Sony Wants To Know Why You're Hacking Your PSP

[wraggster]

http://kotaku.com/assets/resources/2008/04/psp_hacker_survey.jpg

The engineers at Sony can't be too thrilled with fighting the constant battle against PSP hackers, issuing firmware updates that "strengthen security" in a futile attempt to curb piracy and homebrew applications. Going by a recent survey commissioned by Sony Computer Entertainment, passed on to us by a reader who was asked to take part, the company seems to be looking into the reasons why PSP owners are opening up their portables.

Sony reps call the survey a part of "ongoing PSP consumer research", attempting to learn more about the size of the PSP hacking population and the mentality behind the behavior. Questions like "Do you know of anyone who has "hacked," or modified, transferred and customized their PSP firmware and software?" were included elsewhere in the poll.

We're following up with Sony to learn more about its research.

http://kotaku.com/377090/sony-wants-to-know-why-youre-hacking-your-psp

[Shadowblind]

Why? Because all of YOUR games freakin' suck. I'd rather play N64 on it then any of your commercial sh**.

lolz.

God of War is the only good game SCE has made for it.

[brasssmunky]

i lol'd

[Zin0099]

because i want complete controll over my psp both of them

[jamotto]

Trying to understand ones enemy.

At the time it was the added flexibility and the ability to write programs for it, otherwise the psp has everything I would ever want.

[Elven6]

Its probably a trap, once you submit it your IP would be logged and the cops would show up at your house with a warrant :)

If they gave people what they wanted, people might use the offical firmwares.

[Joe88]

lul @ 1, 4, and 10

[Buddy4point0]

Homebrew games are better than Commercial games, it also gives me an opportunity to create my own games and distribute them to others for no gain except pure fun.

The Homebrew community is a great place to learn interesting and new things, not only with hacking but also programing, graphics, and many other things. It's also a great place to meet friends and an enjoyable thing to do while bored.

I don't see either of those options on there but i would totally check both of those if they were choices.

[Saracchini]

Simple... i want use the full potencial of PSP, and Sony doesnt offers it to me. I ´m want develop for PSP and Sony never give us a single SDK to develop homebrew... so i should use Custom Firmware.

[mavsman4457]

Hahaha how I wish that picture was the actual survey. That would be hilarious.

[mike_jmg]

where is the "yes to all" button? LOL

[hacksparrow]

Every time a PSP is hacked, your epeen grows an inch!! :eek:


from max LoL that needs to be an option

[No_one_in_particular]

The amount of people viewing this thread at the moment...

[DPyro]

Does anyone have an actual link to this survey?

[PeyeRate420]

lol.....just...LOL

[ArugulaZ]

That list looks like the product of frustration from a game company that can't keep its customers entertained without assistance from hobbyists.

In 2007, the overwhelming majority of games I played on the PSP were running on emulators. Now that I have an Asus EEE, I don't play my PSP at all.

Manipulative lists intended to shame PSP hackers into compliance aren't going to work, and they certainly won't work on me. The PSP is strictly minor league compared to what the Asus EEE can do, and unlike the sore losers at Sony, Asustek doesn't scold me for using their product.

[Veskgar]

What peeked my curiosity was seeing that the PSP could emulate NES, SNES, etc. Then when I really got serious with it I found out just how magnificent PSP homebrew and emulation was. I was hooked ever since. Still to this day, the most exciting releases are new emulators or updates. The latest PicoDrive awoke that dormant excitement.

I'm hoping that more emulators are secretly in the works. It would be great to see an update to gpSP and/or hopefully Exophase will grace the PSP scene with his great TurboGrafx-16 (PCEngine) emulator.

I have to say that I never saw the fuss about ISO's and its SONY that forced my hand. Being a die-hard 1.50 person eventually games were released that just would not play. In fact the ONLY way to get some games to play was to rebuild the game as an ISO and play it off memory stick. Then, naturally I noticed how much more efficient it was to play games that way.

So nowadays, UMD's only enter my PSP to back it up for my memory stick and that's it.

Custom firmware and all the extra stuff Dark_AleX and team have managed to unlock and open up is also worth mentioning. Every new M33 release is really exciting.

