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PS4 Hacked, Video Demonstrates Console Playing Pokemon

Hacker group Fail0verflow releases custom PS4 Linux OS.

157 Comments

The notorious hacking group Fail0verflow has demonstrated what appears to be the world's first low-level hack of the PlayStation 4.

As well as bypassing the console's security measures, Fail0verflow has also managed to write a custom version of Linux for the console, and has made the PS4 Linux port publicly available on its website.

A video demonstration of the hack also shows the PS4 playing what appears to be a modded version of Pokemon Emerald, renamed as "Pokemon PlayStation Version."

Fail0verflow has been responsible for hacks of numerous consoles. Digital Foundry claims the group had previously hacked the Wii, Wii U, and PlayStation 3.

Hacker group Fail0verflow has demonstrated
Hacker group Fail0verflow has demonstrated "Pokemon PlayStation Version" running on PS4

The PlayStation 4 had proven to be free from such hacks for more than two years since its release.

But late in December, at the Chaos Communication Congress event in Hamburg, representatives for Fai0verflow published a five-minute video demonstrating the PS4 running a custom version of Linux.

The group appeared to be impressed by the PlayStation 4's architecture, claiming: "The Marvell engineers who designed the southbridge were smoking some really good stuff."

While some hackers advocate the bypassing of console security as more a hobbyist pursuit, corporations tend to claim that such hacks pave the way for pirated games.

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deactivated-649984c465889

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Gotta admit I did a lot of game pirating in my younger days, on Amiga, PS1, PS2, PSP etc.

But having access to a crapload of games didn't necessarily make me happier - if anything I would just play the start of the game then leave it for the next thing. When I buy something it has much more value to me (of course) and I research it properly before purchasing it.

But maybe that's just me...

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PSYCHOV3N0M

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@Lunastra78: My problem is a bit different than yours. My problem is I buy plenty of games day 1 (mostly collector's editions and sometimes day 1 regular editions) of games but I only start them, play them for like 30min and then play something else. I feel like I have "Gamer's block". Someone help me...... what do I do? Quit gaming all together? Take a long break from gaming?

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Xristophoros

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Edited By Xristophoros

@Lunastra78: i agree with you. when you have access to any and every game at your fingertips, you simply don't appreciate them as much and may end up being overwhelmed by what to play. when you save up your own hard earned money and purchase a game you are passionate about, you are far more likely to not only enjoy it more, but also see it through to the end. not to mention it feels good knowing you are positively contributing to the gaming industry at large.

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Halloll

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@Lunastra78: I only cherish physical versions. digital is just vapourware wether you pay for it or not.

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gotrekfabian

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Edited By gotrekfabian

@Lunastra78: I've never been one for piracy and I agree with your point for that reason. I have a friend who pirates every game he plays on his PC but he has no appreciation of them. I, on the other hand, cherish most of my games and get to know them so much more.

I remember this friend telling me a couple of years ago that he enjoyed one game so much that he went out and bought it and felt proud of that fact!

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lenyora-sama

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@Lunastra78: Same with me.i probably pirated about 70 psp games back in high school,played most of them for a bit in the beginning,only completed a tiny handful. I fully agree you only appreciate games you've purchased (and researched) with your hard earned moola

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Halloll

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PS4 now can also play PC games, Steam machines are doomed.

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Mirimon78

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@Halloll: steam machines are doomed regardless, only thing doing worse than xbox

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Halloll

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@Mirimon78: WiiU is doing better than xbox, sweet!

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Mirimon78

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@Halloll: well, depends on how you look at it. Until last xmas nintendo had more active online users than xbl did for example. We know what the wii u has to offer, we know the sales and use of software and hardware down to the end user for their system, but nobody outside of spencer and nadella knows xb1 figures. While msft posts fluffed "sold" figures (sold-in being used in a way to make the publoc think it is sold-through, though not even those figures are good enough anymore and so they are going to play some smoke and mirrors tricks with other metrics).

Really, we know how the wiiu is doing, but we can only guess about the xb1. One could look at it this way, Nintendo is upfront about their wii u and its figures, msft is not about their own.

