Usually around this time of year is the C3 hacker conference, which tends to be the main conference to feature hacking talks related to game consoles and game devices. That said things that might well make for hacks in following years (there is a reason most times you see mod chips, flash carts and the like in development that the images will feature FPGAs, as might the final product) or just be of interest to the would be hacker and persons interested in seeing beyond what the general culture, news and education might tell you are also present.
This year for obvious reasons it was not held in person but held online (gaining the name RC3 rather than what would be 37c3 if held in person), though it has now concluded and most of the streams are now available for download (the rest following before long). Being a German hacking group and held in Germany normally then many talks are in German, though just as many are not and many of those have subtitles.

C3 media page
https://media.ccc.de/c/rc3
The "fahrplan" which might make for a better overview of what talks are available
https://fahrplan.events.ccc.de/rc3/2020/Fahrplan/
C3 youtube channel (which also features talks from many previous conferences). Some talks might not be on youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/c/mediacccde

For games then many will be interested in the hacking of the recent game and watch throwback, that was notably hacked prior even to the official launch despite them actually attempting some security measures. There are also a few talks related to games culture.

Also of interest might be the talk on how science tends to operate in the real world in Scientific Literacy 101 as such things are not always known or well understood outside academia.
What talks interest you this year?

 

[Deleted User]

English Video about the hacking process.

 

[leon315]

ARE THEY GOING TO HACK PS5?!

 

[Goku1992A]

ARE THEY GOING TO HACK PS5?!

It's kinda too early

 

[xtrem3x]

ARE THEY GOING TO HACK PS5?!

Hopefully they're going to hack your computer and turn caps lock off

 

[linuxares]

wow I didn't think CCC would host this year

 

[JorgeSalgado]

Will there be anything Switch related?

 

[Snomannen_kalle]

I was wondering whether you were going to cover the conference this year or not, but I'm glad you did!

 

[Joe88]

Nope, there was just one section on game and watch, thats it

 

[raxadian]

New Game and Watch hacks? Yes!

The rhing has the perfect size to play gameboy, gameboy color and Gamegear games.

 

[FAST6191]

Will there be anything Switch related?

It has already been and gone. A few things have not quite been uploaded when I last checked but should be getting there.

Game hacking wise then mostly going to be the Game and Watch thing linked in the first posts.

Other than that
https://fahrplan.events.ccc.de/rc3/2020/Fahrplan/events/11600.html
" Nazis in Games by Manuel (EEL) Manhard"

The depiction of Nazis in games tends to downplay their atrocities and facilitate the normalization of fascist aesthetics and ideologies. Even in a playful and lighthearted context, this normalization has consequences that can and should be avoided by everyone in gaming communities – including developers, content creators, and players.

Not really my thing (much worrying about nothing from where I sit), though might make an amusing counterpoint to that extra credits thing a while back.

There is a German talk called This is Not a Game that appears to be covering qanon as though it was an alternate reality game.
https://fahrplan.events.ccc.de/rc3/2020/Fahrplan/events/11500.html

As ever though then plenty of other things that might be of interest or I can tie directly to things that hackers have done to liven up game systems for homebrew purposes or other game things we generally find cool around here. These sorts of talks are either an introduction such that you can do something useful with it at the end, or a state of the art and here is how to play in it which is also handy.

Fuzzing the iphone
https://fahrplan.events.ccc.de/rc3/2020/Fahrplan/events/11358.html
The methods there likely will apply to most new consoles you encounter in the future, or if you prefer there is also a reason many big names from console hacking also have something of a notoriety in phones.

Attacking CPUs with Power Side Channels from Software
https://fahrplan.events.ccc.de/rc3/2020/Fahrplan/events/11404.html
Most modern game consoles are pretty good on the encryption implementation front, guess what methods in turn get used to bypass security? Oh look it is side channel attacks (if you have seen people try to read crypto by means of super accurate power consumption, or dropping power at just the right time to stop it going into a protected state then you have seen this).

I could not resist
https://fahrplan.events.ccc.de/rc3/2020/Fahrplan/events/11364.html
We do find ourselves needing small circuit runs all the time to do various things, adapters and whatnot. This covers how you might do that (the photoresist part anyway).