Referring more to the Slim PSP, I have to say SONY has also done a pretty nice job of squeezing tons of possibilities out of the PSP firmware. I like Skype and the TV-Out feature is actually cooler than I thought.

The best advice for SONY is to make sure more original PSP exclusive games are developed and focus more on the PSP's WiFi and online capabilities.

IT'S WAAAAAAY TOO LATE FOR SONY TO NOW START TO ENABLE SOME SORT OF "OFFICIAL" HOMEBREW!

The beast has been unleashed. Cheers to all fellow homebrew junkies.

[jamotto]

IT'S WAAAAAAY TOO LATE FOR SONY TO NOW START TO ENABLE SOME SORT OF "OFFICIAL" HOMEBREW!


Nah, it's not too late, but they would have to do a better job then what they did with the PS3 as far as allowing homebrew.

[Larry]

I actually want to take this survey.

I have an idea, wraggster, make this into an actual survey, on this website (so we can be confident in our protection)
Then after a few days, forward the results to sony. Assist them on their survey.

But add a few extra questions.
Like if sony were to reintroduce homebrew back into the firmwares, would we consider using official firmwares.

And 1 more question.
Should sony just give up on trying to outsmart the hackers, even though they already spent millions of dollars in a futile attempt to control us?

[sleekgeek]

with stupid questions like that you can tell none of the Sony employees have ever played with homebrew. a modded PSP in their possession is probably terms for termination.

I have a 1 gig pro duo packed to the brim with over 1000 games and not a single available on a UMD. not only do those provide me with hours of entertainment a day I also have a bunch of useful utilities and streamers for stuff Sony is to lazy or cheap to build.

[AdamRav]

Sony allowing homebrew on there console ???

That'll be the day

[Sharpy]

because custom firmware has a truckload more features in it than the original, props to dax for that so that we can do a lot mre with it. Also there's a lot of great homebrew software out there like emulators and proper homebrew games great ones like Doom and Duke Nukem 3D from some cool developers that decide to make their own games and applications from scratch, hats off to them I couldn't program anything to save my life so all homebrew created is much appreciated.

I don't see anything touching on those points in the survey so the marketing department should have broadened their horizons with that one. Although some Sony reps have said in the past at some point that the custom made programs from scratch are very clever and they think that's really cool.

[Baboon]

Well 99% of PSP games suck so for me its allways been about the emulators!

If it wasn't for the NJ then we'd never have seen Marvel Vs Capcom, Xmen Vs Street fighter, The Punisher etc working on the PSP due to EA having now having the Marvel License.

It's sad that of all the new titles (not that there are many) comming out on the PSP I'd still rather be playing Mame, Amiga, Snes, Sega CD, Pc Engine etc on it. lol

Thank you to all the hackers who made my PSP the homebew machine that it is! :)


It looks like my wii will become my next emualtion machine now via the twilight hack. ;)

[sm1988]

I will break down my own little theory, a spoiled ass kid goes to mommy and daddy and sais they want to be a game designer so of course they become one and without having a spec of imagination or talent they come up with the most run of the mill boring crap that you won't play for more than five minutes. and it is us the gamer that suffer for it. that is why I love to see programmers without a silver spoon in their mouth come up with great homebrew. the psp homebrew seen is evidence that even mommy and daddy cannot buy talent. and to use emulators to play games that are 10 to 20 years old rather than play the newest piece of crap that is shoveled to us should give a little weight to my theory.

[Mr. Shizzy]

Dear SONY,

We hack our PSP consoles, because you stubbornly refuse to listen to us, and give us the features/freedoms we want.

We have decided to take things into our own hands...

It's a shame it had to be this way.
Maybe you should start listening to your customers demands for PS3, while you still have control of it...

[F9zDark]

IT'S WAAAAAAY TOO LATE FOR SONY TO NOW START TO ENABLE SOME SORT OF "OFFICIAL" HOMEBREW!


I disagree actually; yeah Sony would be competing with the Unofficial Homebrew scene which would make their lives much harder. The problem is, if Sony allowed it officially, it would be the best option for a lot of people. Imagine that, update your PSP and still be able to play all your homebrew. No need waiting around for M33 to make a release.

