PlayStation Offering Up to $50,000 to Fans That Discover Bugs on PS4

Bugs have always been a reality of the video game industry, and it’s not always easy or cost effective for companies to track them all down. PlayStation is offering a way for gamers to help them in this task, and its offering big money as an incentive for helping out. The company has established a HackerOne Bug Bounty program. Bounties come in four different tiers each for the PlayStation Network and the PS4. PlayStation Network bounties are a bit on the lower side. Players can nab $100, $400, $1000, or $3000 for the Low, Medium, High, and Critical tiers, respectively. The bigger money is in the PlayStation 4. Those tiers each pay $500, $2500, $10,000, and $50,000.

At this time, it seems that Sony is only focused on PS4 and PSN vulnerabilities; the company does not have an interest in vulnerabilities for past consoles, such as the PS3 or Vita. All of the company’s older systems are listed as “out of scope” on the PlayStation HackerOne page. It seems likely that the PlayStation 5 will eventually be added, as well. Unsurprisingly, bounties are awarded at PlayStation’s discretion, so those who choose to partake in the program should know that the company can deny claims for any reason. Those who participate are also encouraged to share their results with PlayStation, rather than sharing them publicly.

Sony is not the only company outsourcing the discovery of vulnerabilities. Nintendo offers a similar program through HackerOne to those who can discover issues with the Nintendo Switch hardware. While PlayStation only joined the program this month, Nintendo has been involved with HackerOne since 2016, looking for vulnerabilities of the Wii U and 3DS before moving on to the Nintendo Switch. Clearly the program seems to be working out for those involved!

All in all, this definitely seems like an interesting program for those that might be interested. Players with some technical knowledge can help some of their favorite gaming companies make their technology more secure, while also scoring some really good money in the process! Those interested can find PlayStation’s HackerOne page here and Nintendo’s right here.

Do you have any interest in searching out console vulnerabilities? Is this a program you have any interest in? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk about all things gaming!