Sony Interactive Entertainment appears to have scored its first major victory against the piracy ecosystem surrounding hacked PlayStation 5 consoles. Overdrive, a homebrew store that allowed owners of jailbroken PS5 units to download AAA titles for free, has reportedly been rendered inaccessible.

The app had functioned as an unofficial, free alternative to the official PlayStation Store, and its disappearance has made accessing pirated games significantly more difficult.

How was Overdrive disabled?

Details shared on social media by Oliver Darko revealed that Overdrive no longer serves any function and that the project's GitHub page now returns a 404 error. While no one has officially confirmed who initiated the takedown, suspicion has fallen squarely on Sony.

A lifeline for jailbroken consoles

After a successful jailbreak, users would turn to Overdrive to download high-profile releases such as Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and Cyberpunk 2077. Used alongside a tool called ShadowMountPlus, the app could add downloaded games directly to the console's home screen.

It remains unclear which servers hosted the game files. Even so, developers' efforts to streamline distribution appear to have put the operation on Sony's radar, since the copyright infringement was being opened up to a wide audience of users.

Technical enthusiasts are still exploring alternative methods to install games, but Overdrive's collapse is widely being read as a clear sign that anti-piracy pressure on the PlayStation front is intensifying.