Most physical games for consoles drop in value over time. There are exceptions, however, especially when it comes to games that are released in limited quantity or special editions.
Star Wars Racer Revenge was released for the PlayStation 2 in 2002 originally. It got average scores and was re-released by Limited Run Games in 2019 for the PS4. Since the PS5 supports PS4 games, it can also be run on the PlayStation 5, including the refreshed version.
Good to know: Limited Run Games is a company that re-releases classic games. Think of it as Gog, but for the physical games market and usually with tiny print runs compared to the general market.
Less than 1,000 copies of the game were produced by Limited Run Games reportedly. Up until recently, users could grab a copy from marketplaces such as eBay for about 30 Dollars.
When you check the price of the game now, you may notice that the PS4-version of the game is offered for several hundred Dollars now.
The PS5 jailbreak
Rumors of a potential jailbreak of the PlayStation 5 made the rounds a couple of days ago.
The exploit, reportedly, was found in the PS4 game Star Wars Racer Revenge, which explains why it is in high demand right now. It contains a security issue that enables the running of unsigned code under certain circumstances.
This, according to reports, gave access to the PlayStation 5’s Level 0 BootRom keys, which has been published on the Internet.
Good to know: The Level 0 BootROM contains the keys used to verify and decrypt the very first stage of the console’s startup software.
Hackers may decrypt all subsequent layers of the PlayStation 5’s security using the keys. It could pave the way for custom firmware that hacked consoles can boot into.
The main issue for Sony is that it could bring piracy to its platform.
For Sony, it is a worst case scenario, as it can’t patch the vulnerability via a software update. The company has a few options to respond, but none affect current PlayStation users under certain circumstances.
- Introduce checks for tampering. This requires an update of the console though and Internet connectivity.
- Ban consoles of users who run modified firmware. Also works only with Internet connectivity.
- Release games that require a specific firmware version.
- Release a new PS5 revision that has new BootRom keys.
As is stands, all current PS5 consoles are vulnerable to the exploit and they may fetch a premium on second-hand marketplaces as well, if Sony releases a revised version of its PS5.