The next system software update for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) system will be released on April 1, 2010 (JST), and will disable the “Install Other OS” feature that was available on the PS3 systems prior to the current slimmer models, launched in September 2009. This feature enabled users to install an operating system, but due to security concerns, Sony Computer Entertainment will remove the functionality through the 3.21 system software update.
In addition, disabling the “Other OS” feature will help ensure that PS3 owners will continue to have access to the broad range of gaming and entertainment content from SCE and its content partners on a more secure system.
Consumers and organizations that currently use the “Other OS” feature can choose not to upgrade their PS3 systems, although the following features will no longer be available;
- Ability to sign in to PlayStation Network and use network features that require signing in to PlayStation Network, such as online features of PS3 games and chat
- Playback of PS3 software titles or Blu-ray Disc videos that require PS3 system software version 3.21 or later
- Playback of copyright-protected videos that are stored on a media server (when DTCP-IP is enabled under Settings)
- Use of new features and improvements that are available on PS3 system software 3.21 or later
For those PS3 users who are currently using the “Other OS” feature but choose to install the system software update, to avoid data loss they first need to back-up any data stored within the hard drive partition used by the “Other OS,” as they will not be able to access that data following the update.
Additional information about PS3 firmware updates, including v3.21 (once it becomes available), can be found here:
http://us.playstation.com/support/systemupdates/ps3/index.htm
PS3 owners who have further questions should contact Consumer Services:
http://us.playstation.com/support/ask/
800-345-7669 (800-345-SONY)
Once again, I have to restate just how funny this is. Everyone out there who has seen this story has now been introduced to PS3 hacking, who’s going to do it, and the websites that will help you get it running.
Great job Sony. You get a gold star.
I’m just popping over to express my disappointment that I will lose my Linux install. My PS3 cost me £425 to buy at launch and to take a feature out now is disgusting. Linux on my PS3 was one of the reasons I bought my HD TV too.
This is a disgusting move by Sony. If you use it or not, it was a great extra feature and to have such a thing removed shows total disregard for Sony’s user base, particularly the early adopters.
Disgraceful. I hope they scrap this stupid idea.
I hate you Sony, I picked you over the XBox because of this feature, XBox 360 has talk were you play a other game that your friend does not have, Ps3 does not have this Feature, I could go on about how DOWN I am after seeing this.. The other OS makes the PS3 a computer, so when the PS4 come’s out, people can then use the PS3 as a computer, but now, well, I’m going to get a XBox 620, I’d think about this Sony, Cuss i’m Not going to buy a PS4 if you do this,
Signed by Adam,
1 day left and no answer, get used to ir guys
and lesson is “Sony give a damm about their clients =D”
I am bit confused-
Has the Firmware been pushed thru?
it is currently 2 AM JST and I have yet to hear any confirmation that this has happened.
@GreatTeacherDebo
You are right: Sony is spreading all over the world his security system became ineffective. And, the worst, they don’t know how to prevent this without punish the vast majority of users in good faith.
Many people here are saying Linux is something they don’t care but assuming Sony is far more worried about hacking its – not ours – systems than put loyal consumer above all, we can expect in the near future other arbitraries decisions removing this or that feature.
I spent like 10 bucks each month at PSN store and as they don’t care about ME, why should I care about spending my money with something that can be affect in the future once they decide arbitrary changes?
Yes, punishing thousands of customers because their worries is best way to get hacked more and more.
Epich…you’re trolling, right?…I can’t tell if you’re not understanding or cleverly disguising yourself…if you’re real, I’d gladly reply to everything you’ve said in great detail, because it sounds like you’ve been misinformed about…well, everything.
Oh this is too funny
“Are people really trusting of the Geohot person? I wouldn’t trust him, I read from numerous people that he is a known terrorist hacker and child molester.”
Next he’ll have orchestrated the Holocaust and developed HIV/AIDS caused RRoD Responsible for Toyota’s acceleration recall (he hacked that too I heard from some guy on the interwebz)
If I can steal a line from Bugs Bunny, What a Gulla Bull, what a Nin cow poop.
umm have you ever even heard of patch blocker it downloads the patch and deletes it… hackers do this i saw it on youtube before block those vids as sony corporation copyright agreement… And the User Agreement goes both ways sony come on man… i hate the Xbox this leaves you vulnerable keep a feature they dont have your #1 not #2 i would make it where the security system like spybot could notice any suspicious behavior such as hacks… get a server that changes the pass everyday my dad has one all you do is let it work and no one can hack the PsN… I want to keep my system how it is but think of how many people are going to switch systems and the money loss!!! i love the fact we dont have to pay to unlock the internet like the Xbox I would never pay twice for my internet lol Xbox is [DELETED]!!! Ps3 is the Best way better dont make a mistake guys think about the options just do it ok?
