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PSP News is a News and downloads site for the PSP, PSVita, PS4, PS3, PS2 and PSOne, We have all the latest emulators, hack and custom firmwares, homebrew and all the downloads on this site, we also cover commercial gaming and console news., the latest homebrew and releases, Part of the
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October 29th, 2012, 21:41 Posted By: wraggster
SCEA's John Koller tells us why he believes PS3 will draw in more consumers this holiday and why Vita is poised to take off
Sony Computer Entertainment America
us.playstation.com
PlayStation 3 is about to enter its seventh holiday shopping season while Sony's new portable, PlayStation Vita, is entering its first holiday. Both platforms have unique challenges and are vying for consumers' dollars in a weakened economy and a highly competitive market.
It's a market in which Xbox 360 has been consistently outselling PS3 in North America, Wii U is about to launch, Vita has been downright struggling to make its mark, and a whole bunch of new tablets are putting pressure on handheld gaming in general.
Figuring out how to best position and market the PS3 and Vita in this atmosphere is no easy task. What strategy will Sony employ? What marketing will be communicated to gamers and newcomers alike? The "Never Stop Playing" marketing slogan continues this fall. It's "really kind of an ethos, kind of a rallying cry for the gaming community," John Koller, vice president of PlayStation Home and handhelds, tells us. But will they be playing primarily on PlayStation?
In this exclusive interview with GamesIndustry International, Koller, who oversees all brand marketing for Sony Computer Entertainment America, talks about the value that consumers are buying into with either PS3 or Vita, and while naysayers don't believe Vita has a chance, Koller remains very confident that the portable will have a big holiday.
Q: How would you describe the state of the PlayStation business going into the holiday season?
John Koller: I guess in a word, exciting. For us, we've known that from a content standpoint, that the year was going to fairly back half heavy, and so we marshaled a lot of our marketing resources for this back half, knowing that this October, November, December window is going to be a heavy time for consumers coming into the market and purchasing both PS3s and Vitas as well as the content associated with them. It may be in larger numbers than we've seen in recent years for this particular window.
I think there are a few factors that are causing that effect. Content availability is one of them, but also how people are purchasing and what they're purchasing. So we're really bullish on the holidays. For us, we look at PS3 at 6, almost 7 years into its life cycle, and still launching content like PlayStation All-Stars or the partnership we have with Ubisoft with Assassin's Creed or even Last of Us and Beyond to come. It's still a really strong content lineup that I think people purchasing PS3 this holiday are going to have to look forward to.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...re-buying-into
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October 29th, 2012, 21:35 Posted By: wraggster
A listing on PSN and Xbox Live suggests players of Assassin’s Creed III multiplayer mode will be able to buy perks using real-world cash.
Eurogamer reports that bundles of Erudito Credits will be available to purchase in bundle of 20, 50, 155, 380 and 925, with the biggest costing 1600 Microsoft Points.
The points will, according to the listings, “grant you Erudito Credits in-game, allowing you to acquire some game items, disregarding your current level”.
It speculates that the currency will only be usable in the multiplayer mode, with the single player focusing instead on British Pounds, as per the game’s historical setting.
Such a payment model is relatively commonplace now, with games such as Mass Effect 3 using it very effectively.
The move, however, would be at odds with some other companies in the industry such as Nintendo which over the weekend ruled out the possibility of premium DLC for Animal Crossing as it believed it would make the game “unwholesome”.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/real-...ed-iii/0105386
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October 29th, 2012, 21:22 Posted By: wraggster
Activision has released a brand new live-action trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops II.
Carrying the tag line “There’s a soldier in all of us” the short sees a number of supposedly normal gamer folk facing off in a brutal city war scenario.
And it also stars Robert “Iron Man” Downey Jr as a jet fighter pilot. And a lot of zombies.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II is out in a little over two weeks – November 13th.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/rober...-ii-ad/0105395
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October 29th, 2012, 20:57 Posted By: wraggster
The retailer has revealed it will host the event in aid of the game's unconventional Wednesday release.
It will take place at the firm's Stratford store, which will reportedly be transformed into a "scenic replica of the game's winter wilderness, complete with Redcoats who will be patrolling and entertaining the queue."
Meanwhile, additional midnight launches will take place across the UK, whilst Ubisoft's developer Tim Browne will attend the game's launch in Hull from 9:30pm in order to chat with customers.
“Assassin’s Creed fans can’t wait to get their hands on the next chapter of this epic game and we are really excited to be opening so many stores at midnight to celebrate in true GAME style,” GAME’s marketing director Anna-Marie Mason stated.
“We are bringing a piece of the adventure to life at GAME Stratford for London fans and we are delighted that developer Tim Browne will be attending GAME Hull, giving both the north and south a great experience to look forward to.”
