PlayStation Home hacked already

Author: Joe Martin
Published: 15th December 2008

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patch over this problem, a far bigger problem would seem to be that the Home program is entirely superfluous - or outdated, to quote Microsoft.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