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c|net: Sony cracks down on PSP hacks

The Faceless Master

The Faceless Master

Member
Sony is engaged in a tug-of-war with hackers who keep cracking its PlayStation Portable software to unlock the device and run their own applications on it.

The company is preparing another update to the PSP firmware to fix a recently disclosed bug that lets hackers downgrade the PSP system software and run their own, so-called homebrew code on the device, a Sony representative said Thursday.

"It is not...what the device was designed for," said Patrick Seybold, a spokesman for Sony Computer Entertainment America. "We plan to deal with this issue with the next system update." He declined to say when that update would be ready.
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well, that's interesting...
 
oh really...i thought sony was just gonna sit out this time and let everyone run homebrew applications
 
"It is not...what the device was designed for," said Patrick Seybold, a spokesman for Sony Computer Entertainment America. "We plan to deal with this issue with the next system update." He declined to say when that update would be ready.
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I'm reading the quote and visualizing Agent Smith saying that. :lol
 
I look forward to the wave of nanites that will sweep over the world correcting this issue.

0_O

Whatever "fix" they have still has to be installed on the PSPs.
 
this is a marketing tactic...they say they're gonna make a new update to fix the exploit...but don't announce a date. this gets people scared that 1.52/2.0 PSPs will fly off the shelves and get replaced with 2.0x that will fix the update. so instead of waiting for a price drop, people will run to stores and buy a psp
 
Wario64 said:
this is a marketing tactic...they say they're gonna make a new update to fix the exploit...but don't announce a date. this gets people scared that 1.52/2.0 PSPs will fly off the shelves and get replaced with 2.0x that will fix the update. so instead of waiting for a price drop, people will run to stores and buy a psp
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Nope, I'm still sealing off my house from potential nanites. You can't fool me, SONY man.
 
Ford Prefect said:
Well, you're all screwed if they make an upgrade necessary for a game you actually want to play.
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or sony is screwed if people value their old firmwares over a AAA game
 
Ford Prefect said:
Well, you're all screwed if they make an upgrade necessary for a game you actually want to play.
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Only during the time it takes them to figure out how to fool the version checker again. <strokes Burnout Revenge>
 
meh. it'll take some time for games to require 2.1 or whatever, and that'll get cracked too eventually. FU SONY
 
Is it realistic for developers to flesh out their games and make them over 1 gig? They could make some money back from selling 2 gig MS that way. :lol
 
Letter to Elise said:
Burnout Legends "needs" a firmware upgrade too...and yet here I am playing it with 1.5.
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There will always ways around it. But for those who don't know they will just update and Sony will be happy.
 
pilonv1 said:
There will always ways around it. But for those who don't know they will just update and Sony will be happy.
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Totally agree. Most folks aren't even using the regular capabillities (wifi/music/movies) I'm certain.
 
i still dont understand the memory stick corruption. i use my psp pretty much everday and i never had problems
 
"Mister An-der-son... I see you've been playing homebrew on your PSP... that's not... what the system was designed for.... *cracks neck*"
 
At this rate, I may never purchase a PSP. This back and forth game will never end, it seems. I would probably want to use my PSP for emulation too. Oh well, I can just wait.
 
Otaking said:
At this rate, I may never purchase a PSP. This back and forth game will never end, it seems. I would probably want to use my PSP for emulation too. Oh well, I can just wait.
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Not really understanding what is stopping you.
 
Letter to Elise said:
Not really understanding what is stopping you.
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I've never been good at doing these types of hacks like the downgrade. Knowing my luck, I'd screw something up and have a dead PSP. Other than that, I still lack sufficient funding to afford one. It has some good games releasing for it, so maybe as a Christmas gift...
 
Otaking said:
I've never been good at doing these types of hacks like the downgrade. Knowing my luck, I'd screw something up and have a dead PSP. Other than that, I still lack sufficient funding to afford one. It has some good games releasing for it, so maybe as a Christmas gift...
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A fine plan! ^_^
 
Letter to Elise said:
Nope, I'm still sealing off my house from potential nanites. You can't fool me, SONY man.
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Seriously, I was a little wary before punching in a valid WEP key to my network on my 1.5. I keep thinking that the next game I buy is going to connect without my knowledge and fuck me sideways.
 
Spinning Plates said:
Is it realistic for developers to flesh out their games and make them over 1 gig? They could make some money back from selling 2 gig MS that way. :lol
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I say no, not realistic unless there is a shit ton of movies and music, given

-A UMD drive can only pull in about 1.4 megabytes per second
-The PSP's ram is about 32MB, so unless the game streams (unlikely) your level is going to have to be under that amount
-Absolute best-case load time scenario for filling up the PSP's RAM is 23 seconds
 
"It is not...what the device was designed for"
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What exactly was the system designed for? Shitty console ports, yet another way of re-flogging movies and an over glorified MP3 player?
 
Misleading title. Implies Sony are going after people, when the article explicitly says they're not. Another system update? No fucking shit.
 
Sony's not pursuing individual hackers because, uh, I don't think there's a damn thing they can do about it. All they can do is try to stay a step ahead of them and come up with new and creative ways to nudge PSP owners towards updating.
 
Wario64 said:
this is a marketing tactic...they say they're gonna make a new update to fix the exploit...but don't announce a date. this gets people scared that 1.52/2.0 PSPs will fly off the shelves and get replaced with 2.0x that will fix the update. so instead of waiting for a price drop, people will run to stores and buy a psp
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You don't really believe that, do you? A "marketing tactic" for the 14 people outside of GAF (et al.) who are paying attention to what version PSP firmware Sony is or isn't trying to shore up against hacking attempts? The vast majority of people who would even know about this are the diehard/hardcore who either already have PSP's, aren't buying one period, or have picked some "when-it-drops-below-a-certain-price" date sometime in the future. The number people for whom this particular event would trigger a "buy" decision is surely negligible.
 
Inumaru said:
You don't really believe that, do you? A "marketing tactic" for the 14 people outside of GAF (et al.) who are paying attention to what version PSP firmware Sony is or isn't trying to shore up against hacking attempts? The vast majority of people who would even know about this are the diehard/hardcore who either already have PSP's, aren't buying one period, or have picked some "when-it-drops-below-a-certain-price" date sometime in the future. The number people for whom this particular event would trigger a "buy" decision is surely negligible.
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Please link to this amaZing data! Because it has no more proof that what Wario64 claimed.
 
Tony HoTT said:
I haven't touched my PSP in 2.5 months since it broke my memory stick and I can't play any homebrew.
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Same here. I ordered a 2 gig last week though so that should change.

As far as what I did goes, it really beats me. I'm assuming that I must've mistakenly put my PSP into sleep mode while messing around with an NES emulator. That is a no-no, right?

It kinda pisses me off too since I basically have no way of reformatting. I even went to the trouble of buying an external card reader in hopes that I could access it that way. No dice. So, I'm basically out the $70 I paid for the stick originally. My next plan is to buy another one at a nearby store and then exchange my broken one using the packaging and receipt from the new one. At least then I'd have two.
 
Ford Prefect said:
Well, you're all screwed if they make an upgrade necessary for a game you actually want to play.
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Couldn't hackers hack into the roms and disable the code that makes the game check your PSP's version when it starts up?
 
GaimeGuy said:
Couldn't hackers hack into the roms and disable the code that makes the game check your PSP's version when it starts up?
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Or they could just spoof the version number in the firmware, which is what they've been doing for the last month or so.
 
Yusaku said:
Or they could just spoof the version number in the firmware, which is what they've been doing for the last month or so.
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Or that. :D
 
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