Piracy has not been much of a concern for Sony’s latest console, the PlayStation 5. While previous consoles have gotten jailbroken at one point or another, it usually happens well into the generation. But it looks like someone managed to find an exploit in the PlayStation 5, and used it to jailbreak the system. The exploit was discovered by Lance McDonald, the same modder who made Bloodbourne run at 60 FPS. He uploaded a video on Twitter showing the jailbreak, and how it gives access to the PlayStation 5’s debug menu.
Not just that, the jailbreak allows PlayStation 5 users to install game backups onto the system. McDonald showed off the process by installing the delisted PT demo on the console. But since the PS5 exploit is in its early stages of development, the game demo was not playable. This exploit comes with multiple limitations, as the maker says it only works around 30% of the time and has many points of failure.
It's… beautiful.
The PlayStation 5 has been jailbroken. pic.twitter.com/54fvBGoQGw
— Lance McDonald (@manfightdragon) October 3, 2022
The method only works on PlayStation 5 consoles that are on the firmware version 4.03 from October 2021 or older. In its current state, the jailbreak will be of no use to anyone. The creator said noted that the jailbreak will only be useful to people who want to check under the hood of their PlayStation 5.
What Will Sony Do About The PlayStation 5 Jailbreak?
Sony normally keeps potential piracy methods and exploits under wraps and patches them out with regular firmware updates. Meanwhile, Microsoft has a completely different approach, allowing modders to turn their consoles into retro emulation powerhouses.
Needless to say, this will not add up to much in the grand scheme of things. The exploit is only working on very old firmware versions of the PlayStation 5, and since Sony forces people to update their firmware if they want to play any games, most people are already on the latest version, and downgrading isn’t possible at the time of writing.