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Consoles and handhelds · Sony PlayStation 3

Sony PlayStation 3 PS3

7owners with an opinion
50%of verdicts positive
3/3positive/negative since 2024
0happy after 3+ years

Praised for ease of use and repairability; criticized for reliability.

What owners wrote

Likes it
If you are willing to do a bit of research, there are easily hackable models of PS3 and PS4 and then you can put dumped games on them even if the official store is gone and there's none already on there. Then you just need to worry about getting the cables and controller. On that note, modding consoles tends to make it easier to use more controllers with them by bypassing the auth. I can use all sorts of modern and DIY controllers on my modded Xbox 360 and PS3, so even when the world runs out of working original controllers, they'll be useful. Being able to play game dumps off storage also means a failing disc drive is a minor issue.
Neutral
my nintendo switch is "rootable" by shorting two pins in the controller interface, with a previously set up SD card inserted with the homebrew bootloader. My PS3 and PS4 were both jailbroken/rooted. I don't remember the ps3 routine, but the PS4 was loading the "system -> help" page while connected to a ESP32 wifi AP running a simple web server that replied to requests with the jailbreak for PS4. I give it about a year, especially if nintendo has to change the specs or otherwise tampers with customer expectations. there's bound to be some way to reload firmware on a "dead" device without pulling chips, and that's all it takes.
Doesn’t like it
This seems similar idea to audio water marking. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinavia This stopped me from playing any movie that had this implemented via PS3 Media Server on my PS3. Most movies that are done by Sony Pictures will have this implemented. I ended up using my Xbox 360 instead because Microsoft would not pay to license the tech IIRC.
Likes it
The original concept was great for some things, sure. I bought an OG Chromecast over a decade ago. It was a one-trick pony: Push "cast" button on pocket computer, and whatever I was doing there would show up on the BFT. Which is great, you know, for a person who lives alone and never has visitors: One can select an item from the slick interface provided by the service they subscribe to on their amazing personal computing device and it appears magically on the big screen. The control buttons are there on the pocket computer, too. It Just Works. However, it is an awful experience for someone who wishes to watch a film together with others: My personal pocket computer is not really set up to be shared with others (and the live screencast function of Chromecast, while functional, has really high latency for interactive tasks). And if someone else wants to pick something to watch using their own personal pocket computer, then they can of course do so -- but theirs is also not meant to be a shared experience, and they won't be able to use the services that I pay to use in my home. So fine. A film is selected, however that is done, and it is playing. But it's time to pause it so someone can use the bathroom. Do I use my phone for my Chromecast for the movie my friend picked on their phone? I already had to hide the buttons from showing up in the notification area of everyone's pocket computer on the LAN , since my roommate kept being a dick and stopping my shit. Or do I h…
Likes itHasn’t owned it
I am a bit younger but I agree. Going from the SNES/Genesis to Playstation/N64 with 3d graphics was amazing. It was like having an arcade machine at home. Going to the PS2/Xbox and then 360/PS3 was again a massive jump. Every console jump was a very noticeable improvement in graphics, so it became a big deal. PS4/PS5/XBONE these were just such minor improvements, there is no big wow factor.