INTRINSIK, you forget, we save that for Obama.
@Epich…
Um… You do not by chance believe everyhting you read do you? So lets say, I tell you geohot is really trying to release Satan, which sony quitely locked into to each of our phat systems. They want to get rid of OTheros to keep him cotained, but Geohat wants to destroy the world.
Seriously it is true.
O yea, he touches children to.
Losing “Other OS” is no big deal to me. It’s not like I ever used it or ever wanted to. I’ve got a PC to run Linux, like most people. Just hope you can free up those partitions for those who’ve installed it, to make room for the awesome PS3 games. kthxbai
@Corey…
“OF COURSE!”
@dinkin-flicka
Sure, more storage space indeed because their next move will be get rid of the game discs. Like they are doing to th PSP Go, you will have to donwload every game you want to play, and worst, became your game disc collection useless. It will play just blu-ray movies discs!!
The great thing (beliefs aside) is that people like Epich will disavow texts like the Bible, texts that have been around for millennia but will fully adhere to the first thing they see on the net.
Before the Flaming, I am NOT a christian. Just a schmoe making an analogy.
Caps lock fury in 3…2…1…
I’m antzy now, I want to know who’s going to file the Class Action Lawsuit and what I can do to contribute.
dude if you read the handbook that came via the ps3 there breaking the contract and block hack downloads from sharecash.org if anyone does delete the account…
Bridger….we will let each other know how to get involved in a Class action on Friday…
Sony has to pull the trigger on the update, then its open season…
OK Epich, now I can roll this out.
Trusting Geohot isn’t really the issue at all. We’re not buying a product for him, and he certainly isn’t a representative for hacking. He, whoever he is, found an exploit in the hardware. He’s actually not the only one to do this, and he literally said that it’s up to the community to do anything with it. Geohot is just a guy who has a couple of lines of code and some instructions on a website, and wasn’t actually doing anything different from what a hobbyist would do on a digital picture frame.
I don’t hold faith in Sony. They were a pretty solid company that made good products. The PS3 was a good product, and still is, but I bought it knowing that Linux was in that particular package. It was $400, and now they are just taking it away for no reason.
There isn’t even a good excuse to do it. The Other OS function doesn’t promote piracy. Did you know that java apps on a Blu-Ray are known to be capable of running unintended software? So security isn’t an issue. They certainly aren’t making my console safer, and it’s entirely up to me whether or not I choose to remove Linux or not. If there’s a hole in MSN Messenger, Microsoft fixes the hole at its cause…they don’t randomly remove it from your computer. I don’t go into your house stealing your backup computer because you’re not using it.
Geohot really has nothing to do with this. He just found a hack. We have no reason to trust him, nor is there any way to really place out trust in him. What am I trusting him to do right now? Nothing at all.
If you like your consumer rights being violated, then just don’t post here.
I am disgusted by this move if it is true. For years I watched the console craze go on and chose not to get involved because I could not imagine myself paying stupid money for something that only played games.
I am not an avid gamer, and had it not been for the list of features present in the 80gb version of the PS3, the North American update to the original 60gb, and the possibilities it offered I would not have spent the CA$500 I did on the console. I would not even have bought the cheaper 40gb version. I WOULD NOT HAVE BOUGHT A PS3 AT ALL. I would have stock to a PC or Mac and bought a cheap secondhand blu-ray disk player on ebay!
But the ability to install Linux on my PS3 meant I could use it as a media center computer, networked with my desktop and laptop and work from the comfort of my living room using the large screen using the very small and well designed PS3. On its own the PS3 does not even allow you to have shared printing via a printer server and only supports 2 printer makes and models.
WILL SONY BE REFUNDING US OUR MONEY? Or will you be releasing widgets/applications that enable us to do what some of us used Linux and other installed OS for avoiding the need to install the additional OS in the first place!
Facebook, by the way, has a group for this particular issue.
http:// www. facebook. com/group. php?gid=108684749155032
also, I recommend digging this article, as it’s the most dugg site on this topic.
http: //digg. com/ d31N5kV
Aspect says “It is a matter of keeping things fair also. If it doesnt work on the slim models, the inferior fat ones shouldnt have it on theirs. Go Slim or go home.
Also dont give me that bs line about the ps2 BC. I have my PS2 hooked up on the same time, its just a matter of pressing one button on my remote to change to it. Crisis averted. SLIM PS3 250GIG > CRAPPY PS3′S THAT ARE FAT…MUCH LIKE THEIR OWNERS”
“And I dont have a slim, I have the 80 gig fat, I don’t care that I am losing other OS feature. I dont use it, one less thing I dont need.”
lol Fatty. Where are you?
2 cents here.
