PS4: Easy To Develop For; Easy to Hack and Emulate?

Posted by

on March 5, 2013

PS4: Easy To Develop For, Easy to Hack and Emulate?

by Rich

Our partner, Rich of ReviewTechUSA, loves the hardware of the PS4. But, at the same time, he brings up what he calls the “800-pound gorilla in the room”. By making the system so easy to develop for it also opens up the opportunity for all the talented hackers and programmers out there to get a grip on the technology right away. This can lead to easy hacking and even emulation of the PS4 after a few years. See what Rich has to say on the matter…

5 comments

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Dirk Diggler

Sony's going to fail hard!

DarthDiggler

Just because the hardware resembles a PC and is easy for signed and certified developers to code on doesn't immediately mean that the system will be a hackers paradise. Until the system is released in its final form, whoever is saying the PS4 is easy to hack is speaking out of their ass. Its not like Sony has released board level specs that could reveal potential back doors. Its not like anyone has had a preview of the PS4 OS. Granted the system likely won't be hack-proof but some guy speculating how easy a product will be to hack before its release isn't news. This is just speculation. Belongs on your facebook profile more than a website.

iThink

I think Sony will have all this covered this. They will have heavily secure verification before game code can execute. Although the PS3 was eventually hacked, it took longer than any other device to crack and is still not easily hacked by average consumers. In that sense the PS3 was a success. The PS4 will probably have a chip embedded in the bluray disc to prevent copies being made from off the shelf blanks. Regarding PC emulation of the PS4 system on a PC, I think the unusual hardware architecture, such as the use of GDDR5 RAM for everything and the 8 cores will make it very awkward to emulate properly. I suspect to get a PS4 game running on PC without the costly labour intensive task of manually porting each game, would be to try an emulate the GDDR5 RAM, 8 cores and GPU in software. It maybe impossible to map that on top of traditional PC hardware without porting the game code. Someone will try I'm sure. Like the PS3, they may crack it in 5 years as PC's get more powerful, but that will be a Sony success to have another console uncracked for 5 years.

MGV

I saw another article that talked about this and Sony apparently have it covered using an on board security chip. Not a hundred percent sure, as it was a week ago that I read it and I can't find it anymore. The problem is, it was just a mention in an article about the whole announcement and specs and all that jazz and we know there's a million of those out there now.

xino

i bet when Sony sees this they will get goosebumps. lol