Midnight lanch events remain one of the more powerful tools retailers have in enticing gamers to purchase their games at retail and GAME will certainly be hoping this to be the case, offering a themed evening, along with the opportunity to meet with the personnel behind the game.
Assassin's Creed III will launch in the UK on Wednesday October 31st and will see GAME stores open their doors from 11:45pm on Tuesday October 30th.
However, PC gamers will be forced to wait until November 21st for the latest offering in the long-running franchise, as the title's PC version will suffer from the often delayed PC release, something of which PC gaming veterans have become accustomed to.
http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/...eed-iii/029477
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October 28th, 2012, 23:49 Posted By: wraggster
NIS America is aiming to bring Persona 4 Golden and Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory to Europe on February 22 and March 15 respectively. Though the official release windows for both remain Spring 2013, a PR representative for NIS America confirmed to Joystiq these are the dates being aimed for, and each game will be released "around that time." Official dates will be announced nearer the time, we're told.
Golden, the Persona 4 re-release on Vita, is unlikely to come to Europe in more than a standard release, according to the PR rep. In contrast, North America is getting the Solid Gold limited edition set when the game releases on November 20.
Regarding Victory, the third Hyperdimension Neptunia entry, North America has the same Spring 2013 official release window as Europe. We wouldn't be surprised if the North American date NIS has in mind for the PS3 game is in the same week.
Finally, we learned The Witch and the Hundred Knights "should" also be coming to Europe. The PS3-exclusive action RPG is confirmed as heading to North America, but following its delay in Japan there isn't an official release window for its arrival here. We were told we'd know whether or not it's coming to Europe when the NA release date is announced.
The game features the art style of Takehito Harada, of Disgaea and Phantom Brave fame, which can probably be deduced from the cover art alone. As for what's going on in that cover art, your guess is as good as ours.
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/10/28/pe...europe-feb-22/
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October 28th, 2012, 23:42 Posted By: wraggster
The Vita version of open-world racer Need for Speed Most Wanted is "the same game" as the PS3 version, says developer Criterion, which it calls a "significant achievement" on the portable.
 The developer's main goal was simply "to make the same game", said Criterion producer Matt Webster."As much as we possibly could, we wanted to deliver all the great things about the console version of the game: an open world, freedom, choice, variety, highly connected. All those principles looked like they were achievable on the machine, so that was what we set out to do."
While admitting to running into "performance challenges" with Vita, Webster says the team ultimately achieved its goal.
 "It is exactly the same game [as the PlayStation 3 version] apart from traffic density and number of players online," he told the PS Blog.He goes on to assure Vita owners that the open-world racer makes a great fit for the portable platform. "I think it will turn out to be something that PS Vita owners didn't realize was possible on that machine - it is quite a significant achievement to do an open world game to the level of quality that we've managed.
"And then to have something as highly connected as it is - that's something fresh and new. I think it will find a really good home on PS Vita."
Two shots of the Vita version are on this page.
http://www.computerandvideogames.com...me-as-ps3-dev/
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October 28th, 2012, 23:37 Posted By: wraggster
This year's US GT Academy tournament will begin airing on Spike TV from November 1.
 The six-part season will be shown at 11:30pm Pacific Time, each Thursday from that date, and will each also be uploaded to the Nissan YouTube channel the following Monday.For those unaware, GT Academy is a competition hosted by Sony and Nissan, which sees Gran Turismo 5 players compete in a series of online competitions before 16 finalists duke it out in real life at Silverstone in Nissan 370Z sport cars. A single winner goes on to become a real-life racing driver for Nissan.
"In July, after three months of online competition, the top 32 out of 400,000 registered Gran Turismo online gamers met at Comic-Con in San Diego to determine the 16 finalists for GT Academy 2012," says Sony.
"After two days of virtual racing competition on identical gaming sleds, the fastest 16 were invited to the legendary Silverstone Racing complex in England to begin an intense boot camp that combined physical and psychological challenges in addition to on-track driving in a variety of performance vehicles."
http://www.computerandvideogames.com...om-november-1/
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October 28th, 2012, 21:33 Posted By: wraggster
via www.emucr.com
PCSX Reloaded SVN r80728 is compiled. PCSX-Reloaded is a fork of the PCSX-df Project, a PlayStation Emulator, with support for both Windows and GNU/Linux operating systems as well as several bugfixes/improvements.
PCSX Reloaded SVN Changelog:
r80727
Use 32-bit jump instructions for COP2/GTE. (Issue #8567)
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October 28th, 2012, 20:49 Posted By: wraggster
The guys over at Lavalit have released a new version of the beats of rage clone for the Dreamcast, Dingoo, PSP, Linux, Windows, GP2x, Nintendo Wii and Wiz.
