PlayStation Home hacked already

Author: Joe Martin
Published: 15th December 2008
Comments (18) Stumble
PlayStation Home hacked already

Sony's PlayStation Home has been hacked in just a few short days by gamers.

Well, that didn't take very long. Sony only released PlayStation Home four or five days ago and the online non-game has already been hacked by users, circumventing some of the advertising systems built into the game.

While we haven't had a chance to confirm the claims of hackers like StreetSkaterFU, video footage on YouTube suggests that the claims may be valid.

PlayStation Home, which was released on December 11th, is an online community provided for free by Sony to all PlayStation 3 users. While not strictly a game, Home does incorporate mini-games, such as bowling and pool. Sony meanwhile litters the online world with adverts and sponsored areas built around certain themes, such as the Far Cry 2 area.

It's these adverts which have been specifically targeted by hackers too, with StreetSkaterFU apparently being the first PlayStation 3 user to replace the posters which litter PlayStation Home with some of his own - though only locally. The method, which is fully detailed on PS3Hax (via Engadget) is apparently easily repeatable for other users too.

While Sony will obviously be moving to quickly patch over this problem, a far bigger problem would seem to be that the Home program is entirely superfluous - or outdated, to quote Microsoft.

Have you tried PlayStation Home yet? Let us know what you think of it in the forums.
Quote liratheal 15th December 2008, 10:11
I look forward to this failure of a non-game falling apart.

Can we get a countdown, and some champagne?
Quote freedom810 15th December 2008, 11:36
Anybody else want to make a social system for 14million players and guarentee they wont have issues? Cmon seriously it seems to be the in thing at the moment to bash sony and its getting lame.
Quote Cobalt 15th December 2008, 11:56
Whats getting lame is Sony's attempts to innovate. Home is an epic example of boardroom game design.
Quote Nikumba 15th December 2008, 12:16
Wow Sony seems to have managed to release a 3D IRC client years after it was tried and failed on the PC, well done boys, give yourself a bonus

Kimbie
Quote neonplanet40 15th December 2008, 12:20
Quote:
Originally Posted by freedom810
Anybody else want to make a social system for 14million players and guarentee they wont have issues? Cmon seriously it seems to be the in thing at the moment to bash sony and its getting lame.

Have to agree. give it a achance. at least its free!
Quote StephenK 15th December 2008, 12:45
Quote:
Originally Posted by freedom810
Anybody else want to make a social system for 14million players and guarentee they wont have issues? Cmon seriously it seems to be the in thing at the moment to bash sony and its getting lame.

Yeah. Personally I've no interest in this kind of thing and think it looks dated and boring but lots of people like this sort of thing so I reckon we can't judge it yet. It may fly it may not, we'll just have to wait and see.
Quote AlexB 15th December 2008, 14:17
I tried HOME, couldn't get login without getting network errors, so gave up and went back to LBP.
Quote Major 15th December 2008, 14:25
HOME will be huge, fact.
Quote whisperwolf 15th December 2008, 14:35
Quote:
Originally Posted by Major
HOME will be huge, fact.

this message brought to you by Sony PR division, you can't argue with facts people.

I'm a little confused as to what Home is supposed to be, is it a place to que to play non games whilst waiting for people to turn up to play other non home games, a place to wander round aimlessly looking at adverts? Second life without the customisation? or a place to dance aimlessly? I still don't get the final aim for home
Quote s3v3n 15th December 2008, 14:37
I tried it last Friday and the only good thing I can say is the view outside the windows was pretty. The characters were ugly as hell. I'm talking even worse than Oblivion... They could have made them look like the people in Sims 2 or hell even Sims 1! Funny thing is, I tried to make an "Oriental" character, and I couldn't do it with the adjustments, even with the advanced ones. This thing was made in Japan right?
I tried playing the spaceship game for about 3mins. That got lame quick. They could have at least included some kind of sound reactive theme, and a jukebox that you can play music from your collection. Maybe a fishtank that you can zoom in on, feed, and just it run like a screensaver.
Quote itazura 15th December 2008, 15:40
Quote:
Originally Posted by Major
HOME will be huge, fact.

god, i hope not. i really can't see the point of these "games" at all.
Quote Major 15th December 2008, 15:42
I personally think it could become something huge, if approached correctly.
Quote ssj12 15th December 2008, 16:08
Quote:
Originally Posted by whisperwolf
Quote:
Originally Posted by Major
HOME will be huge, fact.

this message brought to you by Sony PR division, you can't argue with facts people.

I'm a little confused as to what Home is supposed to be, is it a place to que to play non games whilst waiting for people to turn up to play other non home games, a place to wander round aimlessly looking at adverts? Second life without the customisation? or a place to dance aimlessly? I still don't get the final aim for home

Its Second Life without customizations with external game support.
Quote devdevil85 15th December 2008, 17:23
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cobalt
Whats getting lame is Sony's attempts to innovate. Home is an epic example of boardroom game design.
What about MS's attempts? Their avatars are ridiculously mimicked to Mii's, yet they are happily welcomed (even though it's not free) and they've had to delay most of their social NXE offerings to next quarter.....at least Sony is attempting to innovate rather than not at all even it you don't agree with they're doing....I will give Sony a year to update this open beta before I even start bashing it....there's tons of potential and content will be coming soon....don't get me wrong though, I honestly don't care for it and would rather they added all of the essentials of XBL to PSN before they unveiled this....oh well...
Quote:
Originally Posted by s3v3n
This thing was made in Japan right?
Actually, it was made in Europe.
Quote:
Originally Posted by major
I personally think it could become something huge, if approached correctly.
Exactly, and the only way we can truly know if Sony can do this is to give it the time it needs (I'm giving it a year max) considering it's a free, open beta
Quote pimlicosound 15th December 2008, 17:26
Quote:
Originally Posted by Major
HOME will be huge, fact.

I'm afraid I'm not at Home.
Quote notatoad 15th December 2008, 18:44
Quote:
Originally Posted by article
only locally

by this definition of hacking, i've hacked almost every website i've ever visited using adblock.
Quote koola 15th December 2008, 21:14
Quote:
Originally Posted by freedom810
Anybody else want to make a social system for 14million players and guarentee they wont have issues? Cmon seriously it seems to be the in thing at the moment to bash sony and its getting lame.
Quote:
Originally Posted by neonplanet40
Have to agree. give it a achance. at least its free!

+1
Quote kurokami 17th December 2008, 05:21
Screw Microsoft. The appeal of online communities can only grow as we spend more time connected. The only issue is whether Sony can make Home from being a novlety for the PS3 into an integral part of the console. Start up your PS3 and you're immediately logged into your personal space. Everything else--surfing, shopping, booting up games--start from there. Of course, that means they'll have to sort of all these network (server overload, for eg) and user interface issues (better keyboard support etc).

What I particularly didn't like is that they still segregate users based on region. If this were a truly online community, then players from Asia should be able to interact with someone from, say, Japan. Time to really go global, Sony.

Other than that, I like what I saw in Home thus far, and if Sony can work on the issues and expand the user base (ie, up PS3 sales), this has potential.

Regardless of what Microsoft thinks.
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