With Sony's controversial, highly anti-consumer announcement that they would cease production of physical games in 2028, efforts to hack the PS5 have increased. Just a few days ago, it was announced that SharpEmu was working on a PlayStation 5 emulator, and not long after, Game of the Year winner Astro Bot was seen booting up on the software.
Now, aiming to take things a step further, YouTuber Louis Rossmann is offering a reward, currently at over $16,000, for anyone who can bypass the PS5's hypervisor, allowing an alternative operating system to boot onto the console.
A YouTuber is offering a huge reward for anyone who can get a new operating system to run on the PS5
Louis Rossmann is a big advocate for consumer rights and digital ownership. His YouTube channel has over 6.5 million subscribers, and he runs the nonprofit FULU, an organization that funds “transparent, verifiable work that restores digital ownership and user control.”
In a new video on his YouTube channel, Rossmann said:
“We're releasing a bounty program where if someone comes up with a solution that allows you to modify or bypass the PS5 hypervisor to the point that an alternate OS can be booted with a one-time implementation that works on firmware 13.42 42 or newer that allows you to access the PS5's primary compute, memory, and graphics that allows you to continue to boot into the OS. to play PS5 games, we'll pay you $10,000.”
$10,000 is the amount that FULU will contribute to the reward; But others eager to make this dream a reality can also pitch in. And they have, with the total bounty reaching more than $16,600 at the time of writing.
However, it won't be easy. The hypervisor is the highest layer of security on the PS5, preventing unauthorized code from accessing both the CPU and GPU, which are required to boot a new OS. If one were to succeed, this would open up a range of new options on the PS5.
Running Linux, for example, would allow native Steam and PC gaming on the PS5. That means potentially getting the best version of a game available on the console. It would also allow for emulation, which I believe is the main reason for this reward. It remains to be seen how long this challenge will take, but if it's anything like the Xbox One, it could take a while.
Earlier this year, the Xbox console was hacked for the first time in the 13 years since its launch. It was once called the “most secure product Microsoft has ever produced,” so hacking it proved to be a big problem, but someone got there eventually. We hope it won't be as long this time.
- Stamp
-
Sony
- Original release date
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November 12, 2020
- Original MSRP (USD)
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$499, €499, £449, £49,980 (Base) // $399, €399, £359, £39,980 (Digital),
- Operating system
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Orbis Olympics
- Processor
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Custom 8-core AMD Zen 2
- Resolution
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720p – 8K