OpenBOR is a continuation of the Beats Of Rage 2D game engine, which was originally
created by the wonderful folks over at http://www.senileteam.com.
In 2004, Senile Team released Beats of Rage, a free beat-'em-up for DOS inspired
by SEGA's Streets of Rage series and using sprites from SNK Playmore's King of
Fighters series. The game spread only by word of mouth, but it nonetheless
amassed popularity very quickly. Senile Team soon released an edit pack allowing
anyone interested to create a mod for the BOR engine.
In 2005, Kirby2000 asked Senile Team to open the source code to BOR. They
agreed, and OpenBOR was born. Development on the engine was continued by the
community, and still is to this day.
Heres whats new:
r3716 | utunnels | 2012-10-24 23:04:40 -0400 (Wed, 24 Oct 2012) | 4 lines
Changed paths:
M /engine/openbor.c
M /engine/openbor.h
M /engine/openborscript.c
M /engine/sdl/sdlport.c
Fix: shadowalpha 6 now works properly with corresponding map (inverted reflection, for example).
Minor: define savedata, savelevel and savescore in openbor.c instead of openbor.h; SDL port now uses pak name as window caption.
Download and Give Feedback Via Comments - http://lavalit.com:8080/
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October 28th, 2012, 20:32 Posted By: wraggster
via http://wololo.net/2012/10/28/e3-cfw-4-30-release-info/
Just hours ago E3 have released a Custom Firmware running on 4.30. There is little information around this at present, as there has not been a long enough time to test it out, however I personally believe it’ll be rather unstable, at least for a while.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against E3 as I believe their Flasher is a good product (at least from my own experience), however I do have a few issues with this CFW. Without going into all the details, I just feel that this firmware will probably be lacking on updates and compatibility and that it would probably be better to wait for Rogero than use this. Also I find the name to be an example of shameless advertising, but enough of that.
For those of you wondering; you WILL need 3.55 so downgrading is still a necessity (sadly). There have also been reports of Bricking when upgrading to 4.21 (Rogero) for DEX users, so if you do have a DEX console, it would be wise to revert to CEX – at least for the upgrade.
For those wanting to download this firmware click Here. There have been no reports of Bricking as of yet, but again, the CFW has only been out a few hours so upgrade AT YOUR OWN RISK.
The password for this file is www.e3-tech.net
Here is some information sourced from ps3news that was later removed as they claimed they were not ready for the release.
“Notes:
•You still need to be on CFW v3.55 or OFW v3.55 to install this new CFW v4.30 from the E3 Team.
•It is best if downgrading to follow the normal steps and dehashing like with Rogero just to be sure of no bricks.
•E3 will be releasing an upgraded E3 Flasher ‘update.bin’ (firmware) to handle direct downgrading to CFW v4.30.
Here we mention E3 flasher user that you needn’t solder wire with latest upgrade.bin file to unbrick console.”
Finally, although this news is not directly relevant (and rather old) it seems like this would be a good time to mention this, with all these new CFW on the rise.
It is possible to Cross-Play ANY Game from your PS3 with CFW using MultiMAN or Rogero Manager. It’s best to note that this is rather laggy, so place the Graphics on -1, but most (if not all) games are completely playable.
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October 28th, 2012, 20:28 Posted By: wraggster
via http://wololo.net/2012/10/25/clarify...3-development/
If you read my post about the LV0 keys being leaked recently then you know it could be alot to take in and hard to understand. Hopefully this will help clear up everything.
Marcan, who is a valuable asset of the Wii and PS3 hacking scene has made some posts that will help clear the air on things, it helps clarify and break things down even more than what I had previously said in the original article both in technicality and in simplicity. I’ve bolded the important parts that you should pay attention to in his answers.
More Technical Information
“The first-stage bootloader is in ROM and has a per-console key which is effectively in tamper-resistant silicon. The second-stage bootloader (bootldr) is encrypted with the per-console key, but is not upgradable and is the same for all consoles (other than the encryption wrapper around it). This second-stage bootloader verifies lv0. Sony signed lv0 using the same broken process that they used for everything else, which leaks their private key. This means that the lv0 private key was doomed from the start, ever since we demonstrated the screwup at the Chaos Communication Congress two years ago.
However, because lv0 is also encrypted, including its signature block, we need that decryption key (which is part of bootldr) before we can decrypt the signature and apply the algorithm to derive the private key. We did this for several later-stage loaders by using an exploit to dump them, and Geohot did it for metldr (the “second root” in the PS3′s bizarre boot process) using a different exploit (we replicated this, although our exploit might be different). At the time, this was enough to break the security of all released firmware to date, since everything that mattered was rooted in metldr (which is bootldr’s brother and is also decrypted by the per-console key). However, Sony took a last ditch effort after that hack and wrapped everything after metldr into lv0, effectively using the only security they had left (bootldr and lv0) to attempt to re-secure their platform.
