System authority of games

A random question popped into my head from reading a couple of posts here. What kind of system access do games have in regards to the hardware? Obviously they have to have some access or they wouldn't be able to save games to the memory cards and other such activities. But in regards to these hardware activities, do the game developers write that code or does the hardware manufacturer's firmware offer common functions that game developers can call to interact with the hardware. I was just thinking that it would be quite the bug for a game to wipe out your memoty card when all you wanted to do was pull of a finishing move in some fighting game, for example.

I don't know about the PS2, but I know a few PS1 games had bugs that could erase memory cards. I guess it's mostly the same as for PC games. A PC game could easily delete random files if it was really bugged.

hax

I'm pretty sure there are developer kits with standard function calls and such for making games on many consoles :p Of course, they're also expensive :p