PS3 Hacks Force Infinity Ward to Rethink Game Security

[Kouen Hasuki]

Call of Duty 4 and Modern Warfare 2 are getting hacked to high heaven, and Infinity Ward says there's not a lot it can do about it.

The PS3 security problems aren't just Sony's headache; developers and publishers suffering, too. Call of Duty developer, Infinity Ward, says that it is feeling the effects of the hacks especially keenly, thanks to the popularity of the CoD series, and the experience has shown it that it can't rely just on platform security in the future.

Writing on the Infinity Ward forums, creative strategist and former community manager Robert Bowling acknowledged that there was a problem with hacked stats on the PS3. Unfortunately, he said there was very little that Infinity Ward could do, as the problem was not with the game, but with the platform itself. This meant that until Sony fixed the security problem, the hacking would continue. Bowling advised that people play in private matches with people that they knew until Sony re-secured the platform.

Infinity Ward isn't just washing its hands of the problem though. Bowling said that while Infinity Ward wasn't able to manually adjust or restore hacked stats at this time, it was exploring every possible avenue to help anyone affected. He also noted that this would only affect "legacy games" like Call of Duty 4 or Modern Warfare 2, and that future titles would employ security measures above and beyond the platform security.

This has got to be quite a blow, not just to Infinity Ward, but to Sony as well. Not only have the hacks opened the door for clever pirates, they're also threatening the integrity of the PS3's online multiplayer. The impact of gamers losing confidence in PSN could be quite severe for Sony, especially if it hopes to make a profit on the service this year.

Source

All I can say on a personal note is OUCH!

[Pickles]

I really cant make heads or tails of what the hell is going on at sony the last couple of years, its seems like they haver gotten lazy or something, or they thought sony weren't a real threat and now they are making mistakes in their panic. I dunno.

[Devi]

Poor PS3 is getting raped by hackers. lol

[ResidentPsycho]

Sony will be in damage control I'm guessing, theres nothing as far as I know that can be done about the root key.

Apparently from what I've read about this the only reason they did it was because sony removed the other os function, and the guys are against closed products, iphones, ipads etc
And by removing the other os function, basically it put the ps3 into the same category
It's just a big fuck you to sony.
Sony removed the other os function to stop people using cfw and other various program, to stop piracy etc.
but they just unleashed a whole other evil onto themselves by doing it, aka nerd-rage

run cfw, USB modchips etc etc and sure lead to game piracy. But with the root key out in the wild, the previous methods are a thing of the past, all it takes now is a 3buck blu-ray and a $50 burner. What would have been a small issue, a small percent of the general ps3 population, I wouldn't be suprised if that number grew massively.
Even those thinking about modding their ps3 for "homebrew" would probably be turned off by the fact that they could a) brick their system b) couldn't play online. Now the ps3 can't tell the diff between a legit copy and a $2 copy from thailand.

The PS3's been busted wide open now, who knows how sony is going to deal with this

These are just my thoughts on the matter don't quote me on it

[Devi]

Yeah, there's something a little stupid about making a system worse than what the buyer originally purchased. I said this in the the other thread about the PS3 hack - a lot of people justified the PS3's price because it could also serve as a PC with that OS feature. Take that away months or a year later and lower the price for new units, fine, but that doesn't change the fact that some of us dropped a nice bill originally and we're getting affected too.

[Chocobolicious]

I didnt even use the OtherOS function and it still bothered me.

Of course, I'm also a bit of a troll deep inside, so seeing all the Sony fanboys and supporters getting nailed to the wall over their 'unhackable' console is actually pretty gratifying.

As was said before, the PS3 wasn't hacked not because it couldn't be, but because no one felt like it. (No games, other uses, etc.)

Once it became a decent console... bam.

[Pendragoon]

Call of Duty 4 and Modern Warfare 2 were hacked LONG before these "jailbreak" hacks came out. I've been seeing them online for over 6 months, it is just that they now have a scape goat to blame everything on so it is only now that they are speaking up about their hacking problems.

[luffy4]

guess there will never be a ps4

[Inferno.]

Morons have been ruining Call of Duty on 360 for like a year now with JTAGs. Sony need to bring the smack down on bitches with CFW now.

[Alan Heer]

Call of Duty 4 and Modern Warfare 2 were hacked LONG before these "jailbreak" hacks came out. I've been seeing them online for over 6 months, it is just that they now have a scape goat to blame everything on so it is only now that they are speaking up about their hacking problems.

That's what I was thinking, too. And aren't there save editors that edit your achievements for 360 games?

[Russ]

I don't see why they care if people are hacking their own games that they paid for. It sounds like gamesharks or something. All systems eventually get hacked in some form or another, it's foolish to believe you have the most invincible technology in the world. I say enjoy playing and forget the crybaby nonsense that Sony spews out every time they think their company is in trouble. Last I checked, half the planet has played or owned something they made and it will continue for years to come.

[sockesocke]

I don't see why they care if people are hacking their own games that they paid for. It sounds like gamesharks or something. All systems eventually get hacked in some form or another, it's foolish to believe you have the most invincible technology in the world. I say enjoy playing and forget the crybaby nonsense that Sony spews out every time they think their company is in trouble. Last I checked, half the planet has played or owned something they made and it will continue for years to come.

they care because the hacks are used online from what i understand.

[Inferno.]

That's what I was thinking, too. And aren't there save editors that edit your achievements for 360 games?

There are save editors for a lot of games, for Call of Duty you can modify your save to give you infinite health and ammo in a certain mission, etc. Or in other games like Bayonetta you can give yourself 99999999999999 haloes.

If you're talking about achievement/profile editing you need a different tool for that altogether... Le Fluffie or Profile Tool.

[Pickles]

Yeah, there's something a little stupid about making a system worse than what the buyer originally purchased. I said this in the the other thread about the PS3 hack - a lot of people justified the PS3's price because it could also serve as a PC with that OS feature. Take that away months or a year later and lower the price for new units, fine, but that doesn't change the fact that some of us dropped a nice bill originally and we're getting affected too.

I could be wrong but I think they removed the OS function out of fear of something fail0verfl0w were developing. Which was a move that made them crack the master key anyway. and on and on and on and on and on. . . .

[Kouen Hasuki]

I could be wrong but I think they removed the OS function out of fear of something fail0verfl0w were developing. Which was a move that made them crack the master key anyway. and on and on and on and on and on. . . .

Its an interesting game of chess, is it not?.... or is it cat and mouse?