Bootldr suffers from the same exploit as metldr, so it was also doomed. However, because bootldr is designed to run from a cold boot, it cannot be loaded into a “sandboxed” SPU like metldr can from the comfort of OS-mode code execution (which we had via the USB lv2 exploit), so the exploit is harder to pull off because you don’t have control over the rest of the software. For the exploit that we knew about, it would’ve required hardware assistance to repeatedly reboot the PS3 and some kind of flash emulator to set up the exploit with varying parameters each boot, and it probably would’ve taken several hours or days of automated attempts to hit the right combination (basically the exploit would work by executing random garbage as code, and hoping that it jumps to somewhere within a segment that we control – the probabilities are high enough that it would work out within a reasonable timeframe). We never bothered to do this after the whole lawsuit episode.
Presumably, 18 months later, some other group has finally figured this out and either used our exploit and the hardware assistance, or some other equivalent trick/exploit, to dump bootldr. Once the lv0 decryption key is known, the signing private key can be computed (thanks to Sony’s epic failure).
The effect of this is essentially the same that the metldr key release had: all existing and future firmwares can be decrypted, except Sony no longer has the lv0 trick up their sleeve. What this means is that there is no way for Sony to wrap future firmware to hide it from anyone, because old PS3s must be able to use all future firmware (assuming Sony doesn’t just decide to brick them all…), and those old PS3s now have no remaining seeds of security that aren’t known. This means that all future firmwares and all future games are decryptable, and this time around they really can’t do anything about it. By extension, this means that given the usual cat-and-mouse game of analyzing and patching firmware, every current user of vulnerable or hacked firmware should be able to maintain that state through all future updates, as all future firmwares can be decrypted and patched and resigned for old PS3s. From the homebrew side, it means that it should be possible to have hombrew/linux and current games at the same time. From the piracy side, it means that all future games can be pirated. Note that this doesn’t mean that these things will be easy (Sony can obfuscate things to annoy people as much as their want), but from the fundamental security standpoint, Sony doesn’t have any security leg to stand on now. It does not mean that current firmwares are exploitable. Firmware upgrades are still signed, so you need an exploit in your current firmware to downgrade. Also, newer PS3s presumably have fixed this (probably by using newer bootldr/metldrs as trust roots, and proper signing all along).”
They are indeed the bootldr keys (I was able to decrypt an lv0 with them). Consider this confirmation that the story is not fake.
Can this be used to sign binaries to run homebrew on OFW PS3s (ala the PSP key leak)? Are those private keys sufficient to sign homebrew software such that they will run in unmodified firmware?
No. The keys are used for two purposes: chain of trust and chain of secrecy. The compromise of the keys fully compromises the secrecy of the PS3 platform permanently, as you can just follow the links down the chain (off-line, on a PC) and decrypt any past, current, or future firmware version. Current consoles must be able to use any future firmware update, and we now have access to 100% of the common key material of current PS3s, so it follows that any future firmware decryptable by current PS3s is also decryptable by anyone on a PC.
However, the chain of trust can be re-established at any point along the line that can be updated. The chain of trust is safely rooted in hardware that is near impossible to modify (i.e. the CPU’s ROM and eFuse key). The next link down the chain has been compromised (bootldr), and this link cannot be updated as it is specific to each console, so the chain of trust now has a permanent weak second link. However, the third link, lv0, can be updated as it is located in flash memory and signed using public key crypto. This allows Sony to secure the entire chain from there onwards. Unless you find a vulnerability in these updated links, you will not be able to attack them directly (applications, e.g. homebrew software, are verified much further down the chain). The only guaranteed way to break the chain is to attack the weak link directly, which means using a flash writer to overwrite lv0. Once you do so, the entire chain collapses (well, you still need to do some work to modify every subsequent link to turn off security, but that is easy). If you have old firmware, you have at least some other weak links that, when compromised, allow you direct access to break the bootldr link (replacing lv0), but if you run up to date firmware you’re out of luck unless you can find a weakness or you use hardware.
Old PS3s are now in the same boat as an old Wii, and in fact we can draw a direct comparison of the boot process. On an old Wii, boot0 (the on-die ROM) securely loads boot1 from flash, which is securely checked against an eFuse hash, and boot1 loads boot2 but insecurely checks its signature. On an old PS3, the Cell boot ROM securely loads bootldr from flash, which is securely decrypted and checked using an eFuse key, and then bootldr loads lv0 but checks its signature against a hardcoded public key whose private counterpart is now known. In both cases, the system can be persistently compromised if you can write to flash, or if you already have code execution in system context (which lets you write to flash). However, in both cases, you need to use some kind of high-level exploit to break into the firmware initially, particularly if you have up-to-date firmware. It just happens that this is trivial on the Wii because there is no game patch system and Nintendo seems to have stopped caring, while this is significantly harder on the PS3 because the system software has more security layers and there is a game patch system.
