A massive hack for Sony’s PlayStation 4 console has arrived, allowing enterprising individuals to access homebrew software (such as installing Linux or using cracked copies of games) and emulation.
However, there’s a catch to all this. The hack is only usable on consoles running firmware version 4.05, which was force-updated to 4.06 back in November of 2016. This means that in order to run the hack, you’ll have to either own a console which hasn’t connected to the internet since 2016, or else purchase a secondhand console which predates the update.
Another interesting feature added by the hack is the ability to play almost any PS2 game. So long as you have the game’s ISO file (basically an archive of the game’s optical disk), you’ll be able to run any PS2 game on the console. This greatly expands the PS4’s backwards-compatible horizons beyond even the PS2 Classics offered on the PlayStation Store.
This is not the first hack of its kind to be offered for Sony consoles, however. PS3 homebrew culminated in a tool being created which forced the console to update to a custom firmware, thus circumventing the issue faced by the PS4’s hack.
As of right now, the hack will likely not receive a huge amount of attention due to the small amount of consoles capable of accessing it. Time will tell if new homebrew programs will be created to work on more modern consoles.
Source: Eurogamer
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