If you live in the U.S. and purchased one of the original 'fat' PlayStation 3 consoles between November 1 2006 and April 1 2010, you are likely owed $55 by Sony for the removal of the Other OS feature that initially allowed PS3 consoles to run different operating systems. It's what lead to the system being used in supercomputing networks and ultimately what allowed its main firmware to be cracked open.
That latter point was why Sony removed the feature, but it was also one that it used to sell the console, so after years of back and forth in courts, the suit has finally been settled and Sony now owes anyone affected $55.
That is only people who made use of the feature however. If you were sold a PS3 and never used the feature you can still claim $9 from Sony for your trouble.
Although neither figure is astronomical, with over 10 million PS3s sold in that time period, it's possible that Sony could end up paying out several million dollars for this gaff.
The only downside to anyone rubbing their hands together at the possibility of free money, is that this isn't quite finalised just yet. We will need to wait till early January next year to hear the final settlement ruling, but it seems likely to go ahead at this point. Sony is probably going to have to pay up.
