The PS3 has taken another step towards being fully opened!
One of the major problems still with the PS3, even after Geohot released keys and much more keys were released, there still was the mystery around how each PS3 uniquely encrypted their internal HDD
Two major steps finally appeared today on the PS3DevWiki site, one credited to an group of anonymous unicorns, and the other to FlatZ.
First: PHAT console owners can enjoy decrypting their internal PS3 HDD's, an work originally stated by Glevand but never finished, and previously updated by Flatz as an PoC, but now some rough tools have appeared that can as least do the job on PHAT consoles, now maybe in the near future there will be hope for those with Slim consoles.
On the PHAT consoles AES-CBC-192 is used for HDD encryption and AES-CBC-128 for VFLASH encryption.
So no tweak and tweak key here. Each sector is encrypted with the same zeroed IV.
VFLASH is encrypted once with ENCDEC key and zeroed IV!
Data key is of size 32 bytes but only the first 24 bytes are used for HDD and 16 bytes for VFLASH.
Second: Since PS3 firmware v3.60 Loader keys have been encrypted and scrambled, but now the algo has been published and basic tool released that decrypts them.
Starting with firmware version 3.60 loader keys have been encrypted. Look here for a tool that decrypts them. Besides that, there is an implementation of the cryptographic algorithm which is used to encrypt/decrypt lv1ldr from lv0 and root scramble key at the SPU side.
According to leaked memos Gamestop has more PS4 units then XB1 units for pre-orders
Rumors are that Sony is ramping up production to make sure there is less shortages thruout the holiday season, with even another shipment come mid-December, compared to an limited supply of XB1 units
Last week before XB1 did an 180 turnaround on their DRM, Sony was saying there would be shortages come this Xmas, with reports that next shipment after launch would not be available until Dec. 31st, but now reports are saying this shipment has been moved up to mid-Dec. as Sony been ramping up production to met demands, but now that XB1 has done an 180 on their policys, rumors are places like Gamestop have been told to do an 'unlimited' amount of preorders for PS4 as they are not even close to their allocated units yet, when compared to XB1 where most places have 'run' out of their limited allocated units and are not even been told if more are coming.
Sony now appears confident that it will be able to handle the demand, with unconfirmed figures suggesting stores are being provided with almost ten times as many PS4 units for pre-order as Xbox Ones.
According to an internal memo, leaked by a GameStop employee to GameTrailers, retail stores are being provided with an "unlimited" number of slots for Sony's next-generation console. Staff are reportedly being instructed to take as many pre-orders as possible, with the word coming down from on-high as to when to stop taking orders.
The same memo explains that stores are being provided with Xbox One consoles above their original allocations, which quickly sold out, but numbers will still be limited. Staff were strongly instructed that they should "NOT exceed the grand total amount that you can reserve up to on Xbox One" for fear that Microsoft will penalise future allocations.
Neither Sony nor Microsoft have indicated how many consoles they are producing for launch day, but GameTrailers' sources suggest that at least one GameStop store has 138 PS4 consoles in its allocation, with 66 actively having been pre-ordered by customers already, to just 18 Xbox Ones.
Of course without any actual figures from either company, and no actual figures on total pre-orders from retail stores, with only Amazon commenting that pre-orders are up 4,000% compared to last year which is silly as really only console last year was the Wii U compared to now it being Sony and Microsoft onboard soon for launch, so in the end we really will not know the truth on whom is winning PS4 or XB1 until most likely after the New Year when the first sales figures are in from various groups like NPD.
'There’s a lot going on, it’s just that we need to keep stuff back'
'30 games in development. 20 of them are going to ship within the first year of the console’s life, and of those, 12 are new IP'
Last month Microsoft stated they had 15 exclusives of which 8 are new IP's, now Sony has hit back and says they will have 20 exclusives of which 12 are new IP's, all to be released thruout the first year of PS4 sales.
So far we only seen Knack, new Killzone, new Infamous, and Order: 1886 but that because for some reason Sony thinks it best to hold back, there too much going on, to spill the beans on all the 30 titles that are in development by their 'first-party' studios.
That's according to Sony Computer Entertainment Europe CEO Jim Ryan, who told Gamereactor at E3 that more titles would be unveiled at Gamescom.
"At the event in New York on February 20 of this year, we showed a lot of software," he explained. "We showed a lot of first-party software. What we did at E3 here was really show some updates to those games, and, as you mentioned, introduce The Order: 1886. There's a lot coming.
"I'm sure you heard from [SCE Worldwide Studios boss] Shu [Yoshida] that he has-just his studios-he has 30 games in development. 20 of them are going to ship within the first year of the console's life, and of those, 12 are new IP.
"So there's a lot going on, it's just that we need to keep stuff back. We've got Gamescom for us Europeans-we need to have something to show at Gamescom, don't we?"
So even tho Sony stated earlier this week that Gamescom will mainly be an PS Vita show, it seems we just might get some hints on more PS4 titles during the last days in August.
The Operating System is called 'Orbis OS'. It is a modified version of FreeBSD 9.0.
We aren’t sure if this will bring again the 'Other OS' functions to Playstation 4 (remember that this option enabled Playstation 3 to install other OS in the console like Linux or Windows).
VGLeaks has posted some 'screenshots' of the boot-up of an second-generation devkit of the PS4 similar to the ones used for game demos at E3, and it seems the OS uses an form of 'FreeBSD' and opens up rumors if it might be possible to install Linux on the PS4, or if Sony might be planning again to allow it as an option in the future.
When you boot up a second-gen development kit, you will be prompted with several options, as you can see in the next captures:
As you can imagine you have either a console mode or a graphic mode (the one you will see in a retail Playstation 4).
Here you can see some images of the console mode and some of the files/directories in the devkit:
PSN store for the PS4 will not be available in some countries at launch.
If you can't access the PSN Store on your PS4 in your region, you will not be able to go online to play multi-player games, the two are tied together along with the need to agree to the EULA.
The PS4 will have 'online multi-player' merged with the PSN Store, unlike the PS3 it will not be different sections, if you can't access one you can't access the other, which is not that big of a deal, but there is some countries that still don't have an PSN Store due to license, server, or region problems, but Sony is working hard on solving the few countries left, but currently it seems it will not be possible before PS4 launches this holiday season.
"Unfortunately at this time gamers in countries which do not have a Store cannot access online multi-player features. However, we are considering every measure to offer PlayStation Store services to these territories as soon as possible. To clarify, the affected territories are: Bahrain, Lebanon, Romania, Oman, Slovakia, Malta, Cyprus and Iceland. Unfortunately at this time gamers in countries which do not have a Store cannot access online multi-player features. However, we are considering every measure to offer PlayStation Store services to these territories as soon as possible. To clarify, the affected territories are: Bahrain, Lebanon, Romania, Oman, Slovakia, Malta, Cyprus and Iceland.
I wonder if it also means if PSN Store goes down, so does 'multiplayer', before on the PS3 you could stay online even if the store was going thru upgrades, etc., but I guess now if they are tied together on the PS4, that will not be possible.