The PS5 Slim Disc Drive registration isn’t as bad as it seems (it still isn’t great)
Youtube channel TronicsFix test the PS5 Slim Drive registration
The PS5 Slim has been raising concerns with its “disc drive online registration” model, in particular regarding the longevity of the hardware if the authentication servers end up going down. Popular Youtube channel TronicsFix have looked a bit deeper into the issue, by trying to register a single disc drive with two separate PS5s.
Although it’s not entirely surprising that one could remove the external disc drive and re-attach it to a new PS5 (at the very least a requirement if you want to be able to sell the disc drive separately from the console), what is more unexpected is that registering the disc drive to a new PS5 does not un-register it from the previous PS5. Basically, after registering it on PS5 #1, then registering it on PS5 #2, TronicsFix (and most of the audience, myself included) were expecting PS5 #1 to be “unregistered” from the disc drive, and ask to register it again when the drive gets brought back from PS5 #2 to PS5 #1.
This either means that the registration is only recorded on the PS5, not on the drive itself (in which case both PS5#1 and PS5#2 are pointing to the disc drive as “theirs” and will gladly use it once it gets plugged in back), OR, that the disc drive can hold valid registration for multiple PS5s simultaneously (a 1:* relationship instead of a 1:1 relationship, if you want).
Independently of how this is handled technically, this is good news for people who were expecting for example to have 2 PS5s in a single household, and share a single disc drive for them: it appears this model will work.
TronicsFix point out a few caveats however, and I agree with their assessment: First of all, this is Sony we are talking about, and this could be an oversight, or a feature they’re just testing for now, which could eventually be removed.
PS5 Disc drive registration is less convoluted than was initially believed
Secondly we do not know if there are limitations to this system. This isn’t really tested extensively in the video, so it’s also possible this only works if the two PS5s are owned by the same PSN account, for example (in which case the disc drive is registered to a PSN account rather than a machine).
Last but not least, there remains the long term problem that eventually, 10, 20, or 30 years from now, the registration endpoints will cease working, at which point the detachable disc drives that aren’t registered yet could become useless trash.
Thanks to @Roc6d for the tip!
You needed a Hacked PS3 to remarry blu-ray drives, so i imagine its the same thing, in 10-30 years time, someone will have a more modern PS5 HACK and a way to authenticate the disc drives without Online access
I certainly hope people will find ways of course, but I’m tired that it’s up to the hacking community to fix companies’ planned obsolescence
Won’t take too long if someone makes it there Christmas wish this year 😉
This is good news. But there’s one thing left to do noone seems to have tried yet, does making a system backup and restore is again after reset keep the disc drive registered? This would solve the online registration problem forever, hope someone can test this soon…
*their* assessment? I’m done with this site.
Not sure what you mean? TronicsFix is a team of several people and I’m assuming Steve isn’t the only one involved in the production of the video. I believe they reach their conclusion collectively rather than him assessing everything on his own. I might be wrong, but I don’t want to put the whole “burden” on him so I said they as in “They, the TronicsFix company”. It’s a company of 5 employees at least, hence the use of “they”.
Hope I could put your bigoted concerns at ease.
No, it’s much worse than its seems. The registration process requires you to be on the latest firmware, so anyone trying to register a drive will lose a potential jailbreak. It also seems that even if you buy the SKU with the drive, it doesn’t come with the drive pre-registered to that very console, so you will have to connect your PS5 to the internet and update straight out of the box before using it (with the disc drive, that is). Sounds familiar? Yes, very similar to Xbox. So yeah, while there may be a few positives, from the jailbreaking perspective it is just awful and on par with Micros0ft’s policies. So please, stop spreading that it isn’t as bad as it seems, as this site’s focus is hacking/homebrew and from that perspective it couldn’t get much worse. I don’t understand how for some reason everyone fails to see this, even though it’s so obvious that this is a trap set by S0ny.
I don’t see it as a trap: if you want to play the PS5 nowadays, you pretty much need a PSN access. Use of the console without the latest firmware is extremely limited and staying on a low firmware for Jailbreak is already a significant commitment. I doubt they’re trying to reduce the very low number of Jailbreaks even more, so I don’t see it as a trap for homebrew enthusiasts, rather the “best” way (from their perspective) to respect the constraining rules around Blu-Ray licensing.
Basically, they already have everything in place to pretty much ensure everyone is on the latest firmware, except for the most hardcore homebrew fans like us. I don’t think it’s any priority for them to do more against the homebrew community, this is clearly not why this disc registration system is in place.
With that being said, I agree with you, it’s awful. I hope my article isn’t seen as me endorsing any of their stuff here, I still find it terrible personally, I hope it’s shown in the article.
Thanks for your reply, but the “trap” part was the least important thing in my comment, so it’s a pity that your reply was mostly addressed to that.
But anyway, I think you should at least add to the article that for us homebrew enthusiasts this is horrible. You won’t be able to buy a new console with a disc drive eg. in a certain bundle that has a known low firmware for hacking anymore, or at least you won’t be able to use the disc drive if you do so. There may be a hack later to solve this problem, but that’s beyond the point. Also can cause even more accidental updates.
I predict 10-30 years from now no one will give a *** about PS5, when all games will be playable on PC by then.
Mystic Ryan had also discovered this in a video he had posted earlier before Steve/TronicsFix posted.
Btw Mystic’s Ps5 was on firmware 7.40 making it awesome for anyone willing to sit on a slim and wait on a potential 7.61 jailbreak coz the Fl0w himself says do Not update coz his Bd-Jb works on 7.61
https://youtu.be/4cO9-5DFAmE?si=0Pr_bwbEBpETR2Dd&t=505
There is no reason it shouldn’t be straight up plug-n-play. What if the registration web site goes down for any number of reasons? Like 35 million DNS requests every second…
This does not improve the reputation of $ony…