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PS3 hacker Geohot met with Sony to discuss his "methodology"

Engineers were "respectful".

PlayStation 3 hacker George "Geohot" Hotz met with Sony engineers after he had settled out of court with the Japanese company.

In May 2011 Sony invited Geohot, who it had sued for publishing a how to hack the PS3 guide on the internet, to its US HQ to meet with engineers and discuss his methods.

In a wide-ranging profile piece on the enigmatic hacker in the New Yorker, Hotz described the engineers as "respectful". "If there were going to be lawyers there I was going to be the biggest asshole ever," he said.

The engineers he met apparently wanted to learn more about how he cracked open the PS3, and he was happy to share his "methodology".

"We are always interested in exploring all avenues to better safeguard our systems and protect consumers," Jim Kennedy, senior vice-president of strategic communications for Sony Corporation of America, told the New Yorker.

After Geohotz's high-profile spat with Sony ended in handshakes and an agreement not to tamper with the PS3, the New Jersey-born hacker went underground, ceasing blogging.

In secret he moved to California to work for Facebook, but eight months later he quit. He then travelled to Panama before returning to Palo Alto.

What's next? He won't say, but whatever happens, he refuses to blog about it. "I'm through with all that."