People Are Jailbreaking Their PS4s Using Smart TVs

Jailbreaking a PlayStation 4 might sound tricky. But actually, all you need nowadays is an LG Smart TV, a few minutes of your time, and the internet.

Why would you want to jailbreak a PlayStation 4 console in 2024? There are a few reasons. For one, it opens the console up, letting you freely back up game installs and saves. You can also run emulators on the PS4 and play your installed games without a disc. And yes, some people are pirating new games and playing them on these hacked consoles, too. But we are not here to talk about that. Instead, I want to share a strange way people are jailbreaking PS4s.

As reported by HackADay.com, a recently created method for jailbreaking a PS4 involves plugging it into a jailbroken LG smart TV. (And yes, in case you didn’t know about this already, people are jailbreaking smart televisions, too.) Once you’ve hacked your LG TV, you install a digital tool onto the TV and hook your PS4 up to it using an ethernet cable. Then run the exploit tool on the TV and set up a LAN connection on the PS4…and that’s it. At that point, the tool should work its magic and you’ll soon have a jailbroken PS4.

This new tool is built upon the work of other modders and hackers who were able to figure out new ways to jailbreak Sony’s last-gen console. And to be clear, I’m not suggesting you go buy an LG TV, jailbreak it, and then use that device to hack your PS4 and start downloading pirated games.

But being able to take full control of expensive electronic devices, like phones, TVs, and consoles, is something that we should all support as it allows these pieces of tech to be useful long after their corporate owners have moved on.

And based on what a lousy job video game companies have been doing at preserving old (or even fairly new) games, in 20 years or so, a modded PS4—jailbroken using a TV—might be the easiest way to play digital games you bought years ago but lost access to because the servers were killed. And what a story to tell the grandkids as you hide from the Facebook and Google AI drones looking to hunt down the last humans alive.