People highly overestimate the cost of Blu Ray. On NewEgg discs are under $10 and burners can be had around $200. It's high, but it's not that high. And the thing has a hard drive in it, so the point is entirely moot.

Blu-ray is a major security feature for SONY. It is extremely expensive compared to DVD's or CD's and the disks size means people need to wait to download large files (25gb+) in order to get the games...

Since its not worth the cost to steal PS3 games hackers who want illegal copies of games are buying the 360 -- which is much cheaper, uses DVD which is cheaper, and most games are multiplatform these days anyway.

Next up i would PSN is another great security feature -- don't want to risk losing access to PSN or the PS store, then don't try running custom firmware ...

3rd up would be the firmware updates. These updates make cracking newer PS3's harder and they add wanted features. The reason PSP's firmware updates failed is because SONY often gave PSP users an almost useless update that simply increased security -- while custom firmware makers were constantly adding wanted features...

Finally we come to Linux -- users whom would normally hack their console simply to mess around with it, install linux, create homebrew, etc can do it now without hacking into the system. As such these users are no longer a threat to SONY ...

Ohh and the PS3 has been cracked... but so far the cracks arn't really useful at all. The hackers have hit dead end here...

Your logic is partly flawed. When the X360 was hacked, it barely had 5 mil consoles on the market. Actually, it might be less even, I remember it being hacked long before the PS3/Wii was even released. The Wii got hacked even faster... I remember seeing modded Wiis in the shops in the first few months after its release.

As for the expensive Blu-ray discs, that's also untrue. We can buy Blu-ray discs here for less than $10 each... They can be bought for much cheaper online and thus, I'll take the risk into deducing that in the US/Europe/Japan, BRDs are cheaper.

As for online connectivity, where the hacks would be most used would be in developing countries. Fact of the matter is that those countries wouldn't make high use of internet connections. You also need to realise that if they can't buy the pirated version of a game, they wouldn't buy the game at all. I have a great many friends who own the wii and the x360. I have none who own the ps3 because it cannot be hacked.

I do agree with the second point however. The fact that sony has designed the system in such a way that it allows the installation of linux distributions, greatly reduced the 'need' for legitimate hackers to even bother trying to hack the system.

Frequency of updates, some that you need to play games. And Risk/$$$ is it worth it screwing around with a pricey product like that. Guessing nope.

Update: At amazon, 15 blank BRDs are selling for $77.... making it appoximatively $5 per disc.

http://www.amazon.com/Memorex-BD-R-spindle-storage-media/dp/B001B96HLU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1224649241&sr=8-1

I remember at the beginning of the CD era (Saturn, Playstation), when the Playstation got hacked with the modchip, blank CDs and burners were expensive and almost everyone used dial-up or low bandwidth dedicated connections (650 MB were a pain in the ass), and when the DVD era started (PS2, GC, Xbox), blank DVDs and DVD burners were expensive and internet speeds were slow for 4.4 or 8.5 GB, that didn't stop people from doing it...

Now is practically the same situation for Blu-Ray and the PS3, 25 GB won't stop people from hacking it, except that this time, the PS3 is alone with the Blu-Ray, 360 and Wii use DVDs, and PS3 has a few exclusive titles compared with past generations, everyone that wants to play illegal multiplatform titles buys a 360 and plays them, lowering the necesity to have the PS3 hacked...

As far I know they were partially cracked... Running a few pirate games. FEW! 3 or 4. And I'm not shure of this... But I'm with no mood to google it :B

it has been cracked.

the reasons why we're not seeing pirated games all over the place is:

1.) blu ray burners are expensive

2.) blu ray discs are more expensive than dvds

3.) the ps3 has the lowest install base, and therefore not as profitable to hack as the other consoles.

and yet the 360 was is it's first year?

I find that point hard to believe.

I think main reason is because Xbox 360 is hacked and most of the games are there (except some really good exclusives). So, why bother about ps3. Also size of download files and blu ray no so cheap are also a factor.