The video above is said to be a live demonstration of a program called Z-Pack, which essentially backs up PS3 games onto what is most likely an external HDD (from the looks of it anyway) and also loads up the ISO files from the backup as well, allowing you to play your games without a disc.
I know the 360 already has a feature that allows you to back up entire games (though, I don’t have the space left for trying it, so I don’t know if its a basic backup where it stores data from a disc for faster loading or whether you won’t need the disc to play it). One thing is for sure, it’s something I’d like to do, but I would prefer something first party. If this turns out to be the real deal, and becomes available for purchase, would you consider buying it?
One thing I can see happening, though, is people who rent games, “back them up”, and return said games, but still technically own a copy of them. Will it also affect online play? Do the games have some sort of verification system that can read whether or not it’s a physical copy or a backup like some PC games do?
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Written by: Jay
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#1 by Trieloth on January 4th, 2010 [ 3286 Points ]
You dont need a disc to play? humm thas kinda neat. I thought they have security stuff on the disc to make it work.
For the 360 you still need the disc even though you have the game downloaded…the stupid thing is still noisy and yes I go to the option “play disc from hard drive”.
#2 by caldape95 on January 4th, 2010 [ 255 Points ]
Yeah I do really hope this is first party product but I do see your point of people trying to return a game after they just backed them up, I see that as the real issue of this.
#3 by gniotuga on January 4th, 2010
Is not fake its real!!! Download tutorial em new video Proof here! Tanks and regards!
http://extabit.com/file/28ejoua4gkocjZPack
Playstation 3 Backup System developed for PS3 TUT.rar
#4 by jerryhat on January 4th, 2010 [ 1595 Points ]
If real I think it’s a shame. I prefer my main console not to be pirateable. Like many, I’ve had a modded console in the past. You don’t value your games as much if you’ve not paid and tend to just play each for 30 minutes then move on.
It also brings in the type of problems you get on the pc with people hacking their games and cheating online with them. (I’m not saying this product allows that, but it opens up doors.)
#5 by macdory on January 5th, 2010
@ jerryhat – that door is already open – just look at MW2 where people are hacking it on all consoles and the PC – where there is a will there is a way!
When piracy on consoles becomes a bigger issue, the consequence of this is that publishers resort to putting silly DRM in place which ends up penalising the legit customers and not the pirates.
A way around this would be to allow the backup, but do a disk check say once a week – not too much of an inconvenience, and ensures you still own the disk.
Fundamentally, they need to make it worth more to have a legit copy than pirate a copy – where DRM unfortunately has the opposite effect.
There isn’t a quick answer to this, but just trying to stop people pirating through brute force techniques doesn’t work – it’s just seen as more of a challenge.
One of the big issues is that in a number of cases the Single Player aspect of a game is quite short, and some people have no interest in Multiplayer – so to these people pirating the game can become quite favourable when compared to paying £30-40 for 6 hours of entertainment.
Change the business model to offer value for money!
#6 by Eddie on January 5th, 2010 [ 37586 Points ]
I read that this was most likely fake. Even if it turns out to not be fake it is incredibly difficult. It requires a linux partition and alot of shady software.
It still remains to be seen if this is real or not however.
#7 by Eddie on January 5th, 2010 [ 37586 Points ]
lol watched the video. The “ZPack” logo appears overtop of the Playstation 3 title on the cross media bar…
Also they say it rips an entire blu-ray in 10-15 min….with a 2x blu-ray player.
Completely fake.
#8 by Theo on January 5th, 2010
@Eddie
This can’t possibly require a Linux partition. It’s running on a PS3 Slim in the video, which Linux can’t be installed on.
#9 by Unknown on January 5th, 2010
@Eddie
Some ps3 games have less than 8gb, so it’s possible to rip a blu-ray in 15min
#10 by no on January 6th, 2010
Can’t Wait For This!
#11 by Joe on January 15th, 2010
Totally fake. Laughably fake. The program that does the “patching” and “packing” is has a damn Microsoft Windows XP border around it. LOL.
All this is is a video being played on the HDTV. I doubt the PS3 is even plugged into the TV.
#12 by jammo on January 16th, 2010
look at you all calling it fake , it probably is!! but like most of you reading this i rekon it is only a matter of time before it really does happen and to be fair id rather that happen sooner rather than later,
ive paid a good few quid in crap games and got stuck with them , if this lets me decide to try before i buy before i go online etc ,then itll save me and save most others too, i think its up to developers to get it right first time instead of us paying for there mistakes time after time. so in the time being ill search a sniff out pirates like most others , i dont mind paying for quality and work, not duds
#13 by jammo on January 16th, 2010
ohh and yeah if this hurts the publishers and developers so be it, then they should do the research before its put out to general public, the giants like sony and microsoft should should catagorise like they do in moves A and B … or just fine em for putting out such crap …
bring out the third party rips like they did with ps2 and ill be happy to pay to save if needed
#14 by andy on February 9th, 2010
can some one tell me where i can get a zpack from plz
#15 by Hcode123 on February 10th, 2010
I think you need a blu ray burner and a blu ray disc disc to get a duplicate copy.
#16 by Hcode123 on February 10th, 2010
They got alot of software out there. U just need the right equipment.
#17 by Hcode123 on February 10th, 2010
Software
blu ray dvd burner
blu ray disc
(That’s only for the ps3 games though)
W/ xbox360 I think you just need verbatim dvd+r DL
and a dvd burner capable of burning dvd+r DL disc