Do you people who pirate games even stop to think about those poor starving people in Japan? Do you?

Its ridiculous to support piracy. If you cant afford something, you cant have it! Simple as! Doing something illegal just to get a knock off version aint worth it in my opinion

There should be some focus here, as everyone is talking about sth different.
Even the OP isn't really clear enough.

So a hacked system is a system allowing you to bypass some restrictions of the system, that's all. It's not telling you if the functionalities you get are legal or illegal.
Then, there are software hacks (require no hardware modification) and hardware hacks.

So let's get this straight.

Why no hardware hack ?
Easy: because of money. It's just too expensive to do like most people said. Even if there existed one, people would be reluctant to break such expensive hardware.
There exist hardware hacks to play illegal material on Wii and XB360.


Software hack now.
As people are talking about different things, we have to be really clear about what we're talking about.
Let's start by what doesn't exist: there is no software hack to play illegal material on PS3. There, you can't play a commercial game from your HDD on PS3 yet.
BTW, that's the same on the Wii (no, not even the latest flaw discovered allow you to play backups on Wii).
But there are software hacks that allow you to play homebrew games from some storage solution (Flash card, HDD, ...) on the PS3.

Also, there are less incentives for software hacks on the PS3, as there's already access to an OS to develop games on it, and its games are already region free.
We had to have software hacks to get both these functionalities on the Wii though.

thats one of reason why should developers develope gfames for the ps3 for more profits

why hasn't it been hacked? Why, teh CELL of course lol

Completely untrue.

People don't "crack" to save money\time. The end user does that, and you can guarantee that if the PS3 was hacked then copies of games would be available for sale with nice boxes\packaging at a market for £10 each, going down to a fiver when BD start getting abit cheaper.

Do you not remember the Dreamcast? It was months and months before a cable was released that would allow a serial port connection to the Dreamcast to read data from the discs.

Until that time the only people who released games were Kalisto and I think Echelon. I downloaded at least 50 games on my 56k modem connection!!!!

Games ranged in size from around 100mb up to around a couple of GB for multi-disc games like Shenmue, but most were a 300-400mb.

Anyway do the maths, 56k -> 400mb of data for one game. Hardly anyone had broadband back then!!! (2000-2001)

I used to sell the games in school for £5 each and everyone was amazed...good times lol.

OT though, that PS3 hack is a load of bollocks, its just using the Java API used on BR movies to code a small program....It has no access to anything else at all...A bit like when you run Linux on the PS3.

Can't believe how many people are being taken in by this

"The only homebrew capabilities is that the PS3 can run BD-J games"

BD-J games...the coding language used for menus like on DVDs (But for Bluray).

So you're not going to see anything that looks better than a NES game.

Ahh so the moral, legal debates on pirating has begun. Always seem to crop up in these discussions. It's unfortunate.

On one side you have the anti pirating that claim the following. Developers and publishers (music, software...) lose out on money. It is illegal and probably  more. Given oppertunity everyone will pirate.

On the other side you also have a variety. Fight the man, poor people can play when other wise they can't.

I only have three points to comment on. One, the PC is the biggest, most open and highly easiest cracked/hacked VG machine out there. Oddly developers still find it profitable. Two, there is a portion of people who pirated wouldn't have bought the game anyway. This percentage is an unknown factor. Finally we can extrapolate pirating sales patterns through actuall evidence while we would need actuall studies to prove  how many of those who pirated  would have bought the game  if they couldn't pirate. publishers(any industry) will NEVER pay for this study, they have had over 10 years to do so.

Another reason why PS3 doesn;t sell alot in USA cause it cant be modded unlike the 360. And thats why I bought a 360.

@Burgles

People don't understand anything about these hacks matter, it's too technical for most of them. Especially for those who claim they know someone who knows this stuff. Usually, they' don't understand one bit of what the person in the know does.
It showed again in this thread, with the one saying the PS3 was hacked.
Even without giving a link, he could have explained the method used to supposedly hack the PS3. Of course he couldn't.