The looming software kill-switch lurking in aging PlayStation hardware
Found on Ars Technica on Thursday, 13 May 2021
This ticking firmware time bomb has been known in certain PlayStation preservation and hacking circles for a while. But it's gaining new attention amid Sony's recently announced decision to shut down the online stores for PS3, PSP, and Vita software.
Sony could render the problem moot relatively easily with a firmware update that limits the system functions tied to this timing check. Thus far, though, Sony hasn't publicly indicated it has any such plans and hasn't responded to multiple requests for comment from Ars Technica. Until it does, complicated workarounds that make use of jailbroken firmware are the only option for ensuring that aging PlayStation hardware will remain fully usable well into the future.
Planned obsolescence. It would probably require a law that forces the industry to untie hardware from online services when these a shut down, so the customer can keep using the product, at least with reduced functionality.