The future of the PS3

[Mazdarese]

So, now that the PS3 has been completely hacked, what is the future going to hold for it?

I've always been an avid follower of 'the scene'. I'm certainly not clever enough to be a contributor to it, and I don't condone piracy, but some of the homebrew applications and custom firmware that will appear soon should be pretty interesting. I've got a spare PS3 that I'm going to play around with, and if there's going to be a custom firmware that opens it up a bit more then it's going to make for interesting times.

But, could this be the end of the PS3 commercially? For me, part of the fun of gaming is going to the shop and spending some hard-earned on a decent game, getting home and firing it up for the first time and enjoying it for a few hours. If you've spent £40 on something you're more likely to put the time in to use it. How many current PS3 owners will be hacking their PS3's and downloading every game available, and never buying an original again? One in ten. More? How will games developers react? Obviously, if 1 in 10 PS3 owners stops buying games that's going to be a considerable loss of earnings.

Maybe it'll push Sony to develop a PS4? Other than improving security to prevent it being hacked, how could they improve on a PS3? Graphics and sound have pretty much plateaud. I suppose the next natural step would be 3D?

Whilst I think it's sometimes for the greater good that hackers manage to do these kind of things, I do find it a little saddening that it might be the end of a great console.

That said, interesting times ahead I think.

[freecar]

It's fked.

The pirates just want free games, I don't give two fks what they say about homebrew. Sony didn't let you have homebrew to start with, it was their decision and the TOS reflected that (geohot was so scared of being sued for the TOS that he claimed he was "given" his ps3!) but they are children who can't stand authority so they've fked it up for the rest of us.

I fully expect games to become more expensive for longer or have prohibitive copy protection again (remember a code book the size of a grattan catalogue, welcome back!)

[hostyle]

Mazdarese said:

Maybe it'll push Sony to develop a PS4? Other than improving security to prevent it being hacked, how could they improve on a PS3? Graphics and sound have pretty much plateaud. I suppose the next natural step would be 3D?

3D is allready available. Next steps would be improving on hardware, better processors, better GPU's, etc. Seeing current developments, Sony is developing it towards the mediacenter to have. So games, music, internet, apps, movies, etc. all in one convenient package.

[Mazdarese]

freecar said:

It's fked.

The pirates just want free games, I don't give two fks what they say about homebrew. Sony didn't let you have homebrew to start with, it was their decision and the TOS reflected that (geohot was so scared of being sued for the TOS that he claimed he was "given" his ps3!) but they are children who can't stand authority so they've fked it up for the rest of us.

I fully expect games to become more expensive for longer or have prohibitive copy protection again (remember a code book the size of a grattan catalogue, welcome back!)

Hmm. I read a lot of the PS3 scene forums and the amount of Sony haters and vitriol aimed towards them infuriates me. It's a fantastic console, with some fantastic games, why be so bitter about paying £40 for a game? Sony have continued to add features via firmware updates over the years too, and that should be applauded.

Copy protection will just be cracked like it is on the PC. People will download the ISO and then a patch for it, I imagine.

Which game was it that had the 3 wheel copy protection thing where you had to spin three wheels and line up holes to get a number or something? I'm sure it was Geoff Crammond's F1!

[freecar]

Mazdarese said:

freecar said:

It's fked.

The pirates just want free games, I don't give two fks what they say about homebrew. Sony didn't let you have homebrew to start with, it was their decision and the TOS reflected that (geohot was so scared of being sued for the TOS that he claimed he was "given" his ps3!) but they are children who can't stand authority so they've fked it up for the rest of us.

I fully expect games to become more expensive for longer or have prohibitive copy protection again (remember a code book the size of a grattan catalogue, welcome back!)

Hmm. I read a lot of the PS3 scene forums and the amount of Sony haters and vitriol aimed towards them infuriates me. It's a fantastic console, with some fantastic games, why be so bitter about paying £40 for a game? Sony have continued to add features via firmware updates over the years too, and that should be applauded.

Copy protection will just be cracked like it is on the PC. People will download the ISO and then a patch for it, I imagine.

Which game was it that had the 3 wheel copy protection thing where you had to spin three wheels and line up holes to get a number or something? I'm sure it was Geoff Crammond's F1!