Accessible input
https://fahrplan.events.ccc.de/rc3/2020/Fahrplan/events/11436.html
While nominally about how you might do input for variously disabled people then it is also what you would want to do for game automation, those fun controllers where you split things up into multiple controllers, remap controllers in hardware, add macros/turbo....

https://fahrplan.events.ccc.de/rc3/2020/Fahrplan/events/11384.html
That covers FPGAs which are basically chips you can program to do what you want. This means mod chips or emulation of whole chips on old consoles these days exactly (as in all the errors, all the timings...) as they would have been on the originals, or something in between so you can pretend your laser is going into the device but instead a USB drive is hanging off the other end. For years developers have used them to make them, hack devices and whatever else but more recently we have seen them used in mod chips/flash carts/drive emulators as they got cheap enough and sucked an acceptable amount of power down for their computing power granted, and it also seems to be the future of emulation for many (there have been some handheld things even -- https://gbatemp.net/threads/analogu...f-handheld-systems-games-through-fpga.550282/ ).

Plus all the stuff that is generally interesting to those that might otherwise spend their time pulling things apart, be inclined to figure out they own information on how the world works or see some things that might trouble their niche in the future.

C3 is also far from the only hacking conference. Defcon and Black hat are two of the bigger US ones
https://www.youtube.com/user/DEFCONConference/videos?disable_polymer=1
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ6q9Ie29ajGqKApbLqfBOg
Gives us stuff like

For a lot of older stuff
https://www.youtube.com/user/ChRiStIaAn008?app=desktop

 

[raxadian]

[The depiction of Nazis in games tends to downplay their atrocities and facilitate the normalization of fascist aesthetics and ideologies.]

Even in Wolfenstein 3D?

 

[FAST6191]

[The depiction of Nazis in games tends to downplay their atrocities and facilitate the normalization of fascist aesthetics and ideologies.]

Even in Wolfenstein 3D?

Having only read the description (though I have seen its like before) then by their logic then probably. The logic being if you basically just cast them as generic historical opposing force that they become that in people exposed to them, and instead of the swastika and fancy eagles* causing a deep seated unease as some might want that instead it is almost generic artwork. Similar perhaps to how you probably have no particular moral care about which side won the Franco-Prussian war in 1870 or the Siege of Shimoda in 1590. In doing so the argument then becomes one increasingly forgets the actual seriously unpleasant stuff done (which in some ways was not all that different to things that happened before - Napoleon in Africa was hardly a fun time for all concerned, though still far from anything acceptable in war) then that would be a bad thing. This possibly while allowing the neo nazis (all 5 of them) to revel in being able to play as them.

*eagles being a popular theme in military uniforms and symbology which does lead to some amusing mix ups, and even hilarity like them trying to cast sci fi games as that (see warhammer 40k vs eagles).

Can't say it is a line of thought I can get on board with and for the most part seems like the latest in the long line of German self flagellation (laws, education, game/media censorship requirements, all take very special interest in depictions of such things in Germany) for the actions of what might have been great grandparents at this point (if you were 18 in 1945 then you would be in your 90s today).

 

[raxadian]

Having only read the description (though I have seen its like before) then by their logic then probably.

The game shows Nazis reviving the death as mutants who even kill Nazi soldiers, and includes the Nazis summoning Demons.

Some people may like that or think is cool, but is because they think reviving the death as monsters and demon summoning is cool.

Nazis are the acceptable target (save in Germany) for being the worst of the worst.

Not showing Nazis in games as bad guys whiteashes them more than showing them as bad guys.

Besides Thailand is the problem, not videogames.

 

[AkiraKurusu]

Imagine if someone were to bring C4 to C3...



Yes this was the first thing I thought of when I saw the title shoot me

 

[smf]

Not showing Nazis in games as bad guys whiteashes them more than showing them as bad guys.

Besides Thailand is the problem, not videogames.

The problem is people who don't think it's a problem showing nazi's in video games.

It's way more complicated.

 

[Tatsuna]

The problem is people who don't think it's a problem showing nazi's in video games.

It's way more complicated.

And why would it be a problem?
There are movies, books, theatrical plays, songs and paintings related or completely dedicated to discuss nazism. Why shouldn't gaming authors talk about it if they feel like it?

 

[raxadian]

The problem is people who don't think it's a problem showing nazi's in video games.

It's way more complicated.

I don't think you can make them more evil that demon summoners who make cyborgs, clone Hitler many times and revive the dead as man eating monsters.

Oh and their own soldiers are expendable because they have reserves so who cares if the mutants eat them?

 

[momin]

I wonder if a combination of both FPGA and side attack can lead to successfully trick the reading of the consoles?

Just let the security check work on the real content and bypass all the rest to load your own apps while it thinks you are using whateverOtherApp.

 

[raxadian]

I wonder if a combination of both FPGA and side attack can lead to successfully trick the reading of the consoles?

Just let the security check work on the real content and bypass all the rest to load your own apps while it thinks you are using whateverOtherApp.

That's how it works on DS flashcards for the DSi and 3DS. They trick the system into thinking is a legit game. Unfortunately that is an old method that doesn't work on modern consoles.