Breaking it down into simple and easy to understand words
Since Marcan’s answers can be a bit difficult to digest, I’ve broken them up into the form of questions and answers with the special help of ViRGE on this. This will clear alot of it up for those less technical.
Q: What exactly has been recovered?
A: The keys used by bootldr to decrypt/verify lv0, and by reversing the process the private keys used by Sony to sign lv0. If we consult our handy 3.60+ chain of trust diagram, we can see that bootldr is at the very root of the chain of trust, with lv0 being the first module it loads.
Q: So what can we do with the lv0 signing key?
A: In short, we can use it to decrypt lv0, modify it to patch out any lv0 security checks, and resign it with a legitimate key that bootldr will accept. With the chain of trust broken and lv0 no longer enforcing the security of the modules that it controls, we can then start modifying lv1ldr, lv2ldr, appldr, isoldr, etc to patch out their security checks and add CFW functionality.
Q: Can Sony “fix” this like they did for the 3.55 exploit?
A: No. With 3.55 the keys metldr used to verify its dependent modules were recovered. So Sony simply stopped using the now-insecure metldr and started using bootldr (which was still secure) to load.. Sony doesn’t have any more secure modules like bootldr left so like I said in my original post they have no options and cant fix anything; without getting too technical, we now have the keys to every “common” hardware module that is able to decrypt Sony-signed modules. The only thing left are the modules that use per-console keys, which are useless for booting common firmware (which must be decryptable by every PS3)
Q: So bootldr is fixed in hardware?
A: Correct. Like metldr, bootldr cannot be software updated by Sony. It’s hard-coded in hardware. As a reminder, bootldr/metldr themselves can’t be exploited, but because of the keys we have recovered we can make them load anything we want, nullifying whatever security they provide.
Q: What about future firmwares?
A: Good news! We can decrypt those too. Sony can use various coding tricks to make the process more difficult (this is called obfuscation), but they can’t stop us by using keys. We will always be able to decrypt lv0, and as long as we can figure out how to navigate lv0 we can figure out how to decrypt and modify its dependent modules. For those of you that follow Sony hardware this is much like how the earlier PSPs were hacked. So we can always decrypt the firmware and will be able to create newer CFWs as long as we can get past any obfuscation by Sony.
Q: So the PS3 is utterly and completely broken?
A: To an extant yes, debatable but unlike the 3.55 hack we have mostly everything needed. Sony will never be able to re-secure existing consoles.
Q: What about consoles running firmware newer than 3.55?
A: Because all “old” consoles use the same keys to verify modules like lv0, at a minimum we can decrypt, patch, and resign the firmware. The problem is that we need a way to convince the PS3 to flash our modified firmware. With 3.55 and below that was easy enough to do because of the keys recovered, but 3.56 and later change that so that flashing is more complex than just using the recovered keys. This isn’t an insurmountable problem – hardware flashers will always work – but for easy software flashing we need to find new exploits in the PS3 software stack to convince OFW consoles to flash CFW.
Q: What about newer consoles?
A: So there’s the real problem. Remember how we said bootldr and metldr are fixed in hardware? Sony can create new hardware, and update those modules in the process. By using new hardware in conjunction with new firmware for that hardware, Sony could completely change the keys used to secure the system. Without getting too technical, all of this progress comes from the fact that Sony was sloppy and did a poor job of implementing their security on earlier consoles, which is what lead to the first keys being leaked. Sony could always issue new hardware with new keys and a fixed security system at which point we’d be completely locked out of that new hardware. It’s entirely possible they’ll do this (if they haven’t done so already), so much like the PSP we’re going to end up with a limited number of consoles that have hardware-based flaws that can be exploited. Of course we then found new ways of exploiting the PSP anyhow, and ultimately were able to exploit every PSP made in one way or another.
If you are on anything higher than 3.55 it doesn’t mean you are out, there are ways to downgrade if your model is one thats able, otherwise you are just not able to do anything right now until more dev work is done. So sit tight and hold on. Again stay tuned, more info and news will be definitely coming.
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October 28th, 2012, 20:27 Posted By: wraggster
via http://wololo.net/2012/10/24/ps3-blo...d-and-working/
Leaks, chaos and drama have been something common, and on the heels of the PsVita chaos comes the PS3s turn with both good and bad news. This event is so huge that it will completely change the PS3 hacking scene and leave Sony in the wake.
Sony will be turning in their graves today as the PS3 has been basically blown wide open thanks to other events leading up to that. In the wake of this leaves Sony in huge trouble and mostly exhausted due to the amount of progress the hacking scene has made on their devices especially with the recent Psvita PSP EMU kernel exploit. It’s been absolute chaos in the PS3 scene for the last few days and fair enough to say has been chaotic over the last few years. Ill break down what happened and what this means for the developers and users, keep reading….