How can you crack the copy protection when the game asks you for a word from a 100,000 word book every now and then? People haven't blown the coding wide open just the copy protection which was all very much behind the scenes. I can see it becoming a more up front thing now. I hope sony can figure out who has hacked their console and brick it permanently.

Edited by freecar on Friday 7th January 12:09

[russ_a]

XBOX 360 has been hacked for a long time and it's still going. Plus IMHO the ease at which the PS1 was hacked made the platform.

[130R]

99% of people won't exploit the hack and you are assuming Sony cannot fix it with a network update which may not be the case.

[TEKNOPUG]

Why do we still have only 3 different games consoles to choose from and each has it's own seperate format? What benefit is there to the consumer? We only have 1 format of CD and I can play in on a thousand different CD players as well as computers, DVD players, car stereos etc. The same with DVD/Blu-Ray. Thousands of different hardware to choose from, each with different qualities that I can select based on my needs and means. The same with PC games; I buy a game and can play it on a low-spec machine or a top spec one with all the graphics turned to 11.

So why don't we have one single consoel game format and a hundred different consoles to choose from? Wii, 360, PS3 all have slightly different attributes, like networking and blu-ray capablity. Why can't I by a Denon or Panasonic or Yamaha console that will offer different abilities and experiences in the same way that the rest of the AV and computer world (Mac excluded) does?

We're all victims of a massive con. Maybe this news will go someway to resolving this ripoff.

[bishbash]

freecar said:

How can you crack the copy protection when the game asks you for a word from a 100,000 word book every now and then?

That can be cracked, you either change the dictionary to use the same word everytime, or remove those routines completely.

freecar said:

I hope sony can figure out who has hacked their console and brick it permanently.

From my understanding of the hack, that can't happen, the master keys will give 100% access to the system allowing you to reverse anything sony puts in place.

[rufusruffcutt]

I suspect that the PS4's architecture is on a test bench somewhere already.

I also think that the next generation of consoles (Xbox, Playstation & Nintendo) will be the last in the guise of buying media (game discs, movie discs) to load into them. Everything will be just pulled off the web via online stores for the generation after next.

[ZesPak]

TEKNOPUG said:

Why do we still have only 3 different games consoles to choose from and each has it's own seperate format? What benefit is there to the consumer? We only have 1 format of CD and I can play in on a thousand different CD players as well as computers, DVD players, car stereos etc. The same with DVD/Blu-Ray. Thousands of different hardware to choose from, each with different qualities that I can select based on my needs and means. The same with PC games; I buy a game and can play it on a low-spec machine or a top spec one with all the graphics turned to 11.

So why don't we have one single consoel game format and a hundred different consoles to choose from? Wii, 360, PS3 all have slightly different attributes, like networking and blu-ray capablity. Why can't I by a Denon or Panasonic or Yamaha console that will offer different abilities and experiences in the same way that the rest of the AV and computer world (Mac excluded) does?

We're all victims of a massive con. Maybe this news will go someway to resolving this ripoff.

The reason is the same as to why we have different app markets for different phones.
It's profit, it always is the reason. Build a PC that doesn't support all software out there, and people won't buy it, then spend millions on creating very good software for it, and people will buy it, plus you can get the "royalties" on all the software.

Don't forget the hardware in a lot of consoles (X360 and PS3) is sold at a loss, so they have to make some profit on games.

[MacW]

TEKNOPUG said:

Why do we still have only 3 different games consoles to choose from and each has it's own seperate format? What benefit is there to the consumer? We only have 1 format of CD and I can play in on a thousand different CD players as well as computers, DVD players, car stereos etc. The same with DVD/Blu-Ray. Thousands of different hardware to choose from, each with different qualities that I can select based on my needs and means. The same with PC games; I buy a game and can play it on a low-spec machine or a top spec one with all the graphics turned to 11.

So why don't we have one single consoel game format and a hundred different consoles to choose from? Wii, 360, PS3 all have slightly different attributes, like networking and blu-ray capablity. Why can't I by a Denon or Panasonic or Yamaha console that will offer different abilities and experiences in the same way that the rest of the AV and computer world (Mac excluded) does?

We're all victims of a massive con. Maybe this news will go someway to resolving this ripoff.

Thank you Karl Marx.

[S3_Graham]

russ_a said:

XBOX 360 has been hacked for a long time and it's still going. Plus IMHO the ease at which the PS1 was hacked made the platform.

i hope that they use the online facitlities to find who is cheating/hacking and ban their console permanently. This has been done Via xbox live and could be done via PSN.