Not to mention the guy has cracked two of the most popular devices out now. So I’m sure there is a smear campaign of some kind. Not saying that the allegations against him aren’t true. Just that this is a topic about Sony actions not Geo. Do I trust him? IDK? Respect? Again IDK. He has done some nifty hacks though.
I just don’t want to piss him off, I like having admin rights to my machines. ^^;;;
I spoke to a support representative. Not only do you lose access to the Linux partition, but there is no way to even reclaim it for use with GameOS unless you reformat the disk. This is really completely terrible for anyone who has made use of the OtherOS feature.
@Epich…
I’m allowed to do that. Sony cannot come into my house and steal things that I paid for. They don’t have the right at all. Just because I wasn’t watching a DVD doesn’t mean they can come and take it because I could potentially copy it…which I am absolutely allowed to do.
I bought the hardware, and if someone is able to hack it to provide new features, we are LEGALLY ALLOWED to do so. They are not legally allowed to simply take something that I own. You’re saying that it’s OK for them to steal, but it’s not OK for me to have a line of code handy that might let me steal if I were a thief, which I’m not. I’m going to hack the console if I am not refunded for this, and it is my legal right to do so.
This is absolutly rediculous…We fat owners paid for this feature, some people even bought the ps3 because of this feature. This is going to start a horrible trend.
Ive been a loyal sony customer since the original Playstation but this is just unforgivable….and people that say “oh well no biggie as long as it makes it secure” are just ignorent…you really think if they see people are ok with havig things they paid for being taken away they are just gonna stop with this? Are they going to disable my memory stick readers next? how about my bc or my abilities to play mp3’s, if one single feature is removed….then NONE are safe.
If sony really does this i will never buy from them again.
I just don’t see why they can’t leave this feature in place for all the early adopters like myself…
I mean, i could have waited for a year or two to get my PS3 at a discount compared to the $600 i paid at launch day..
But of course i had to have it first! it was a new tech, with so many promises about being an “all in one media center”..
but so far they have stripped away several features from the phat with new hardware revisions to allegedly “save money”, but at least the early adopter with his phat still had all the features promised…UNTIL NOW!
they are actually going to take away a feature that CAME WITH the $600 launch units!
UNBELIEVABLE!
don’t do this Sony, please!
think of your loyal customers!
Quoting eff.org (Electronic Frontier Foundation): “This is just the latest example of the way in which digital rights management hurts consumers — at the end of the day, hardware that includes DRM is always silently waiting to protect someone else’s interests, at the expense of your own.”
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/03/sony-steals-feature-from-your-playstation-3
And another quote from the Aibo case: “On the surface, Sony appears to be using portions of the DMCA in an attempt to keep people from putting the company’s product to new and interesting uses,” said Cindy Cohn, legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil rights group”
Think about it like this, the average consumer attitude..
A person may LOVE hamburgers from a certain restaurant, they would always buy only those hamburgers from that particular restaurant, no matter what it costs, they would stand by their favorite choice..
BUT!
If the food’s recipe started to be replaced with less ingredients, and the restaurant’s management refused to acknowledge the complaints of the loyal customers, that once happy consumer would simply change restaurants..
DON’T MAKE ME BE AN UNHAPPY CONSUMER, SONY!
GreatTeacherDebo you bought yours for $400 spare a thought for those in the UK like some of my friends that bought theirs for £450 or the equivalent of US$900 as the rates were at the time the PS3 was first released and they didn’t get the 5 free blu-ray movie promotion Sony were running in North America.
I was lucky because I was in the process of a move to North America when I got mine!!
I totally agree with you and would compromise with Sony by saying fine lets assume you are not just being LAZY by not actually fixing the so-called security issue, are you as Sony going to provide free applications and widgets that allow those that use Linux on the PS3 to do what they were doing, like email, word processing, skype, msn, programming and so on?
I don’t blame Geohat for anything. He’s not to blame at all. And they certainly aren’t protecting me from anything. Hobbyists are LEGALLY ALLOWED to do this. Everyone in the world can exploit the PS3, and that is absolutely 100% legal.
Microsoft..one of the biggest companies on earth…didn’t have their bases covered, as they have lost a class action lawsuit very recently.
wolverine2281
I’m not sure where your point on fairness to slim owners comes into play or even the argument that the slims are superior to the fats. The simple Fact are these. Yes the slims are smaller, quieter and have bigger hard drives. However, the slims have lower retail prices than the fats and they also don’t have backwards compatibility like the higher end fats. Check ebay and you’ll see used original 60gb fats being sold for almost as much as the slims retail in the shops.
This is not about fairness because by default Sony have always made some PS3s more equal than others and unashamedly charged consumers for the privilege!!
I bought a product.
In a few hours, or even in a few minutes, I could potentially not have that product.
