USB dongle 'jailbreaks' PS3

A hacker group is claiming to have effectively jailbroken the PlayStation 3, allowing gamers to play home-made or pirated games.

PSJailbreak says it's developed a USB dongle which allows users to save any PS3 game to the console's hard drive. If it's all true, it's the first time this has been possible. The device is even claimed to play backups from the hard drive twice as fast as from the Blu-ray drive.

It's being advertised by OzModChip, here, for AUS$170. The company says it'll be available this time next week, and works with both Slim and older models.

"Apparently 150 games have been tested, and they all work," says OzModChip. "If a game happens to have one file over 4GB the program will not be able to rip the game onto the hard drive. Apparently the word around is to dump it on an internal hard drive."

A YouTube video of the hack shows a user inserting a disc copy of God of War III into the console. The user then navigates to a backup manager on the PS3. He browses through a list of games on the hard drive and loads InFamous.

The software on the dongle apparently turns off a number of security features, but keeps the warranty seal intact.

OzModChip says that users can still play online games - although it warns that Sony could turn off this ability at any time.

In addition, the company warns, Sony will almost certainly disable the dongle through future firmware updates. However, the device is claimed to disable forced updates.

But, warns OzModChip, "This is made to work with 3.41. If you happen to download an install an update which is higher then this then it is your doing."