Update: As promised, firmware 3.50 has gone live! Grab it from our download section or via Network Update. Take caution, however: like 3.42 before it, this update renders all PSJailbreak variants inoperable. Additionally, to complement its release, the US PS Blog sends along more details on enhanced Facebook integration and the “Grief Reporting” feature, which makes its debut in 3.50. […]

You knew it was bound to happen eventually: emulators running under GameOS. Developer eiz has cooked up a rough port of SNES9X for the PS3. According to the release notes, it currently lacks the usual trimmings, such as save state support and a user interface. Here’s a snip from the included readme: * Lots of snes9x features are not supported […]

Progress is being made at an amazing pace in the PS3 scene! Developer JaiCraB has released a USB firmware loader application that can load an ENTIRE firmware direct from USB. Reminds us of the good ‘ol DevHook days back on PSP. As a result, this allows users to modify firmware resource files such as RCOs without any risk of bricking […]

Come November 2 in North America, we’ll soon find out if Polyphony Digital’s latest masterpiece — Gran Turismo 5 — was worth the absurdly long wait. What better way to ease the wait in this final stretch with a new gameplay video? Sony has offered up a clip that shows off GT5’s meticulously detailed weather effects — from rainfall to light flurries of snow. […]

eXophase forum member Lachrymose has released a PS3 port of the influential retro classic that is Pong running natively under GameOS. While technically not classified as straight homebrew as it was compiled with the official PS3 SDK, it’s a promising start in the now-thriving PS3 scene. More details, as well as a download link, can be found in the official release […]

Betcha didn’t see this one coming: Sega has announced “Yakuza: Of the End” — a Yakuza title that thrusts players into a zombie-infested outbreak. While details on the plot aren’t clear, series mainstays Kazuma Kiryu, Ryuji Goda, Shun Akiyama and Kazuma’s rival Goro Majima are returning to blast mushy brains to bits. This surreal take on a franchise embroiled in […]

Ubisoft has dished out details on its TGS lineup, revealing that Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, Child Of Eden, Michael Jackson The Experience and Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X.  2 are slated to make a playable appearance on the show floor from September 18-19. Additionally, Shaun White Skateboarding will be shown behind closed doors in stereoscopic 3D to media. No real surprises, we’d say, […]

In Sony’s continuing jaunt to crack down on sales of the PSJailbreak device, word has emerged that retailers in Russia and Hong Kong are now prohibited from selling the USB dongle. A rough translation of a document obtained by a Russian site notes that any exchange of the device is deemed illegal. Even simply using the device is considered an […]

Sony may be responding to cries for PS2 backwards compatibility — which was removed from later PS3 units — in a slightly unorthodox way. A recent patent dug up by the information sleuths over at Siliconera reveals that Sony is exploring the possibility of an adapter that, when hooked up to the PS3, allows playback of PS2 format titles. A […]

According to a recent interview with EA, Matt Webster of Criterion Games explained that the play area of Need for Speed Hot Pursuit is 4x bigger than Paradise City, Criterion’s last racing game. The reason for the size increase is that the cars in the new NFS title must be able to reach 260mph which means laying down a lot […]

While the qualities of what separates a good game from a great one are up for debate, Valve president Gabe Newell feels that due to the increased reliance on multicore architectures, studios with programmers that go above and beyond to push the technical envelope — like Crytek, id, and of course Valve — will enjoy an even greater advantage over […]

Reinforcing the belief that no blockbuster game launch is complete without swag and day-one DLC, Activision sent word today that the first 100,000 folks to pre-order Call of Duty: Black Ops from Amazon will receive a limited edition “laser cell.” You’ll also receive a Certificate of Authenticity and a wallpaper image that depicts the above artwork. If that isn’t your […]

Now this is groovy — homebrew developer Aaron Lindsay has forked the PSGroove codebase, introducing a new “Apploader’ payload. In essence, what this does is allow users to run PS3 homebrew in extracted PKG format under a common “PS3_GAME” folder. For instance, you can create subdirectories inside of “PS3_GAME” that correspond to each application, copy over the extracted files in […]

The PKG container format is essentially the equivalent of EBOOT files on PS3. To that end, homebrew developer ifcaro has whipped up a GUI-driven application to view the contents of unencrypted PKG archives and extract them on command. The author is keen to note that this is a beta release, meaning there’s a chance we can expect further updates down […]

Developer ooPo just tweeted that he has released a toolchain for opensource homebrew development on the PS3. This is what homebrew fans have been patiently waiting for since the release the console was “jailbroken”. Hopefully this is the first step of the growth of a legitimate PS3 homebrew scene, free from the ghosts of piracy that have been in the […]

Developer CJPC has released an FTP server app for the PS3, giving users full read and write access to the PS3’s internal hard drive, in addition to flash partitions dev_flash2 and dev_flash3. Usage is fairly self explanatory, provided your PS3 is hacked and running on firmware 3.41. With your choice of USB exploit activated, simply install the package and connect […]

Update: We can confirm that all variants of the USB-hub emulating exploit (PSFreedom, PSGroove, PSJailbreak) are no longer functional in firmware 3.42. We’ve just been informed that PS3 firmware 3.42 has hit Network Update. Although Sony usually updates its blog ahead of time with information on new firmware releases, that is not the case this time — presumably as today […]

Update: A lesser-known portable gaming and multimedia device, known as the Dingoo, has also received the porting treatment courtesy of Wii hacking guru Waninkoko. Huzzah! Now the Palm Pre can be used to hack the PS3, too. Developer blake_zero over at PSX-Scene has released an adaptation of KaKaRoTo’s USB hub-emulating PSFreedom exploit, which takes advantage of the same heap overflow […]

Capcom’s Mega Man Universe has been shrouded in mystery, until now. In keeping with its “megaified” theme, the company offers up a trio of gameplay videos of the retro-infused side-scroller straight out of PAX. The art style appears reminiscent to that of PSP title Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X, blending 3D polygonal visuals with 2D backdrops. Some more subtle elements from the 8-bit originals have been […]

Already ridiculously simple, the process of hacking your PS3 just became a little more convenient for owners of Nokia N900 cell phones. Homebrew developer KaKaRoTo today released PSFreedom, which targets the N900. Although similar in functionality to the recently-released PSGroove exploit, the code is entirely original. With the provided shell script executed on your N900, simply turn off your PS3, plug in the […]