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)
It still doesn’t matter….
Personally, I can’t say that it’s 100% illegal, but I’d be shocked if someone brought a CAL to their doorstep and somehow managed to lose it. There’s so much wrong with this, and the fact remains that it’s not the same product that you bought. I’m staring at their Linux support page right now, I mean, come on.
It doesn’t matter, though, because as fleinn just said, it’s progress. You can either accept what they are dumping on you, or you can fight em on it so that other companies don’t do the same. Set a precedent here, and the next thing you know, companies will tamper with and steal your stuff all the time.
I have seen Sir Howard at a number of trade shows and yes he does seem incompetent.
Thanks lostinplainsight most non-OS users on the PS3 are saying bad thing about us.
Only time will tell when the upgrade comes out on the 1st like sony has said but they are liars so who know when it will happen.
I am with you 3911
I don’t care what is in an EULA or TOS.
I purchased a product and after tomorrow (rumored) I will no longer have that same product I purchased.
It’s not rumored. Call em up right now.
Its being removed due to piracy threats. A Loop-hole has been discovered while running linux that can help play pirated blueray’s from the XMB
It sucks but to keep it piracy free they have too
Well, I must say then that this really can’t in any way be an April Fools Day joke because, honestly, you can’t tell someone without internet over the phone of customer support that a crucial update will take away a feature and then have no way of them finding out “Ha, joke’s on you!” Therefore, I really hope they do include some added features with the update or in the near future. Then maybe an acceptable ‘Ha, got you! We weren’t just taking away stuff, silly!’ would be forgivable. I don’t know; it seems like this patch is doing more harm than good for their user base judging by the comments.
As I said before…it’s not OK for people to steal software…but it’s totally fine if Sony wants to steal your computer?
No. Just, no.
This is bad business and pulling a fast one, even if it is legal. Can someone explain how Sony can just quickly pull the rug out from under people when they themselves supported this fully for years? After getting some people to seriously rely on this? I DO think those people can sue. The number may not be huge since many people didn’t use the feature, but after they get small developers, students, etc. using this on a full time basis, they just pull it with barely any notice.
And suppose they don’t clearly spell out LOUD AND CLEAR in big letters in the update “YOU WILL LOSE EVERYTHING RELATED TO LINUX”, so people take notice before doing anything. Usually the agreements are in small print legalise and I’m going to bet Sony knows people usually just click through. I can’t wait to see customer reaction when people realize what happened. It MAY be legal but the bad press will be way worse.
@ TEAM-CRO
what can I say I hate catch twenty-twos. you bought it you own it. they sold it as a computer/gaming system now they tell you have to pick between the two? in the immortal words of doctor evil..RIGHT
@Gullerback
Please don’t make things up. Thanks.
Gullerback: You have no clue what you are talking about.
sony is going to crash and burn
Ok just gone 8am in Japan
www .jp .playstation .com/ ps3/ update/
Should get it first (?)
Say NO to fw 3.21
I was already deeply disappointed when the “slim” lost OtherOS support.
The upcoming, very questionable action Sony has announced is my personal low point of PS3. I’m not going to update.
@Gullerback
so that’s like 1 out of every 10-20 fat boy playstations owners who even attempt it nobody wants to brick a fat boy the’re too rare these days
assuming it was true
Anyway, it can’t be legal.
First : They can’t remove parts of what you buy, because you buy all parts, and not this one or this one. Nearly all country laws protect customers for that.
Second : Any court will say, in case of bug, virus that you loose your datas and that vendor of the application can’t be sued for this problem. But what would they say if this is a volontary act from SONY which make loose of datas ?
Sure, SONY, you’re on a very very bad move.
I have a hard time blaming this on piracy. Other systems have rampant piracy, their software in the US constantly outsells PS3 software.
I however don’t know what else might be a motive.
Unless Gullerback knows something we don’t, it’s more likely knee jerk reaction to Geohot. I did see someone post that you could rip blu-ray discs though Linux, and Sony of course being Sony, well you know how free use rights are being eroded by studios(and Sony is also one of those) so it wouldn’t exactly surprise me if that was another reason.
lol still no reply. SONY must not believe this is serious! they’ll find out next sales quarter.
some one should send sony an email with some of the best posts here and then see if thay do anything about it
Good Point Zepala they are going to cause you to loose data.
The saddest thing about this is that it was the people who purchased the console for this feature who really gave the PS3 good word of mouth when everyone else was wondering whether it was worth the price. Ironically the self same people are also probably the people skilled enough to further hacking the PS3 and to work with the code that is ALREADY OUT THERE. This isn’t going to stop anything all it is going to do is hack off the wrong people and turn this from a few curious hackers and pirates trying to hack it into a David vs. Goliath battle against the hackers and Sony.
Honestly they probably couldn’t have pissed off a worse group of people, simultaneously some of their most rabid fanboys and some of the most technically skilled PS3 owners out there. Good Job!
i ask the question earlier
did they keep the other os in the slim and not tell anyone.
i got a few responses they all said the same they could have and i agree with them now IF this an april fools joke they could have purposely said were gonna remove this feature and really there gonna add it to the slims and just because eric’s name is not at the top of the “notice” does it mean that he didnt do it. for the couple of days i have read this blog i have read every post on here all 3900+ i am against what there are doing but all the negitivity needs a break every now and then
It’s not the console manufacturers that get screwed from piracy, it’s the game deveopers. Many of which whose studios have recently closed down due to poor game sales, lack of funding…piracy? It’s kind of sad some people here are trying to defending piracy, while they lambaste a company trying to protect its own interests.
http:// www. facebook. com/group. php?gid=108684749155032
اين التحديث يا شباب
It’s called incompetence this has come from high up in the Sony chain of command and is a knee jerk reaction to George Hotz’s post that he’d cracked the PS3.