Background Information
The similarity in events is extremely blatant but its started a little over two years ago when the first piracy-enabled firmware and USB dongle combo named the “PS3Jailbreak” was released. The release nuked a weakness in the PS3′s simple USB protocols. This in return created a hole allowing the OS to be patched that furthermore allowed content to run from the HDD. In the aftermath the group fail0verflow allowed people to encrypt files in a mirror system that replicated Sony s methods. Of course this lead to tons of piracy and eventually Geohot’s public release of the “metldr” root key. Sony got really mad in short and decided to bring the ban hammer down on Geohot who has yet to be heard from recently. Sony found a way to protect their system by fixing everything in the system with the 3.60 firmware update. The jailbreak was patched, the USB exploit patched and left the system somewhat secure, until now in association with the new PS3 4.30 firmware update.
So what happened?
The jerks, which is an understatement, that have been behind the PS3 dongle business will always be hated and trashed constantly and the recent stunt from the people behind the BlueDiscCFW team just put a nail in the coffin. A hacking group called “The Three Musketeers,”, in short, had the Lvl0 keys which were leaked. The Three Musketeers were not going to release the keys because of the known outcome of doing so. The Chinese hacking team “BlueDiscCFW,” somehow got a hold of the keys and planned to charge money for users who wanted the exploit. Its disgusting they would do that and The Musketeers realized this. With that in mind, The Three Musketeers tried to immediately stop BlueDiscCFW’s profiting from the LV0 exploit, The Three Musketeers released the LV0 custom firmware free to the public. The funny part is the BDCFW was taken down immedietly. The Three Musketeers released a statement on it saying
“You can be sure that if it wouldn’t have been for this leak, this key would never have seen the light of day, only the fear of our work being used by others to make money out of it has forced us to release this now.”
It was a two faced leak and is oddly similar to that Sam Jordam incident or Linux hack. They then released a full announcement and statement on the matter:
As this was a group effort, we wouldn’t normally have lost a word about it
ever, but as we’re done with PS3 now anyways, we think it doesn’t matter
anymore [http://pastie.org/4462324]. Congratulations to the guy that leaked
stuff, you, sir, are a 1337 haxx0r, jk, you’re an asshole.
Try this bytes…
– [erk=CA7A24EC38BDB45B98CCD7D363EA2AF0C326E65081E063 0CB9AB2D215865878A]
– [riv=F9205F46F6021697E670F13DFA726212]
– [pub=A8FD6DB24532D094EFA08CB41C9A72287D905C6B27B42B E4AB925AAF4AFFF34D
41EEB54DD128700D]
– [priv=001AD976FCDE86F5B8FF3E63EF3A7F94E861975BA3]
– [ctype=33]
…and be amazed.
People should know that crooked personalities are widespread in this so
called ‘scene’. Some people try to achieve something for fun together and make
the wrong decision to trust others and share their results with them, but ofc
there got to be the attention seeking fame wh*** that has to leak stuff to
feel a little bit better about him-/herself.
Now the catch is that it works like this in every ‘scene’, just that in
|others it usually doesn’t come to light.
The only sad thing is, that the others who worked on this won’t get the
attention they deserve because they probably want to remain anonymous (also
they don’t care about E-fame <3).
PS: This is neither about drama nor E-fame nor ‘OMG WE HAZ BEEN FIRST’, we
just thought you should know that we’re disappointed in certain people. You
can be sure that if it wouldn’t have been for this leak, this key would never
have seen the light of day, only the fear of our work being used by others to
make money out of it has forced us to release this now.
[-The Three Musketeers]
What does this mean?
With the release of the LV0 keys mean, eventually, having all the keys available. The LV0 is not patchable, which is to say there is nothing at all Sony can do to fix this. The final bullet in the chamber as hit Sony hard. What actions they will take are not known, but if things continue in the scene I can garuntee they will be pushing the date of the PS4 closer as new hardware is really all they can do. Sony already moved all the loaders. The only other option would be to put the loaders in bootldr, but that isn’t possible since bootldr is locked to being console specific and is impossible to update. Behind LV0 is just bootldr, which is encrypted with specific console keys. This leak will in time lead to a 4.25 CFW which can be installed on mostly any PS3 even on Slims and the recent new slim models. Keep in mind that fail0verflow released metldr private keys like I said above. Well, surprise, metldr is loaded by lv0ldr, even on 3.60+. The leak contains a private key, it’s the string after PRIV=. The greatest part is that the key isn’t tied up to a specific firmware. The problem with 3k model Playstation3 consoles is that they have a new LV0 version named lv0.2, which means new keys for the loader. What this means is that consoles which are able to downgrade to 3.55 can install 4.25 CFW even if they’re on 4.25 OFW. The bad news incorporated with this is that 3K and higher consoles’ LV0 keys are static, they are not console specific. Sony can change LV0 with a new firmware update. But, bootldr is per console and is the way of decryption for LV0. If we have bootldr then the console is wide open and a CFW could be made to work on any console. Bootldr cannot be changed or denied unless there is a hardware change. Even if we had bootldr then anyone with a downgradable console could have a CFW firmware. Whoever has bootldr and wanted to leak it would bring the greatest massacre and ban-hammer of all time by any company ever, I can garuntee whoever releases it will have no where to run or hide so it would of course need to be anonymous to highest level with no traces to be found. Bootldr is something that’s way more protected and valuable than metldr.
