HappySqurriel on 21 October 2008
As a general rule, every console ever created has enough security holes that it is only a matter of time before someone discovers one and exploits it. What determines how quickly a console is hacked tends to be how profitable it would be to hack that console. Things that impact how profitable it would be to sell a mod chip for the PS3 are:
- Small userbase; its all about percentages, there is a certain percentage of users who are really interested in a 'crack' for a console and a smaller userbase just means there are less potential customers.
- Linux; being that people can play around with their PS3, and produce all of the (useless) homebrew applications they desire right out of the box, Sony has limited one of the more legitimate uses for a 'crack' and kept many intelligent people from looking for one.
- Large disc images; one of many reasons Blu-Ray has impacted this ... The average user has no desire to download a 25GB file in order to play a game. Without a way to play unsigned images, or to sign an image, the large file sizes contribute to limiting piracy.
- Expensive Media; How many people want to spend $20 to find out whether they actually got Metal Gear Solid 4, Barbie Horse Adventures, or 25GB of garbage data on their hard-drive? Until Blu-Ray prices come down, or you can boot from the hard-drive, it is expensive for someone to steal PS3 games.
- Online connectivity; As long as your system gets a large portion of its 'value' from online features, and there is the risk of being caught in some way, there are a lot of people who won't take the risk to modify their system.
I'm certain there are others, but any three of these are enough reasons to keep interest in piracy very low on the PS3.
