The recent cracking of the PlayStation 3's previously watertight security measures could prove seriously problematic for Sony according to industry figures, with the console opening itself up for piracy on a similar scale to that seen on the PSP.

Sony's PlayStation 3 has been the subject of several hacks that bypass the console's security measures and that hackers claim can only be addressed with a hardware update. Sony has since responded by filing for restraining orders against the group fail0verflow and the prolific George Hotz among others.

"If that hack works as reported, I don't believe that Sony can regain any control," Ubisoft Massive's Martin Walfisz told gamesindustry.biz. "They could try to employ a similar system to Xbox Live, so that people running hacked systems won't have access to PSN. But Sony won't be able to stop people from running pirated game copies as long as the machines are not hooked up online."

Walfisz went on to claim that Sony's home console could be facing a problem more serious than that which has beset its handheld counterpart. "I would assume that pirated copies can be stored on the HDD as well," said Walfisz, "making it so easy to use that PS3 piracy, given time, might even surpass the handhelds."