For the longest time, the PS4 has been piracy-free. This however, appeared to change this year. with the advent of a PS4 jailbreak for the PS4 firmware 4.55. It allowed users to run pirated games on their PS4s and some even took to selling jailbroken PS4 consoles. Now it seems that Sony has resorted to the long arm of the law to deter would be pirates. According to Torrentfreak, the company has filed a lawsuit against a resident of California for selling jailbroken PS4 consoles complete with pirated games. He has been accused of copyright infringement and has allegedly encouraged customers to 'stop buying games'.
In its complaint Sony stated defendant Eric Scales was using the handle 'Blackcloak13 to sell the jailbroken PS4s preloaded with over 60 pirated games on eBay. Sony ordered two jailbroken PS4 consoles from the seller and found that they were 'as advertised' and allowed user users to play 60+ pirated games from their hard drives.
"Defendant is an individual who has marketed, sold, and distributed 'jailbroken' PS4 consoles that: (a) contain ‘pirated’ (unauthorised) copies of PS4-compatible video games, and (b) were produced and designed for purposes of, and/or were marketed by Defendant for use in, circumventing technological protection measures," the complaint states.
"On defendant’s website, where he uses the traditional 'pirate'symbol of a skull and crossbones shown below, defendant states that purchasing his services or products will enable the purchaser to ‘be able to download and copy any game’ and to 'stop buying games'," Sony's complaint reads.
If you're a fan of video games, check out Transition, Gadgets 360's gaming podcast. You can listen to it via Apple Podcasts or RSS, or just listen to this week's episode by hitting the play button below.
Catch the latest from the Consumer Electronics Show on Gadgets 360, at our CES 2026 hub.