Closing Statement
This is the beginning of a very long and heavily scheduled future of the PS3 hacking scene. The release of the LV0 key means that any system update released by Sony going forward can be decrypted fully with no effort. Sony has no cards in this game. As of today LV0 is now decrypted for ever until the end of time. There is alot of reverse engineering to get the decrypted loaders from it since Sony had changed a lot of security algorithms to protect these loaders inside LV0 however, rest assure every PS3 developer is hot on the news of everything going on. No one will be able to find 4.XX LV1, LV2_kernel, AppLDR keys inside the decrypted LV0 so there would need to be an investigation regarding how Sony store these keys right now. Already hard at work Multiman and Rogero have released new CFW along with other developers working hard. Rogeros new CEX 4.21 CFW FFA was pulled however due to bricking issues, so be alert to that. With this we may in some vary valuable information, in a way, that’ll help get some much needed help in also hacking the Vita but that’s not something to be confirmed. Although in given time more information and understanding on this will come, so stay tuned.
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October 28th, 2012, 02:03 Posted By: wraggster
PS Plus is "contributing in a big way" to PSN sales, Sony informs us
Sony Computer Entertainment America
us.playstation.com
Sony's online efforts have come a long way in the last six years, and while some would argue that Xbox Live is still superior, one unique differentiator for PlayStation Network is its PlayStation Plus offering. In fact, one industry veteran close to Sony told us recently that Sony has "drastically undersold" the value of PlayStation Plus. Sony appears eager to change that, if you ask John Koller, VP of PlayStation Home and Handheld Consoles.
Koller, who also oversees all PlayStation brand marketing, told GamesIndustry International that PlayStation Plus has seen a big rise in interest and that Sony is going to put some significant weight behind marketing the program from here on out.
"PlayStation Plus is fantastic. This is going to be a significant part of our marketing efforts over the next 6, 12, 24 months. This is a big part of what we do. The amount of value that you get from PlayStation Plus is significant. Since E3, we've seen a significant rise in PlayStation Plus adoption and we'll be utilizing this," Koller said.
"This is a nice weapon in our arsenal that we'll be utilizing and it's just a great value for a consumer that's coming in. If you look at a consumer that's coming in in year 6 or year 7...you could call them a later adopter and giving them an instant game collection, which is what PlayStation Plus provides, has really proven to be successful. So this is going to be a very important part of what we do here over the next few months. You'll see it at holiday. You'll see it even beyond that with various integrations into our ecosystem."
PlayStation Plus is offered for either 3 months at $17.99 or a full year for $49.99. Subscribers gain access to a wide variety of games, early access to demos and betas, discounts on PSN content, 1GB of cloud storage for game saves, and 1-hour trials of full games for select titles. It's an interesting idea, and it's certainly helping to communicate the value of digital to gamers.
"Some of PlayStation Plus' benefit is getting consumers more comfortable with digital content who may not be. Obviously, there's the current PlayStation 3 consumer who tends to be fairly comfortable with digital and we have a great DLC sales and full game downloads and those types of things. But the new consumers who are coming in in particular, which is what I'm looking at here, if we can introduce them to PlayStation Plus and this instant game collection idea, you're bringing them into a world that may be a bit foreign to them if they don't own a system this current cycle. So that comfort level is important to us, it's important to publishers, it's important I think to most people in this industry that we get them comfortable with digital content," added Koller.
So far, so good for Plus. While Sony Computer Entertainment America couldn't share exact figures on the number of Plus subscribers, a spokesperson did tell us that customer satisfaction rates are at the highest ever at 97 percent while renewal intent rate is at 93 percent. "The success of PS Plus is contributing in a big way to driving overall PSN sales, as our last quarter was the biggest in terms of transactional sales in PSN's six-year history," she noted. "The immediate consumer reaction was completely off the charts, and membership sales more than doubled during the week of E3."
