PS5 jailbreaks gain popularity despite legal worries
Is it legal to jailbreak PlayStation consoles?
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- A homebrew developer has ported a PS2 emulator to run on jailbroken PS5 consoles.
- The PS5SX2 project aims to bring older PlayStation 2 games to newer Sony hardware.
- The workaround requires jailbreaking, which can raise legal issues depending on the country.
- Downloading copyrighted games remains illegal in many places, even if modifying a console is not.
Key Takeaways by nexos.ai, reviewed by Cybernews staff.
Your PlayStation 5 could soon play PS2 games, but it won’t work for everyone.
While gamers are dedicated to their consoles, whether Xbox or PlayStation, there are always a few things they wish game console developers had done differently.
One gripe gamers have with Sony is that newer consoles aren’t compatible with games on older consoles.
Now, a homebrew developer has discovered a way to load PS2 games on PS5, filling a gap users have complained about for years. But the fix is certainly not simple and may be legally murky.
PS2 games compatible with PS5
The developer, who goes by the name Sword, released a version of a previous open-source emulator that mimics the PS2 hardware and firmware, allowing gamers to almost transform their newer consoles into older versions.
The PS5SX2 is a port of the original emulator, compatible with the PS5, and started as a “passion project” with the developer asking whether this could really work.
The project was born out of “love for the PS2’s library and the fun of seeing those games on new hardware,” Swords' GitHub readme states.
But the console does need to be jailbroken for the port to work, which could be tricky given the murky legalities surrounding console jailbreaks.
Is jailbreaking PS consoles legal?
While the law on jailbreaking devices is different across the world, in the US, it seems that manipulating a device to circumvent developer safeguards or restrictions isn’t legal.
Under US law, “no person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title,” according to 17 U.S. Code § 1201 via Cornell Law School.
This includes avoiding, bypass[ing], remov[ing], deactivat[ing], or impair[ing] a technological measure, without the authority of the copyright owner.”
In other countries, jailbreaking the console itself may not be a crime, but downloading copyrighted content is illegal, which may be part of the appeal.
Another homebrew developer created the app Overdrive, which claims to offer 1,600 copyrighted games for free, including popular titles like The Last of Us: Part 1, Spider-Man, Battlefield 6, Silent Hill f, and various editions of the Resident Evil franchise.
