Feature
In March 2025 the PlayStation 3, a console released nearly 20 years ago, received update version 4.93 with the patch notes reading the same as it has for many years: "This system software update improves system performance"
One could almost get excited that this sounds like games will run better or the OS will crash less but we all know it is very unlikely to contain anything like that. Unfortunately they never give more details than that on what the details are, likely because they don’t want to intentionally expose any security issues for older models unnecessarily.
[Note: This article contains speculations on the possible reasons for updates as Sony only releases limited information.]
It is more likely they are fixing security problems that come up and maybe taking down vulnerabilities that are exploited in order to jail-break the system.
Each new version often requires the jail-breaking community to find a new way to exploit the machine and get access to lower levels of the system.
Sony still has a keen interest in preventing this from happening.
The PlayStation 3 can still connect to the Trophy syncing system, PlayStation Network and the PlayStation Store (just about). All of these are modern systems that will have newer security requirements and as such Sony will occasionally need to modify the PlayStation 3 so that it can still contact and communicate with those features.
The most commonly stated reason you read online is that these yearly updates are about updating encryption keys required to play Blu-ray discs.
For a while I just took this at face value and said OK makes sense. But one day I thought “Why do all my other old Blu-ray players not require any firmware updates and they can play new Blu-ray discs just fine?” (Yes I have more than one old Blu-ray player.)
The content on a Blu-ray disc is encrypted to try and prevent it from being copied or ripped. The system that is used for this is AACS (Advanced Access Content System). If a manufacturer desires to create a Blu-ray playing machine they must first be issued with a set of digital keys from the AACS License Administrator that they can put into their players firmware. These are used to decrypt the content on a disc and let playback happen.
As part of that issuance, manufacturers are required to keep these keys secure within the player and make every attempt to prevent people from hacking open a device and taking the keys out which they could then use to copy disc content illegally.
But the early engineers knew that key leakage was inevitable and tried to design a system where exposed keys could be revoked and removed from the community. This would mean that whilst those compromised keys could be used to decrypt content on Blu-rays that were already printed, the new Blu-ray releases could contain a revoked key list that would prevent playback with those compromised keys.
Despite the Blu-ray technology and disc encryption technology being technically separate things, it is inevitable for them to be perceived as being intertwined. Sony is one of the principle companies involved in Blu-ray technology and so it is in their interest to ensure the technology is reliable. It may even be a contractual necessity to address these key problems on a regular basis.
Sony may have to regularly modify the AACS related data to ensure the PlayStation 3 remains compatible with all the latest Blu-ray releases. Blu-ray compatibility can also involve more than just decryption keys as the full extent of Blu-ray capability is quite large with features added over the years such as BD+ and BD-Java.
People who have not updated their PlayStation 3’s in a long time still report being able to play most discs. This is because it is also up to the distributor which keys they encrypt the disc with and how strict they will be on refusing to play on players with known leaked keys.
Sony cannot keep this up indefinitely so it will be interesting to see how long it goes on for. We have already seen a change to the way the PlayStation Store works and apps that have dropped support too. I wonder how long it will be until the trophy sync support is removed and cloud saves no longer work. Hopefully we still have a few more years.