Whoever made the decision has done a fantastic job of promoting George Hotz, I’m guessing quite a few people hadn’t heard of him until a couple of days ago, LMAO.
The trouble is the people who this will affect will not be the hackers who obviously will not update they’re PS3’s. No it will be the legitimate user who gets to lose functionality.
I really hope the PS3 does get hacked now !!!!
@dickin-flicka> If piracy should be such a concern to Sony then why do all it’s competitors sell better (both consoles and games) despite the fact they all ahve piracy?
And I do not defend piracy – it’s wrong and I would never do it, but that does not make it right for Sony to steal from ME due to some totally irrational knee-jerk reaction.
And this is the only post I’ll make to you – I’ve read your posts – you are either working for Sony or a very sad consumer-sheep… Sorry to say.
@dickin-flicka – Nonsense.
@GreatTeacherDebo
keep getting a page not avalible when entering your web address
@dinkin-flicka> If piracy should be such a concern to Sony then why do all it’s competitors sell better (both consoles and games) despite the fact they all ahve piracy?
And I do not defend piracy – it’s wrong and I would never do it, but that does not make it right for Sony to steal from ME due to some totally irrational knee-jerk reaction.
And this is the only post I’ll make to you – I’ve read your posts – you are either working for Sony or a very sad consumer-sheep… Sorry to say.
@dinkin-flicka
It’s easier to blame the pirates instead of crappy games and the economy.
“I have a hard time blaming this on piracy. Other systems have rampant piracy, their software in the US constantly outsells PS3 software.
I however don’t know what else might be a motive.”
Like all overhanded DRM measures, piracy is merely the excuse. The true motivation is a desire to tighten control over the product. They want to transition the retail model away from one where you actually own what you pay for.
@3938
Why you say we defend piracy. Is it piracy to use Linux ? Is it piracy to complain for a functionality the vendor removes after you buy ?
The true thief here is SONY and only SONY, as fact that there is NO PIRACY on PS3.
delete the spaces, sick…can’t post full links on here without getting blocked from doing so.
Its so funny that this is such a stupid move that people actually believe it to be an april fools joke. I don’t use the Other OS fature, but I’ll be damned if Sony is gonna take functionality out of something I own.
@Kazper-DK Because pirates still need to buy the hardware to pirate the software, perhaps? Common sense.
So if anything I say doesn’t agree with your stance I’m automatically labeled a Sony sheep. Nice logic.
SONY can try another thing :
To hack the PS3, pepole have to light it on.
Why not simply brick all PS3, and piracy will be gone ?
GreatTeacherDebo
thanks i got it
To all the people saying “Down with Sony!”, you do realize that without them, you wouldn’t have any great games to look forward to? I, like a lot of the people complaining, have Linux on one of my PS3s and would like it to stay, but I’m going to go on an edge here and say that a good majority of them use it because it has Firefox and a better internet browser. If they add these easier firmware updates, it should be able to satisfy the majority. As for everyone else, let’s just hope they make it so you can install another, more secure operating system of some sort (maybe another specific-to-PS3 Linux without the same (but preferably much fewer) loopholes than YDL or Ubuntu).
@ dinkin-flicka
It’s also sad when you get lied to after paying a premium. Who’s happy to pay over $400(well over for some) just to end up with a Slim on the inside? Oh yeah, and AFTER they said they wouldn’t touch that feature.
It’s also sad when said corporation fully supports a system then withdraws on some flimsy excuse on short notice. Why didn’t they just confirm those rumors when they came out so people could prepare? Plus piracy on the huge scale like Xbox couldn’t even be done with what Geohot did, from what I’ve read. They won’t even remove your Linux partition for you if you update from what I read, you have to reformat yourself. Nice Sony.
“It’s kind of sad some people here are trying to defending piracy, while they lambaste a company trying to protect its own interests.”
When attempt to combat piracy by implementing DRM that punishes legitimate consumers while also being ineffective (which this downgrade is) at solving the actual issue of piracy, they deserve to get lambasted.
@dinkin-flicka
At this point the question of piracy is moot. Anyone interested in pirating games has all the code they need. It’s not like Sony made a snap decision after hearing about this exploit just last week. The guy talked about it in January. Now are you honestly going to tell me that no one managed to get the lvl 2 dumps from the PS3 OS that entire time? If you say no then you either have no clue about technology or you’re just hopelessly naive. The damage is done. All this effectively does is take all those Linux savvy fanboys who might have gone White Hat to help Sony out and has now turned them against Sony. If anything this will escalate the hacks. This is a boneheaded move no matter how you slice it. You don’t take away functionality you fix the vulnerability.
@TechieXXDivaX I’m not one of those affected who thought I paid a premium for OtherOs. I paid the premium as an early adopter to play on a system, earlier than others and fortunately still have PS2 BC. I never had to install Linux because I already have a computer for that. What was I lied to about? That I can no longer use a feature I never intended or wanted to use anyways if I don’t opt-in to the update of latest features? If I really wanted to, I’d just opt-out and install Linux.
@JANUS1980289 There were about 4 years for those Linux fanboys to go White hat and help out, and what do we have to show for it? A hacker trying to expose vulnerabilities instead.
@ MrCrAzyFAcE
Sony’s pratices make me say Sony sucks. Look at their overall history, not just this. I have a love-hate relationship with them, LOL! They can produce great things but their practices are mainly anti-consumer. That’s why many are quick to swear off all Sony products.
There were about 4 years for those Linux fanboys to go White hat and help out, and what do we have to show for it? A hacker trying to expose vulnerabilities instead
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LMAO, George can’t program ‘too’ well he says that somewhere on his website but what he’s got now is an army of Linux programmers and geeks willing to help him.