[TEKNOPUG]

ZesPak said:

TEKNOPUG said:

Why do we still have only 3 different games consoles to choose from and each has it's own seperate format? What benefit is there to the consumer? We only have 1 format of CD and I can play in on a thousand different CD players as well as computers, DVD players, car stereos etc. The same with DVD/Blu-Ray. Thousands of different hardware to choose from, each with different qualities that I can select based on my needs and means. The same with PC games; I buy a game and can play it on a low-spec machine or a top spec one with all the graphics turned to 11.

So why don't we have one single consoel game format and a hundred different consoles to choose from? Wii, 360, PS3 all have slightly different attributes, like networking and blu-ray capablity. Why can't I by a Denon or Panasonic or Yamaha console that will offer different abilities and experiences in the same way that the rest of the AV and computer world (Mac excluded) does?

We're all victims of a massive con. Maybe this news will go someway to resolving this ripoff.

The reason is the same as to why we have different app markets for different phones.
It's profit, it always is the reason. Build a PC that doesn't support all software out there, and people won't buy it, then spend millions on creating very good software for it, and people will buy it, plus you can get the "royalties" on all the software.

Don't forget the hardware in a lot of consoles (X360 and PS3) is sold at a loss, so they have to make some profit on games.

Doesn't really answer the question as to why console games are still existing in a monopoly when CD's, DVD's, Blu-Rays, PC etc aren't.

[freecar]

TEKNOPUG said:

ZesPak said:

TEKNOPUG said:

Why do we still have only 3 different games consoles to choose from and each has it's own seperate format? What benefit is there to the consumer? We only have 1 format of CD and I can play in on a thousand different CD players as well as computers, DVD players, car stereos etc. The same with DVD/Blu-Ray. Thousands of different hardware to choose from, each with different qualities that I can select based on my needs and means. The same with PC games; I buy a game and can play it on a low-spec machine or a top spec one with all the graphics turned to 11.

So why don't we have one single consoel game format and a hundred different consoles to choose from? Wii, 360, PS3 all have slightly different attributes, like networking and blu-ray capablity. Why can't I by a Denon or Panasonic or Yamaha console that will offer different abilities and experiences in the same way that the rest of the AV and computer world (Mac excluded) does?

We're all victims of a massive con. Maybe this news will go someway to resolving this ripoff.

The reason is the same as to why we have different app markets for different phones.
It's profit, it always is the reason. Build a PC that doesn't support all software out there, and people won't buy it, then spend millions on creating very good software for it, and people will buy it, plus you can get the "royalties" on all the software.

Don't forget the hardware in a lot of consoles (X360 and PS3) is sold at a loss, so they have to make some profit on games.

Doesn't really answer the question as to why console games are still existing in a monopoly when CD's, DVD's, Blu-Rays, PC etc aren't.

You're not comparing like for like, it'd be more accurate to say why do we have so many authors, they all write books, couldn't one do them all?

[ZesPak]

TEKNOPUG said:

ZesPak said:

TEKNOPUG said:

Why do we still have only 3 different games consoles to choose from and each has it's own seperate format? What benefit is there to the consumer? We only have 1 format of CD and I can play in on a thousand different CD players as well as computers, DVD players, car stereos etc. The same with DVD/Blu-Ray. Thousands of different hardware to choose from, each with different qualities that I can select based on my needs and means. The same with PC games; I buy a game and can play it on a low-spec machine or a top spec one with all the graphics turned to 11.

So why don't we have one single consoel game format and a hundred different consoles to choose from? Wii, 360, PS3 all have slightly different attributes, like networking and blu-ray capablity. Why can't I by a Denon or Panasonic or Yamaha console that will offer different abilities and experiences in the same way that the rest of the AV and computer world (Mac excluded) does?

We're all victims of a massive con. Maybe this news will go someway to resolving this ripoff.

The reason is the same as to why we have different app markets for different phones.
It's profit, it always is the reason. Build a PC that doesn't support all software out there, and people won't buy it, then spend millions on creating very good software for it, and people will buy it, plus you can get the "royalties" on all the software.

Don't forget the hardware in a lot of consoles (X360 and PS3) is sold at a loss, so they have to make some profit on games.

