Jailbreaking the PlayStation 5 console has long been seen as a major challenge, but it has finally happened. In case you’re not familiar with the word ‘jailbreak’ in the case of electronics, the concept is quite easy to grasp. Whether it’s used for a game console, a smartphone, or a tablet, jailbreaking represents a method to bypass restrictions imposed by the manufacturing company.
In other words, jailbreaking allows those who perform it to gain the utmost control over the operating system of a specific device. In our case, those who managed to jailbreak the PlayStation 5 console are now able to control Sony’s system software, which is based on FreeBSD.
After jailbreaking a device, the person responsible for the action will have the possibility to install third-party apps, change settings, as well as access features that are not usually available or approved by the manufacturing company itself.
With the PlayStation 5 console now being finally jailbroken by modders, what exactly does it mean for the console and for Sony, the manufacturer? We’ll try to find out in this article!
Installing unofficial software on PS5
The act of installing unofficial software on the PlayStation 5 is also known as homebrews. We can expect a lot of unofficial software and features to be added to the console by modders. We can expect to see games running on the console, although they were initially released for other consoles. If such scenarios surprise you, it means that you’re not aware that they have been happening quite often in the case of other consoles.
Whether we like it or not, it’s usually just a matter of time before most of the modern tech gears will be jailbroken by modders after they’ve gone official. However, it’s quite remarkable that the jailbreak of the PS5 console has happened sooner than many of us expected.
Piracy will flourish (unfortunately)
Here’s another harsh aspect of society that we need to learn to accept: piracy has always existed and won’t go away anytime soon. Furthermore, there will be more pirates on PS5 due to the jailbreak and the homebrew software, and this is an issue that Sony, the manufacturer of PlayStation consoles, needs to address.
For instance, some websites will begin to offer downloads of the games that are normally available in the library of the PS5 console.
Perhaps there’s no use anymore to tell you that piracy is considered illegal in most countries.
What Sony has to say
It’s difficult to say for sure what Sony will have to say on the matter, but the tech giant most probably won’t take action against the modders responsible for the jailbreak of the PS5 console. However, Sony can’t possibly be pleased about the situation, although there are some undeniable benefits of jailbreaking a PS5 console if we look from the users’ perspectives.
We can expect Sony to push a new firmware update to the PS5 console, which is a scenario that we’ve seen in the past when the PS3 and PS4 consoles were jailbroken. Those who have a PlayStation 5 console at home can expect to receive more patches and firmware updates at an accelerated pace.
Sony released the PlayStation 5 console in December 2020, about the same period when the Xbox Series X and Series S came out. The PS5 console was sold across the world in more than 40 million units, and the number still goes up.
Tim M. Hill helped bring Digital-Overload from a weekly newsletter to a full-fledged news site by creating a new website and branding. He continues to assist in keeping the site responsive and well organized for the readers. As a writer to Digital-Overload, Tim mainly covers mobile news and gadgets.