PS3 Fanboy

[Update: This will only work on test PS3 systems. This will NOT work on retail systems. Sorry for the confusion.]

Yup, you heard it right: hackers have discovered a way to run retail PS3 games off the PS3's internal HDD and off external USB HDDs. While this is quite a neat trick, it might not be all that useful considering how much data is stored on a single layered Blu-ray disc -- about 25 gigabytes. That precious HDD space will probably end up being devoured in no time.

More tech-savvy gamers out there who want to know more about this development can go check out the tech mumbo-jumbo here. We're pretty sure this high-level jargon will scare away most. What countermeasures can Sony take to ensure this doesn't become an even larger problem? Rampant piracy has always cast its dark shadow over the PSP ... will the PS3 be next? Let's hope not.

[Via Maxconsole]

SCEA has declared that they will "actively pursue" legal action against hackers that attempt to crack the PS3 anti-piracy software. This announcement arrives just after recent news that hackers were close to completely cracking the PS3 anti-piracy software found in firmware versions 1.10 and 1.11. Their progress on the crack would allow pirated PS3 games to boot, but they still were not playable. The homebrew community is also still waiting in the wings, as even this latest attempt still prevents any type of homebrew gaming on the PS3 console.

Obviously, SCEA hopes to stalwart further progress and deter hackers from completely subverting the anti-piracy measures completely, because saying "please" just doesn't carry the same weight as legal action. Dave Karraker, SCEA spokesperson says, "the best we can do as a company, is to make our security that much stronger and aggressively pursue legal action against anyone caught trying to use an exploit in an illegal manner."

The pirates who want to burn and run copied PS3 disks? Yeah, they're bad. Bad, bad. Spankings all around kind of bad. And if you're thinking of doing it, you shouldn't. Go find someone to deliver a spanking for even thinking such thoughts. On the homebrew front, we're kind of indifferent. Now, we're stepping out on a very thin limb here, but maybe, just maybe if Sony was a little bit more organized in lining up a steady stream of content for thirsting PS3 owners, we wouldn't have hackers so interested in cracking the PS3 for homebrew. What do you think?