ninjabee.com

If you’ve been following the PS3 scene you know team fail0verflow has crippled the PS3 security in its entirety, and with that geohot has shared the keys — the keys that can be used to sign any 3rd party code, meaning custom firmwares and all types of homebrew are heading towards a PS3 near you.

That in mind, with some other hacks, Mathieulh has revealed he is now able to sign anything PSP (he found the KIRK encryption/decryption keys) — I’m talking EBOOTs, prxs, custom firmwares — all signed and headed towards your PSP too.

http://vimeo.com/18278625

What does all this mean? Well now no hacks are needed for anything really… With these keys we’re able to “sign” anything, and as far as the PSP/PS3 is concerned, it’s official — officially signed as if Sony themselves signed off on it. Now everyone will be able to run homebrew games and apps without having to have a "hacked" PSP or PS3.

The real negative here is that it may kill the systems. The PSP has been hacked for around three or four years now and it brought with it untold legions of pirates. PSP software production has nearly halted already. The only thing that kept it going til now was the few who were ignorant to the hack or too afraid intimidated by the process along with the fear of bricking their system.

Now with the PS3, this could mean piracy will end the console's run. Sony can’t simply patch this, the only way they can patch this is if they change the encryption keys, but if they do all their games prior to the change will stop working. That means every game made will be a coaster, I really don’t think Sony will do that. Just look at it this way, you have the master key to all locks, no matter how many times someone changes the lock you will still be able to unlock it.

On a side note, Sony will probably have record sells for the PS3′s this year. Down side for us is this will be the end for PSP/PS3 software production. I mean no company in their right mind would invest in a unsecured system. It wont be overnight, but we will see less and less games coming out. Not to bad for PSP as it was at its end, but the PS3 will be hurting. Looks like PS4 will have to be put in high gear.

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YO 2012, IMMA LET YOU FINISH, BUT Y2K HAD ONEO' BEST END OF THE WORLD OF ALL TIME

That's pretty interesting.

I'm not sure I follow the logic that this will kill the PS3 software market.

One thing I've learned about this type of thing is that in the real world a ton of people won't know about or care about using this information. Even in this video, the Wii hackers seemed proud of the fact that 1% of Wii users installed their homebrew channel. That's important, but it doesn't seem like a big enough percentage to destroy an entire market, right?

And, while I acknowledge that the PC games market is pretty screwed up in a lot of ways, I have to point out that despite the PC being unsecure, many software companies invest in it successfully anyway.

The PS3 will certainly fade at some point, like all consoles. I'm just skeptical that this hack will be the primary cause of that fade.

By the way, we are investing in the PS3. Working on a PSN game now... I'm not too concerned about this, and I hope to make more PSN games soon. Of course, we're also in that "not overnight" timeframe you mentioned, so there's less reason for us to be concerned about this particular title.