute pirated ps3 games.. Yes renting games and then copying them locally or borrowing friends games and pirating are really the only methods for "piracy" lets face it, if your renting a game and copying or able to borrow from a friend the chances of you actually buying the game would have been 0 anyway, so that cant be considered piracy and if some one wants to try and tell me that borrowing from a friend is illegal they can go and spin on my middle finger.

Piracy apparently hurts publishers right ? So how much are EA and Activision worth right now ?

http://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:ATVI+NASDAQ:ERTS

Company name Price Change Chg % d | m | y Mkt Cap
ATVI Activision Blizzard, Inc. 11.21 +0.20 1.82% 13.73B
ERTS Electronic Arts Inc. 16.46 +0.10 0.61% 5.44B

Its obviously a very profitable business. I dont believe in Hive mentality or group think, and looking at those figures its pretty obvious they make far more from game sales than they should, we are being over charged and we take it.. Its no wonder fat cats Like Kodick exist in this sector who dont give a flying monkeys about the developers or people like us who play the games, but only care about milking us for all we earn. This is why I dont give a flying monkeys about the whole piracy debate, developers earn a fraction of what the publishers make and yet the publishers are all a bunch of talentless marketing bums.

@Fuzzyhammers

I agree with you whole heartedly. +1 for gamers!!

@Solace lol

@pluupy

I hear ya. Some idiot crashed into my car the other day. So i went out and stole another one. Hell, SOMEBODY has to pay when bad things happen to me.

@McDuckScrooged

http://www.inameri.ca/erm/index.php?start=6

Thank you.

@Fuzzyhammers

Wait unit next week. lol

@Fuzzyhammers

As far as I know, this update doesn't necessarily break the PSGroove/PSFreedom exploit. The exploit was written specifically for 3.41, so it's possible that after updating to 3.42 the memory addresses are in different locations but the exploit is still possible.

If that's the case, I imagine it is relatively trivial to port the exploit to 3.42 and everything will be back to how it was before the update.

@McDuckScrooged

"Piracy is still not possible because of the medium, blu ray disks are huge some of the games are truly massive downloads (~40GB) and the ps3 only supports the vfat (fat32) file system (4GB file size limit all games are larger than 4GB) are all limitations that have to be circumvented to be be able to successfully distribute pirated ps3 games."

This isn't entirely accurate. Piracy is enabled and working, from what I've heard.

From what I understand, the "backup manager" doesn't make an image of the Blu-Ray. It actually copies the disc's contents to the hard drive, file by file. While there are games that contain individual files larger than 4GB, I've heard that most do not.

But yes you are right that it would be a massive download if someone were to get it from the internet. It would definitely be more time-efficient to rent or borrow a game and copy it over locally, but even copying it from your own PS3 would take quite a bit of time.

@pluupy

There ya go, blame Sony because you leave your shit laying around.

"Quality entertainment usually never includes durability." What? So if they spend more money on the game, they have to pinch pennies on the materials that make up the disc? REALLY?

Ignorant.

@ColdHeat

You are correct that Sony already had the software ColdHeat, but we go back to one of my points: in order to get the games running properly you need to put resources to patch the games separately.

There's also another point: the software emulated PS3 from 2007 wasn't 100% software emulated. The original 20 and 60gig models had both the PS2's Emotion Engine and Graphics Synthesizer chips inside. In order to reduce costs with the 80gig model but still have b/c Sony removed the Graphics Synthesizer but left the Emotion Engine chip inside. The only part that was software emulated was that of the GS.

When Sony pulled the plug on b/c it removed all remaining PS2 hardware from the console. In other words, to have any sort of emulation right now it would be back to square one. Sony would need to start from scratch with the software in order not only to emulate both the GS but also the EE. In that situation they'd be doing what Microsoft did and having to patch each game separately in order to run properly, once again requiring a lot of resources, time and money.

To ad to the complexity, in the case of Microsoft the original Xbox and X360, while different, both have processors that are more akin to PC processors (both used Pentium processors) making the software emulation a bit easier to deal with with the biggest area of work being the graphics processors. In the case of the PS3, on the other hand, the Cell and RSX are not even remotely similar to the Emotion Engine and Graphics Synthesizer making the emulation that much more difficult.

@ptcamn Actually, the 360's processor is a PowerPC based chip, quite unlike the Celeron in the original Xbox.

@nullset

Spoiler:
Sony wins.

@ChuckBartowski

And wherever there's a loophole there's a patch...

This isn't Sony vs. Hackers, it's Sony and Majority of Gamers vs. Hackers

@ChuckBartowski
Really? Is that why none of the newest PSP firmwares have ever been truly hacked i.e. there is no custom firmware and thus piracy? Dedicated my ass.

@Leon Trotsky TDA

Just out of interest, how are the "Majority Of Gamers" helping aid Sony in any way besides big ups on gaming forums? I think Sony will manage just fine without this contingency

@Leon Trotsky TDA
I wish. But now you can do it with any Android Phone and it takes like 2 secs. Most sites aren't providing the Backupmanager, as it is illegal, but you can get that anywhere.
I REALLY hope newer games don't work this anymore, but the Jailbreak(for homebrew) still continues to work. That would be awesome!

@Crayola Q Pants ESQ

Word of mouth.

lol @ "sony wins"

New to the internet? Hackers have always won and always will win, at least until Skynet takes over.

@aughscreennames The PSP disagrees with you.

@Dumbapple Can you please elaborate on this? I have custom firmware on my psp and haven't updated it in more than a year now. I can play Kingdom Hearts on it which just came out today. Are you trying to say Sony is winning the battle on PSP?

@metamorphic Really really. the reason the PSP is no longer hackable is because DarkAlex stopped working on the scene. However if you look at the Nintendo hacking community (as our friend chuck mentioned), Every single console the have is moddable, without even needing to modchip! It's only a matter of time, and while I will be using the PSJailbreak, I'll be using it for the myriad of functionality it will eventually allow.

@platypusrme Can you play it under CFW 6.20? Or is it 5.55 Gen-D3?