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NorseLax09

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@Halloll: That's what I was thinking. Find a way to port over SteamOS and dual boot it. I would crack open my ps4 for that in a heartbeat.

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BaconTopHat45

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Edited By BaconTopHat45

@NorseLax09: Not sure if you realize how limited the power of the console would be running a OS that's not properly optimized for it and with the lack of proper drivers. Just look at how for ps3 got with this method. It never got past running crappy flash games and shotty MAME and gameboy emulator ports. If Ps4 gets that far it probably won't run anything past the year 2000 and it likely won't even be able to use it's own controller in games from lack of drive. If you want that just go buy a 200$ laptop It's will save you time and literally do everything better.

But on the same note once it has a proper CFW then it will be useful for porting stuff that will actually work on it. But PC games is not likely to happen.

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deactivated-58183aaaa31d8

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In all seriousness if Nintendo decided to become a software company and let us play Pokemon on PS4 I'd punch my way through a crowd of pensioners and toddlers to go buy it.

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lrdfancypants

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@dexda:

Hahahaha!

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lhughey

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@dexda: I'm not a Pokemon fan, but this post is funny as hell.

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sev2010

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Edited By sev2010

@dexda: Nintendo will remain a hardware company.

I prefer buying a Nintendo console to get rapped by corporate companies, such as Sony and MS.

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Neurogia

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@sev2010: Funny you should mention this seeing as how Nintendo branded games are THE most expensive on the market.

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jhcho2

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"The Marvell engineers who designed the southbridge were smoking some really good stuff."

It either means that the engineers did a good job, or did a job no better than a drunk

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jhcho2

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@celeritasgamer1:

Your statement is as much inconclusive as it is irrelevant. So are you literally saying that correlation equals causation? Yeah, many intelligent people do many things - smoke, drink, take drugs etc etc....none of which are necessarily the reason behind those people being able to produce something

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gotrekfabian

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@celeritasgamer1: A lot of intelligent people do many different drugs. That doesn't mean that they are good though. Cannabis is largely harmless though as far as we know at present. There is only the theory that they affect the cerebral functions in the long term still being touted but we don't know that for sure.

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RossRichard

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If they manage to get PS2 emulation running with disc-based games, Sony will definitely have some egg on their face.

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sladakrobot

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@RossRichard: Could it play original PS3 games?

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RossRichard

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@sladakrobot: I seriously doubt that we will see a PS3 emulator with good performance on any platform this decade.

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suicidesn0wman

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@sladakrobot: Doubtful, cell was just too complex, emulating it would be a miracle on PS4 hardware.

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LiveDreamPlay

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@RossRichard: Yes. Because it's worth altering your PS4 to make it play PS2 games instead of buying a damn PS2 with 50$.

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Halloll

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@livedreamplay: PS2 is meant to be played on a tube TV and PS4 only have a digital video output, I won't play it any other way.

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gotrekfabian

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@livedreamplay: You missed the point. Sony are selling PS2 games to us already and won't consider emulation on the PS4. If hackers can show that it can be done then Sony are going to have to reconsider their business model (which is currently rip off their userbase wherever possible).

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LiveDreamPlay

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Edited By LiveDreamPlay

@gotrekfabian: If by ripoff you mean not free, then yes, total rip-off. Quality has a price. This is something Xbox needs to understand if they don't want to keep being destroyed in console sales...

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gotrekfabian

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@livedreamplay: I'm not talking about this reason alone, PS4 has been a complete rip off in myriad areas. Sony have decided that, due to being the leading console this generation, they can charge what they want and not give us features that should be implemented as a standard, give us a game streaming service which they rent games from instead of attempting backwards compatibility and a good few other things.

Microsoft haven't compromised anything and still have a quality service despite what you think, the deficit in capability is only due to the consoles extra RAM. They are also offering some great features to their all-in-one console.

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LiveDreamPlay

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@gotrekfabian: Where else ? You say "in myriad areas" but I think you just mean paid backwards compatibility... Other than that it's exactly the same as Xbox...

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gotrekfabian

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@livedreamplay: No, I don't. I mean that charging for online play, not giving PS4 owners any decent IGC games and we don't have the same features that Xbox does. We also could do with things like tracked trophies, the ability to appear offline, name change, etc etc

PS Plus is a rip off compared to Xbox live and I have experience of both.

