Published 3 hours ago

[Extremely hacker voice] Now this is podracing

Image: Lucasfilm/Disney

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Jailbreaking a video game console is a big deal: Once hackers can do it, they can push their hardware to perform actions it wasn't originally programmed for. The latest generation of video game hardware had seemed impenetrable to these efforts up until very recently, when a group of hackers says they're on the precipice of breaking the PlayStation 5 wide open. The caveat? The hardware tinkerers say they need a highly specific game to pull a jailbreak off. That game is none other than the PlayStation 4 version of a 2002 game called Star Wars: Racer Revenge.

If you haven't heard of Racer Revenge, well, the reality is that it's both a random and obscure game. The PS4 version is a Limited Run Games-made 2019 re-release of the original PlayStation 2 game. Originally, the reprint retailed for $14.99, unless you shelled out for the $37.99 Premium Edition. As the name suggests, this retro Star Wars game was a podracing experience that takes place after Episode I -The Phantom Menace. In it, you can choose between a variety of alien races who each have their own podracing strengths. The game was received well enough, judging from its 73 score on Metacritic. Star Wars: Racer Revenge even tries some unusual things, like a permadeath mode where deceased rivals cannot rejoin a race. Morbidly, the game encourages the player to kill as many pods as possible throughout their race. Despite these quirks, up until now, there wasn't really much demand for copies of Star Wars: Racer Revenge.

According to hackers, however, Racer Revenge was recently discovered to allow for an exploit that can be used as an entry point for ongoing jailbreak efforts. Apparently, running the PS4 disc version of the game on PS5 allows savvy users to inject code into the system through menus. As hackers tell it, this method cannot be patched out.