Yes this is true, I know some virii can damage the motherboard but we are talking PS3's here, not PC's
There is no malicious software that I know of on the PS3, sure a game can totally lockup forcing a hard reset
which in turn MIGHT corrupt data on the HD but it cannot damage the hardware, only general 'wear and tear' and abuse, can do that.

the point is, if the software ends up corrupting a certain way, it becomes possible, also the PS3 is hardware just like a PC minus the processor..

In which case you'd have to be EXTREMELY unlucky. Such a virus is designed to damage the hardware; corrupted data is just data that is not usable by any program or operating system installed on the hardware (ie random data).

Maybe microsoft paid them extra to knock out the competition.....mwuhahahahahaha. Lol

for some reason, i would not doubt this..

I've thought about this... If Microsoft can pay for early DLC, than what's stopping them from paying for a buggy, port of an awesome game for their rival's system....

Force reboots will not damage your hardware, the PS3 can't get a virus thanks to chain of trust, even the ability to run unsigned code at even the lowest level (lv0) won't damage your hardware. This isn't damaging the flash and no game can "break" your PS3. But bet your [censored] a firmware can, but even if your system was overheating precautions are built in to protect against this. I've yet to see anyone post about Skyrim giving them the semi RLOD, (several language warning screen) I know what I'm talking about here and a game crashing isn't going to "kill" your PS3. But an overworked BD drive can go bad but if that happens..you'll know it. Oh and corrupted data, for the most part, can't execute its code. This really all comes down to imo a not so great firmware, 4.0, and Bugthesda rushing the game out and taking their sweet a** time fixing it...

Oh and in regards to the mem div and lack thereof, a quick hotfix if Sony would let you guys free up some things that I know they won't..just sayin'

Bethesda's information updates between patches will get longer and fewer, mark my words its happened before

Technically you can get a virus but it would have to be written for PS3, which is unlikely to happen. Can confirm firmware breaks consoles as it broke mine the first time. Second time it YLOD'd without warning.

Written for the PS3 yes, but like you said HIGHLY unlikely..

"Runtime Secure Boot"
"This runtime secure boot, in fact, is tightly coupled with an SPE entering isolation mode. An application must go through the hardware authentication step before it can execute on an isolated SPE. When isolation mode is requested, first, the previous thread is stopped and cancelled. Then, the hardware will automatically start fetching the application into the LS, and the hardware will verify the integrity of the application. If the integrity check fails, the application will not be executed. The check can fail for one of two reasons. The application might have been modified within memory or storage. Then, the assumption is that the functionality might have changed and it cannot be trusted anymore. Or, the writer of the application does not know the cryptographic secret that is needed for a successful authentication. Otherwise, if the authentication check is successful, the hardware will automatically kick-start the application's execution in isolation mode. Because the hardware controls all of these steps, the verification of the application's integrity cannot be skipped or manipulated and will happen consistently and correctly."

Not true I'm afraid, just played for 10 minutes after the ps3 having been off all night. No lag, just a straight freeze out of nowhere.

Good thing I was intelligent enough to trade my copy in.

I've had the game completely freeze on three different days that I have played over the past week. Of interest, it was after updating to v4.0 of the PS3 firmware, Riften twice, and once a short distance away from the town. It would happen after a few hours in one case, or simply after 5 minutes another day, so nothing consistent... but the odd thing is that I saw some network activity going on, even after the HDD activity had stopped. I'd leave the system for 5 minutes, and suddenly the network activity would start up again. Who knows, maybe it is another device browsing the network for files, I don't know, but I ended up restarting the PS3, and turning off networking. Two hour play without interruption.

We'll see how it goes, maybe it is nothing, but I guess we'll see.

Regardless of the secure boot, the problem with Skyrim, or any thing which causes repeated hard locks, is the fact that the user is often forced to restart the PS3. Hard restarts can cause data corruption and yes, they can mess up the PS3's HDD. The damage isn't permanent and one can usually reformat the HDD, yet sometimes that is not possible because the PS3 won't allow it.