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LiveDreamPlay

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@gotrekfabian: Xbox Live is a joke. They started spewing out some decent games now because more and more people are giving up on it. But the stability is awful and it offers nothing more than PS Plus does. As for your desires... yes, I would also want the ability to see PS4 players from my PS3, to have the option tranding dlc games, to have the ability to add a card from a different country to the account, etc, etc. But that doesn't mean the current service is a rip-off. Stop being biased and enjoy what you have...

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gotrekfabian

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@livedreamplay: Me with the bias?! Talk about pot and kettle! You should be more open to things you don't have or know about, carry on with your current outlook and you will be branded a zealot.

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LiveDreamPlay

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@gotrekfabian: Obviously I know more than you do about both consoles, or if I'm pleased with PSN it means that I definitely don't know what Xbox Live is, right? You Xbox fanboys never cease to amaze...

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gotrekfabian

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Edited By gotrekfabian

@livedreamplay: I am not a fanboy. I don't even own an Xbox One, I decided not to go down the multi console route this generation and plumped for the PlayStation 4. My experience comes from my Xbox 360 days and a few friends who own Xbox One's. If you don't believe me then look me up on PSN. My ID is Gotrek_74

Think before you type.... fanboy.

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LiveDreamPlay

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Edited By LiveDreamPlay

@gotrekfabian: Since when does a fanboy mean that you own that console? You're blindly hating on a rival product with flimsy arguments. That means you're a fanboy, regardless of what console you own. Best of luck and dim down the hate!

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suicidesn0wman

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Edited By suicidesn0wman

@gotrekfabian: They'll at least have to fess up to the fact it is possible and that they decided to hold back the feature for the loyal fans.

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lrdfancypants

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That's one way to snag a girlfriend.

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Flyin3lvl

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@lrdfancypants: who needs a girlfriend when have video games........

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deactivated-58183aaaa31d8

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@lrdfancypants: No it isn't my gf dumped me because I wasn't a good enough trainer for her to be seen with me.

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Flyin3lvl

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F off with that headline though...... Ps4 hacked. Why not "video demonstrates pokemon played on ps4 via this hack" but hay guess that would be boring and wouldn't get the clicks.

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RossRichard

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@Flyin3lvl: PS4 is hacked. This is just the first step. You will see this evolve.

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sladey

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@Flyin3lvl: it is hacked, they found the Kernal exploit that allows them to install unsigned code, hence Pokemon running in Linux

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Mirimon78

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Edited By Mirimon78

@sladey: webroot.. this is just a vm hack

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Flyin3lvl

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@sladey: I get that but reading ps4 hacked I thought what hacked like as in ps3 days. As much as I like Sony and the PlayStation brand that will always be a big part of there history and I wrongly assumed the worse. Relived it's just about a pokemon game though.

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sladey

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@Flyin3lvl: Not hacked as in your private details being leaked again, but it won't be long and the PS4 will be ripe for piracy and CFW

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sladakrobot

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Edited By sladakrobot

@Flyin3lvl: That is why i wrote below that i hope this dont go wrong.

All the mess with the PS3 started with a Linux OS

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sladakrobot

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@Flyin3lvl: But it was hacked...or not?

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Flyin3lvl

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@sladakrobot: yes but reading ps4 hacked at first glance I wrongly assumed hacked like the ps3 days. Quick to judge and glad to be wrong. Simple mistake.

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Tiwill44

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@Flyin3lvl: They would have said "PSN hacked" then, not PS4.

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sladakrobot

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Wow...i hope that doesnt go wrong

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hateforumgeeks

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The only thing I can see about such news is that Sony/other companies will strongly refuse things like the fallout 4 mods now that their OS can be hacked at low level and they will do their best to destroy these attempts which will probably lead to price increase for games since they will be pumping more money into security measures.

Whats the point of these hacks anyway ? Sony will keep pushing fixed firmwares and we cant access online without them. So whats the point ?!

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Halloll

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@hateforumgeeks: to play Pokemon of course.

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