Doesn't really answer the question as to why console games are still existing in a monopoly when CD's, DVD's, Blu-Rays, PC etc aren't.

?? of course it does:
"Build a PC that doesn't support all software out there, and people won't buy it, then spend millions on creating very good software for it, and people will buy it, plus you can get the "royalties" on all the software."
MS, Nintendo and Sony initially invest millions into getting good (exclusive) games on the platform, and you could theoretically built a console that runs PS3 games, but since the PS3 is built at a loss, you'll lose a lot of money on building one yourself...

[bishbash]

TEKNOPUG said:

ZesPak said:

TEKNOPUG said:

Why do we still have only 3 different games consoles to choose from and each has it's own seperate format? What benefit is there to the consumer? We only have 1 format of CD and I can play in on a thousand different CD players as well as computers, DVD players, car stereos etc. The same with DVD/Blu-Ray. Thousands of different hardware to choose from, each with different qualities that I can select based on my needs and means. The same with PC games; I buy a game and can play it on a low-spec machine or a top spec one with all the graphics turned to 11.

So why don't we have one single consoel game format and a hundred different consoles to choose from? Wii, 360, PS3 all have slightly different attributes, like networking and blu-ray capablity. Why can't I by a Denon or Panasonic or Yamaha console that will offer different abilities and experiences in the same way that the rest of the AV and computer world (Mac excluded) does?

We're all victims of a massive con. Maybe this news will go someway to resolving this ripoff.

The reason is the same as to why we have different app markets for different phones.
It's profit, it always is the reason. Build a PC that doesn't support all software out there, and people won't buy it, then spend millions on creating very good software for it, and people will buy it, plus you can get the "royalties" on all the software.

Don't forget the hardware in a lot of consoles (X360 and PS3) is sold at a loss, so they have to make some profit on games.

Doesn't really answer the question as to why console games are still existing in a monopoly when CD's, DVD's, Blu-Rays, PC etc aren't.

CD's beat DAT, DCC and Minidisc
Blu-Ray beat HD-DVD
PC may have won the war, but Mac's, linux and others still fight on.

The big corporations didn't decide what format was going to win, (except for DVD where they did) the public did, in the case of consoles no one has one the war yet.

[TEKNOPUG]

ZesPak said:

TEKNOPUG said:

ZesPak said:

TEKNOPUG said:

Why do we still have only 3 different games consoles to choose from and each has it's own seperate format? What benefit is there to the consumer? We only have 1 format of CD and I can play in on a thousand different CD players as well as computers, DVD players, car stereos etc. The same with DVD/Blu-Ray. Thousands of different hardware to choose from, each with different qualities that I can select based on my needs and means. The same with PC games; I buy a game and can play it on a low-spec machine or a top spec one with all the graphics turned to 11.

So why don't we have one single consoel game format and a hundred different consoles to choose from? Wii, 360, PS3 all have slightly different attributes, like networking and blu-ray capablity. Why can't I by a Denon or Panasonic or Yamaha console that will offer different abilities and experiences in the same way that the rest of the AV and computer world (Mac excluded) does?

We're all victims of a massive con. Maybe this news will go someway to resolving this ripoff.

The reason is the same as to why we have different app markets for different phones.
It's profit, it always is the reason. Build a PC that doesn't support all software out there, and people won't buy it, then spend millions on creating very good software for it, and people will buy it, plus you can get the "royalties" on all the software.

Don't forget the hardware in a lot of consoles (X360 and PS3) is sold at a loss, so they have to make some profit on games.

Doesn't really answer the question as to why console games are still existing in a monopoly when CD's, DVD's, Blu-Rays, PC etc aren't.

?? of course it does:
"Build a PC that doesn't support all software out there, and people won't buy it, then spend millions on creating very good software for it, and people will buy it, plus you can get the "royalties" on all the software."
MS, Nintendo and Sony initially invest millions into getting good (exclusive) games on the platform, and you could theoretically built a console that runs PS3 games, but since the PS3 is built at a loss, you'll lose a lot of money on building one yourself...

