Disc matter: Scalpers, scammers and cybercriminals are at their best as purchasing consumer electronics becomes increasingly difficult. Even the humble, theoretically old Blu-ray Disc format is now being exploited by fraudsters. Now the emulation community is trying to put things right.
Developers of the PS3 emulator RPCS3 recently released a warning about the latest scams targeting PS3 fans looking for a new Blu-ray drive. An unknown number of scammers are now attempting to sell “counterfeit” Blu-ray drives that appear to be newer models but use the same, incompatible internal components as older drives.
The RPCS3 team said that in September 2026 there appears to be an unusually high influx of counterfeit Blu-ray drives being sold through Newegg, AliExpress and other popular consumer electronics stores. The fake drives use high-end model cases and packaging as well as fake firmware versions to appear as legitimate, high-quality drives.
The developers have posted a link to the Redump wiki about the powerful OmniDrive firmware and provided some pointers about the fake drives and how users can spot them. Counterfeit products may be difficult to spot at first glance, and disassembling the entire drive to examine the circuit board may be inconvenient. One way to identify fake drives requires the Blu-ray decryption tool MakeMKV, which can distinguish real drives based on the MT1959 chipset from fake ones.
— RPCS3 (@rpcs3) September 30, 2026
The MakeMKV based method may not be foolproof as some fake drives reported as MT1959 based still turn out to be incompatible. A modern, powerful Blu-ray drive is becoming increasingly important to emulation and Blu-ray enthusiasts, especially after RPCS3 gained the ability to launch and run PS3 games directly from the original disc.
Needless to say, booting PS3 titles from a fake Blu-ray drive is likely to result in a dud. The RPCS3 team reported that fraudsters can sell the counterfeit peripherals at a higher price, allowing them to make a greater profit compared to less powerful drives. Users should always purchase their drives from stores that offer buyer protection programs so that they can return a counterfeit product in case of problems.
The Blu-ray Disc optical format is now on life support. Production is still underway, albeit in reduced quantities, and fans of physical media are fighting an uphill battle against Sony’s attempt to destroy the market for good. As an optical and physical media lover, I will try to keep my 2022 Asus BW-16D1HT internal drive in good condition for as long as possible.
