By gaming system, you mean console? Sure, it's possible, but very unlikely. People would rather design viruses that attack windows users than mac, so I don't think consoles are very high on their list.
I'd say the PS3 is wide open to viruses (this is not a bash BTW) because of the browsing features. How wide open is yet to be seen, I'd say it's certainly possible though.
The closer consoles come to resembling PCs, the more and more likely something like this -could- happen. However, it's still a pretty big stretch for a console to be infected with a virus in general. Consoles with web browsers are hardly new (anyone remember the Dreamcast web browser?) but there has never been a confirmed instance of a "console virus" to date.
I'd say the PS3 is wide open to viruses (this is not a bash BTW) because of the browsing features. How wide open is yet to be seen, I'd say it's certainly possible though.Kodai_kun
But that said the 360 has components closely resembling a PC making that open to viruses, especialy with people moding games on a PC then placing them onto a 360s harddrive. I guess thats a good thing that the console doesn't allow modding, because if it did I would bet about 9 in 10 of the mods would be viruses. But yer that browser feature is quite dangerous and it will just become another useless extra in the future.
you people seem to be not realizing that viruses are specifically programmed to attack an OS it's not an open ended solution that will work against any OS that it's attached too so even if you were browsing the net and got a virus on PS3 that virus would have to be designed to attack the PS3's OS which is something that ONLY a developer could even possibly create
While it is possible, it is not likely. none of these consoles allow you to execute homemade code. All code for consoles must be approved by its respective company. You have to be able to execute something like an activeX control within a webbrowser to even be able to download a virus via a web browser. Sony isn't stupid enough to let that happen so you're pretty safe browsing on the web on your PS3.
But that said the 360 has components closely resembling a PC making that open to viruses, especialy with people moding games on a PC then placing them onto a 360s harddrive
Well, the 360's only online access is in the closed XBox Live environment, at least for now. While yes, they're only supposed to execute signed code, never underestimate the ingenuity of the bastards to get aroundit
This is true, but as long as you use M$/Sony/Ninty certified software and you don't mod your systems you will never get a virus. I still believe that virus writers have bigger fish to fry than us gamers.
I believe that virus/spyware writers will infect anything that has enough numbers to be worth their time. Given the number of PlayStation 3s likely to be sold over the system lifetime, I'd say that's a tempting target, and since the Wii's Opera browser has a known codebase, at the very least they could crash you (since there's no real writeable memory in the Wii)
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