We'll be bringing you our full interview with John Koller tomorrow. We talked about Sony's holiday positioning for PS3 and Vita, price cuts, the competition, and much more.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...enal-says-sony
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October 28th, 2012, 01:35 Posted By: wraggster
Keep next Tuesday night free – GAME will be opening its doors to welcome the unconventional Wednesday release of Assassin’s Creed III.
The flagship event will take place at GAME’s Stratford Store which will be transformed into “a scenic replica of the game’s winter wilderness, complete with Redcoats who will be patrolling and entertaining the queue”.
There’s also a treat for those in attendance at GAME’s Hull store where Ubisoft developer Tim Browne will be in attendance from 9:30pm to chat with customers.
“Assassin’s Creed fans can’t wait to get their hands on the next chapter of this epic game and we are really excited to be opening so many stores at midnight to celebrate in true GAME style,” GAME’s marketing director Anna-Marie Mason stated.
“We are bringing a piece of the adventure to life at GAME Stratford for London fans and we are delighted that developer Tim Browne will be attending GAME Hull, giving both the north and south a great experience to look forward to.”
Assassin’s Creed III will be released in the UK on Wednesday October 31st, with GAME stores opening their doors at around 11:45pm on the night of Tuesday October 30th.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/game-...ed-iii/0105313
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October 26th, 2012, 02:31 Posted By: wraggster
Valhalla Knights 3 will hit Japan on January 31 for the Vita. It will have monsters (surprise!) that drop loot, and features ad hoc connectivity, allowing for local-yet-separate multiplayer. First-print copies include a code for the Butterfly of the Night Takeout Pack, which includes an extra character in the Entertainment District.
Valhalla Knights 3 is a continuation of the Valhalla Knights RPG franchise, first launched in Japan in 2006 and North America in 2007 for the PlayStation Portable. Valhalla Knights 2, which hit North American PSPs in 2008, featured six-member party battles. Valhalla Knights 3 brings 7-on-7 battles, and offers a scintillating look at that universe's Red Light district.
There's no word yet on a western release for Valhalla Knights 3.
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/10/25/va...unch-in-japan/
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October 26th, 2012, 02:29 Posted By: wraggster
Assassin's Creed 3 hasn't yet arrived, but Ubisoft already claims its trip through the American Revolutionary has garnered the highest number of pre-orders for the company so far. We don't know any hard numbers at this point, save for the fact that AC3 has over double the pre-orders of last year's Assassin's Creed: Revelations, with a few days to go before launch at the end of the month.
GameStop is predictably thrilled: Company president Tony Bartel is practically climbing trees with excitement in the press release below. Ubisoft also says theAssassin's Creed series has sold over 40 million games worldwide, and it expects the official number 3 to add to that total significantly. Wherever the series is going, it certainly isn't down.
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/10/25/as...red-game-ever/
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October 26th, 2012, 00:57 Posted By: wraggster
The first DLC for stealth hit Dishonored will be released in December, Bethesda has revealed.
It’s called Dunwall City Trials and will cost £3.99/400 MS Points. It will include 10 challenge maps containing assorted challenges including “an arena battle against waves of enemy AI, a gravity-defying run of drop assassinations, and a race against the clock”.
It will be released simultaneously on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.
Two further add-ons have also been confirmed to follow some time in 2013, with the first arriving in the Spring.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/bethe...onored/0105220
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October 26th, 2012, 00:35 Posted By: wraggster
It looks like the security of the PlayStation 3 has been cracked wide open. But then again we’ve thought the same thing in the past and Sony managed to patch those exploits. The latest in the cat and mouse game is the release of the LV0 encryption codes for the PS3 console. The guys who discovered the magic strings of characters supposedly intended to keep them a secret, but have gone public after there was a leak and some black-hats now intend to use them for profit.
The keys are the bottom layer of security when pushing firmware updates to the PS3. With keys in hand, current and future upgrades can be unencrypted, altered, and repackaged without the gaming rig putting up a fuss. Our only real beef with the tight security came when Sony removed the ability to install Linux on systems marketed with this option. The availability of these keys should let you install just about whatever you want on your hardware.
http://hackaday.com/2012/10/25/lv0-e...on-3-firmware/
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October 24th, 2012, 23:42 Posted By: wraggster
Gamestop's God of War: Ascension pre-order bonus is an exclusive multiplayer costume taken from Zack Snyder's 2007 movie 300, because nothing says "brand-new video game based on Greek pseudo-mythology" like a random costume from a five-year-old movie based on Greek pseudo-history.
Specifically, the costume replicates King Leonidas' red cape, helmet and "armor," which we assume is what they're calling his tiny little baby man-shorts. The costume also includes a spear that provides new moves and abilities, as well as a double-sided God of War: Ascension poster. It does not, however, include a pit for disposing of foreign dignitaries or a bottle of chest grease.
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/10/24/th...-order-perk-i/
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