PlayStation 3 receives an update, but loses a piece of streaming history
Sony has released a new system update, firmware 4.93, for the PlayStation 3, which renews encryption keys for Blu-ray and improves security.
· Author: Michal FortynThe nearly twenty-year-old PlayStation 3 continues to receive security patches and service updates.
Sony keeps the PS3 alive for movies and security
The PlayStation 3 entered the market in 2006, and although the console has nearly twenty years of service behind it, Sony is still preparing new system updates for it. The latest firmware 4.93 arrived in mid-March, following the previous version 4.92, which was released about a year earlier.
The company is making it clear that it won't leave even older hardware generations completely unattended, especially devices that people use as home media players. According to the official notes, the 4.93 update itself improves system performance, usability, and security, and requires approximately 200 MB of free disk space. A key piece of information is the notice on the support pages stating that for Blu-ray disc playback, the PS3 needs to renew the player's encryption key, which happens specifically through the installation of the latest firmware.
Another motive for the update is security, as even after all these years, there is a very active modding community testing the limits of what can be achieved with a console jailbreak. Recent waves of PS3 firmware traditionally patch known vulnerabilities and complicate life for users wanting to switch between the official system and custom firmware.