More than 13,000 euros reward for anyone who installs another operating system on the PS5

Renowned consumer rights and device repair advocate Louis Rossmann has declared war on Sony's closed ecosystem. His non-profit organization FULU initially offered a reward of €9,100 to anyone who successfully bypasses the PlayStation 5's hypervisor. Thanks to strong community support and additional donations, that amount has quickly grown to over €13,600.

Rossmann, who started out repairing Apple devices himself, has been fighting against tech giants that prevent users from having full control over their purchased property for years. The main goal of this challenge is to enable the installation of an alternative operating system, allowing gamers to run any software on their console, not just the one approved by Sony.

While hacking and installing Linux on the PS5 technically already exists, it has a huge flaw. The current method only works on older versions of the system software, and rolling back to older versions is not possible on this console. In order to claim the generous cash prize, someone must have proven their hack to work on firmware version 13.42 or later, which was released on July 1.

The rules of the game are quite strict, so it's hard to predict whether the challenge will ever be successfully completed. Sony is extremely fast at patching all security vulnerabilities, as it wants to protect its digital monopoly and prevent piracy. To win the prize, the solution must be affordable for the average user, and the installation process itself must be completely simple. At the same time, the console's original operating system must remain intact and accessible so that users can continue to play their legally purchased PlayStation games without any problems.

While some hackers have made progress with emulators and other forms of system unlocking, fully cracking the latest protections remains a formidable task. Nevertheless, Sony's move to abandon physical media is giving the community additional impetus to finally take control of its hardware.