Sony closes PS5 piracy store, clones appear hours later
An unofficial app store for hacked PlayStation 5 consoles offered over 1,600 games for free. After alleged legal action, the project briefly disappeared, but has already returned to the Internet through quick copies.
Sony should stop illegal stores
The electronics company Sony is currently apparently taking legal action against developers of piracy software. This has not been officially confirmed, but it can still be assumed. In any case, on Tuesday the Overdrive application, which served as an unofficial app store for hacked consoles, disappeared. The program offered users direct access to over 1,600 free titles for the Playstation 4 and Playstation 5, including well-known games such as Cyberpunk 2077 or Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. The prerequisite for using Overdrive is a console that has been manipulated through a so-called jailbreak.
The Relapse exploit published in September in particular fueled the spread, as it works on devices up to firmware version 13.60, which was released in July. Using the software, players download the data with up to 64 simultaneous connections and integrate them directly into the main menu using additional programs. Like user Oliver Darko on X (via VideoCardz) writes, the makers of Overdrive allegedly received a cease-and-desist letter from Sony’s lawyers. The developers’ original GitHub repository now only provides an error message and the application is said to have stopped serving. It is still unclear whether the deletion was caused by Sony. As mentioned at the beginning, official confirmation of the legal steps from the console manufacturer or the programmers is still pending.
Clones bypass supposed lock
Despite the apparent success of the blocking, the illegal offer did not stay offline for long. Within hours of the original project’s disappearance, full copies appeared on other GitHub accounts. The new releases include bug fixes and provide detailed instructions for existing users to upgrade to the latest versions. Since the source code of the software circulates on the Internet, third parties can create their own variants relatively easily. Regardless of legal measures, Sony also fights the execution of unauthorized code on a technical level. Back in September and October, the company distributed system updates 14.00.00 and 14.10.00 with security fixes on which jailbreaks like the Relapse exploit no longer work. The upcoming game GTA 6 will also require firmware 14.10.00, meaning that users with older system versions will be excluded from the title.
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