The latest PS5 update makes jailbreaking very difficult

It looks like this PS5 Jailbreak will remain a pipe dream for the modding community for a very, very long time after the system software update in September 2024 (currently version 24.06-10.01.00). As Sony continues to battle PS4 jailbreaking, the company has quietly changed the way game licenses work on the PS5 to ensure it stays one step ahead of hackers this time around.

How the PS5 September 2024 Update Affects the Possibility of Jailbreaking

Noted modder Lance McDonald pointed out on Previously, players could download licenses for every single digital game they’ve ever owned with the click of a button. Now they can only re-download licenses for games they currently have installed.

How does this affect jailbreaking? According to McDonald, players will lose access to their digital library if they take their PS5 offline and jailbreak it. In the past, players could create illegal dumps of their entire PSN library and save them to a USB stick for sharing and mod/hack any game they owned.

The screen used to look like this. You can download every single license on everything you have ever purchased, even if it is not currently installed. Then you could take your PS5 offline, jailbreak it, and still have access to all of your legitimately purchased digital games. pic.twitter.com/fxvbCQO4dT

– Lance McDonald (@manfightdragon) October 3, 2024

Has no impact on legitimate use cases. Just a pain in the ass for people who want to take their PS5 offline in hopes of jailbreaking it in the future and modding/hacking digital games they own.

– Lance McDonald (@manfightdragon) October 3, 2024

McDonald added that hackers were once able to access their PSN libraries offline and on jailbroken consoles, emphasizing that gamers are essentially licensing digital games rather than owning them.

Just recently, California passed a law forcing companies like Sony to disclose that gamers don’t buy digital content.