It doesn’t take a legal genius to figure this out.
Quoting eff.org (Electronic Frontier Foundation): “This is just the latest example of the way in which digital rights management hurts consumers — at the end of the day, hardware that includes DRM is always silently waiting to protect someone else’s interests, at the expense of your own.”
eff.org/deeplinks/2010/03/sony-steals-feature-from-your-playstation-3
And another quote from the Aibo case: “On the surface, Sony appears to be using portions of the DMCA in an attempt to keep people from putting the company’s product to new and interesting uses,” said Cindy Cohn, legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil rights group”
elr77, both of those comments were from AspectOfLight. Go back about 20 pages if you want to be amused. I was gone for a little while and just found his latest post funny. I’m an 80GB PS3 owner running Linux. I couldn’t care less about the slims and would find it hard to believe a slim is “superior” Welcome to the “discussion” though :)
At all of these Naysayers that don’t realize what it at stake.
So I suppose that if you went to Best Buy and bought a Surround sound System from let’s say….Sony
Then a few years later, they say…
“We are going to disable Dolby Pro logic output from your system with this update, and You can choose NOT to do the update, BUT no sound will come out of your speakers.
Understand where we are coming from now?
That’s not the logic at all. You are completely wrong. I am perfectly, legally allowed to run a torrent on whatever hardware I can get it to run on. This is how I get Linux distros. Go look at Ubuntu’s website right now.
By your own logic, you’re saying that if I own a car and a gun that I am going to do a drive-by on someone.
I purchased, as advertised, a gaming system with online capabilities, a blu-ray player, and a linux box. The TOS says they can change things, but they absolutely cannot refuse me the ability to do any of that (and that’s exactly what this blog post says) without violating consumer laws. If I cheat on a game, then it is within their rights to refuse that. If I hack the system, I lose the warranty and potential Sony support. I haven’t done that.
and actually, I just reread that torrent thing again…
Let me rephrase this.
THAT PERSON WAS STEALING. Not only that, they were giving it away to others! This has nothing to do with that!
@EpicNotion: “As long as everything up until right now works the same, there is no harm done.”
– Are you sure I still can reload the games I bougth earlier in the psn store?
– Are you sure I still can play games online?
– Are you sure I can write chat messages?
On top of that, you JUST SAID that it’s wrong for people to steal products from others, but it’s OK when Sony does it! Seriously, YOU JUST SAID THIS.
Has anyone been able to prove what Sony is about to do, with this firmware update, even legal?
@PAID-ASSASSIN That is called a classical slippery slope argument — a logical fallacy.
Move from posting comments on a blog to posting concerns to them directly at http://us.playstation.com/support/ask/
Let them know there is a large base of users who use the Other OS and that taking away features that we paid for originally is not fair.
Well at least it makes decisions easier, what ebook, camcorder, digicam, notebook, headphones NOT to buy …
Because honestly, thats the only decision customers can make.
Not sure why my previous commends are awaiting moderation…
Move from posting comments on a blog to posting concerns to them directly using the link they posted in this blog.
Let them know there is a large base of users who use the Other OS and that taking away features that we paid for originally is not fair.
trust me guys, this is a smart move on sony’s part. just look at xbox live and thier hackers. we all know that psn is better than that.
As of April 1st 2010 PS3 no longer does EVERYTHING!
When this feature is removed, I am no longer a Sony customer. I am waiting on my taxes that will enable me to afford a widescreen tv, new receiver and speakers. NONE of this will be Sony. Sony has robbed me of a lot of time I put into this and is robbing me of future enjoyment. Their reasons for removing it are bogus and to me, it tells me that Sony thinks their consumers are idiots. Well have fun meeting your next profit margins. What really peeves me off, I didn’t buy a slim, I paid $400!! for this POS and personally I don’t think they have any right. I hope someone sues the hell out of Sony! This is just not right. You can’t just go to someone who bought a car and has had it for sometime and go remove his air conditioning and not replace it and say we don’t support that ac anymore. It was paid for, there is at least a reimbursement at the least. I get NOTHING from Sony for removing this feature other than a lie about security. Totally asinine.
“EVERYBODY uses a REAL computer since everybody has one by now, not the PS3.”
Fine. Let’s trash that second car of yours. You don’t need it.
“I didn’t use it.”
Fine. Let me have that Blu-Ray you weren’t watching.
“It’s piracy.”
Did I steal anything? Why am I guilty before being proven innocent? Didn’t Sony just steal MY property that was paid for?
“It’s in the TOS.”
Fair enough. Tell you what, if you buy this candy bar off of me, it’s within my right to kill you if I don’t like the way you’re using it.
Killing someone is illegal, so the TOS doesn’t protect me from consequence.