Almost two years since it launched – technically, around a year, considering all the delays – the PlayStation 5 has been jailbroken. If you're unaware, that means that the PS5 can run software that it usually wouldn't be able to. Older gamers will remember getting their PS2's chipped so that they could run pirated games – it's similar to that. The news comes via modder Lance McDonald, who has tweeted out a video showing the interface of a jailbroken PS5, which gives him access to a debug menu, and also enabled him to to download PKG files from the PS4. In the video, he downloads the PKG file for PT, which as we know is no longer available.Not much else is currently possible on the jailbroken version, and this is only currently possible on the PlayStation 5's firmware version 4.03 – for reference, version 4.50 came out in December 2021, so it's going to be pretty tough to find a console with the old firmware in order to jailbreak it.
This seems to be the extent of the jailbreaking, the creator hasn't really been able to run any unlicensed software on it as of yet, or do anything that a regular user would actually want to do. However, what this does mean is that making jailbreaks for newer firmwares could become easier and quicker.
While it will take hackers quite a while to figure out all the PS5's secrets, it appears one has just been found, related to the PlayStation Stars loyalty program. It seems that besides its regular tiers, PlayStation Stars has a special 'Diamond' tier that you can't just sign up for – you need to be invited to this exclusive club. This was discovered by dataminers who posted their findings on Reddit.
They found images and a description of this tier. “In an endless sea of stars, it seems like there’s nowhere to hide,” the description reads. “But you wouldn’t be here if you let challenges like that stop you. Welcome to Level 5.” However, Sony has not yet announced this tier, so it could be a while before we see anything official.