But all PC's do play ALL software - all software written for PC's and not Mac's anyway. All CD players play all CD's - because all CD's are the same format. The same with all DVD's/Blu-Rays. They are all the same format. There are still hundreds of different films made by different studios and published and released by different companies though. The vast majority of games that are made are cross platform - so the same software houses are making and releasing the same game on Wii, 360, PS3 and PC. Except that the PC version can be played on any PC, made by any company and with any components, providing it has the correct OS. Yet a Wii, 360 or PS3 format can only be played on their respective machines, of which there is only 1 choice.

[chuntington101]

rufusruffcutt said:

I suspect that the PS4's architecture is on a test bench somewhere already.

I also think that the next generation of consoles (Xbox, Playstation & Nintendo) will be the last in the guise of buying media (game discs, movie discs) to load into them. Everything will be just pulled off the web via online stores for the generation after next.

A guy i work with's son is VERY into design and building games. He has said that the NEW consols will be little more than terminal clients to hardcore servers where the games will actually be run. Basically remote client tech. Its in the PC world for business already and has ALOT of advantages. first of all your new consol will be silient and probably the size of a book. could even end up looking more like an Ipad than what people are used to. There will be very little prossesing power required as all that will be needed is display/sound data sent back from the servers and control data sent back from the consol. All the processing done at server. this mean its much more enviromentlay freindly than tens of millions of people all having there own hardware sat at home. if you really want to see how efficent large scale datacentres can be look at the Merlin centre in the UK. Its VERY special. roling out updates would be automatic. new games could be roled out much easier and not require any shipment costs or any enviromental impacts.

Gaming might become like owning a mobile phone on contract or Sky. you will pay £xx per month to play on the servers. for that you could probably have XXXXX credits free to buy games/updates. if you want more you simply buy them and you then get billed at the end of the month. This monthly payment idea will probably atract ALOT of new customers also as the initial outlay will be very small, poss. even nothing! Its how we pay for pretty much EVERYTHING at the moment, why make the gaming world any different? Ok its very nice to go out and buy a game, but its a bit old school in todays world.

and NO you dont need a massive internet conection for the above! the network traffic would probably increase only slightly over what it is now. Contentions might be more of a problem! and you would have to build in buffers in case the conection was lost of any reason. hopefully with fiber conections (when they finally role them out) this will no longer be a problem.

I work in IT and everyday i see business going mroe and more this way.

Chris.

[Mazdarese]

chuntington101 said:

rufusruffcutt said:

I suspect that the PS4's architecture is on a test bench somewhere already.

I also think that the next generation of consoles (Xbox, Playstation & Nintendo) will be the last in the guise of buying media (game discs, movie discs) to load into them. Everything will be just pulled off the web via online stores for the generation after next.

A guy i work with's son is VERY into design and building games. He has said that the NEW consols will be little more than terminal clients to hardcore servers where the games will actually be run. Basically remote client tech. Its in the PC world for business already and has ALOT of advantages. first of all your new consol will be silient and probably the size of a book. could even end up looking more like an Ipad than what people are used to. There will be very little prossesing power required as all that will be needed is display/sound data sent back from the servers and control data sent back from the consol. All the processing done at server. this mean its much more enviromentlay freindly than tens of millions of people all having there own hardware sat at home. if you really want to see how efficent large scale datacentres can be look at the Merlin centre in the UK. Its VERY special. roling out updates would be automatic. new games could be roled out much easier and not require any shipment costs or any enviromental impacts.

Gaming might become like owning a mobile phone on contract or Sky. you will pay £xx per month to play on the servers. for that you could probably have XXXXX credits free to buy games/updates. if you want more you simply buy them and you then get billed at the end of the month. This monthly payment idea will probably atract ALOT of new customers also as the initial outlay will be very small, poss. even nothing! Its how we pay for pretty much EVERYTHING at the moment, why make the gaming world any different? Ok its very nice to go out and buy a game, but its a bit old school in todays world.

and NO you dont need a massive internet conection for the above! the network traffic would probably increase only slightly over what it is now. Contentions might be more of a problem! and you would have to build in buffers in case the conection was lost of any reason. hopefully with fiber conections (when they finally role them out) this will no longer be a problem.

I work in IT and everyday i see business going mroe and more this way.

Chris.

With respect, I can't see that happening any time soon. The bandwidth/transfer speed needed to transfer the display of a game in 1080 resolution will be unsustainable, then 8-channel sound as well?

Thin-client technology works great in business, but I don't think it'll work for gaming.

Hasn't someone already tried to do this? I remember reading an article about it a while back.