According to early reports, the latest PlayStation Portable model may have finally fulfilled Sony’s dream of driving out piracy from the handheld. Hackers attempting to break through the new system’s tightened security are currently completely stumped; that means that running custom firmware, homebrew and, most importantly, copying games will only be possible on the older models.
Dark Alex, a legend in the PSP hacking and homebrew community, has been unable to find a new exploit to bust through security, now that the infamous Pandora battery exploit has been shutdown.
Sony’s PSP has had a fraught relationship with hackers and homebrewers in its three and a half year lifespan. Sony has tried repeatedly to shutdown the homebrewing community due to the fact it goes hand in hand with piracy. The sheer amount of PSP piracy has been blamed for the unwillingness of the third-party developers to create games for the system, which is means there are even less games out there even for people who want to pay for them.
Serious homebrewers argue that they’ve bought the system and should be able to do with it as they please and that this doesn’t have to include copyright theft.
The result has been a running battle between Sony and the hackers, which has mostly been fought over an endless cycle of firmware updates. If Sony has really managed to make the system hack-proof, then it’ll be the beginning of the end for homebrew, but maybe the start of an upsurge in PSP games. And you might even be able to turn the thing on without it demanding yet another update.