Sony has that going for them at least. If they made homebrew officially available they could destroy the custom firmware scene in 1 night by simply giving us a feature we really want on top of being able to use homebrew.

[crazyhare]

Mmm... Further evidence of Sony's short-sighted greed...

Official support for homebrew will never happen - because Sony is petrified that they'll be making no revenue from it.

[Veskgar]

Imagine that, update your PSP and still be able to play all your homebrew. No need waiting around for M33 to make a release.

I respect your opinion and all others. But it wouldn't be that way. If they enabled something it would NOT be the emulators and homebrew we use now. It would some sort of homebrew SDK which could be cool. But in terms of emulation they would take the route of the Wii's virtual console. A virtual console type thing on the PSP where you can buy and play retro games would have made me jump for joy when the PSP first came out.

But again, I say its too late for something like that. For what they would likely charge per game it wouldn't work. Unless the games were like $0.99 USD. But if games were $2.99-$9.99 I could find a lot of the original cartridges on eBay for that price. I'd rather spend money on official PSP games.

With that said I have to disagree with people saying that pretty much all PSP games suck. For any given region there are now about 300-400 titles to choose from. Plenty from each genre of gaming. Sure there is a lot of junk and even some shovelware. But even for a picky gamer there are dozens of titles worth buying a PSP for.

[maxipower90]

i do it because the goblin under my bed makes me, are you happy with yourself SONY

[Dembonz]

You're gonna hate me for saying this, but I think people are being are being a little unfair to Sony.
I do think they are trying to give people what they want, without destroying their business structure. We now have great games (and you know it), phone, internet browser, internet radio, TV out, connectivity with PS3 (remote play), Blu-Ray movie transfers, GPS with software, RSS, Television (jpn), cameras/video, games running at 333Mhz, Playstation Store (downloadable PSP games/movies/content for mem sticks)... none of which were available at launch.
What we don't have from them is homebrew, but can you really expect any company, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, Apple, or whoever to allow people to code whatever they want for their technology? There has to be a limit, because, people will ALWAYS abuse the freedom that is given to them. There are systems made just for homebrew ya know...

Don't get me wrong here. I'm in love with CFW. It's astounding that I can play NES, SNES, Atari, Genisis, Arcade, Gameboy, Neo-Geo, etc. on my psp. Not to mention all the excellent homebrew/applications. But it's also opened the flood gates to piracy which, as you know, hurts everyone.

Our psp community for the most part is an intelligent, responsible one. But Sony can't depend on everyone to behave that way.
I know this point of view isn't popular, but just thought I'd put it out there. :)

The questions are kinda insulting now that I read them again...

[uberjack]

I think the PSP is the perfect platform for emulation, while using it to play 3D games is exceedingly uncomfortable. By the time I was done playing the only PSP game I ever bought (GTA: LCS), I almost lost my interest in the entire GTA franchise.

Does anyone have a link to this survey, by the way?

[Uberman]

This is pretty stupid. All but one of those questions ("I can do more with my hacked PSP...") are skewed toward some kind of teenage-agnst rebellion motive. Just another clue to me that Sony cares far less about their hardware in this case than they do in making money off their software releases.

I use a hacked PSP because it does let me do more than an unhacked PSP. I could watch full-resolution movies on my hacked PSP long before Sony got onboard with that. I probably would have abandoned my PSP had that not been the case. A hacked PSP kept me using the platform! How about asking questions like that, Sony? :mad:

[DPyro]

I wish someone would post the link to the actual survey, I'd really like to see what all the questions were.

[jaws365]

PSP Rhythm!!! Without it I would toss my PSP straight into the wall. Well, maybe if you don't count Crisis Core...

Anyway, just bought myself a NDS, so no more firmware upgrades and bullshit in order to run emulators/audio applications AND play commercial games :D

[F9zDark]

I respect your opinion and all others. But it wouldn't be that way. If they enabled something it would NOT be the emulators and homebrew we use now. It would some sort of homebrew SDK which could be cool. But in terms of emulation they would take the route of the Wii's virtual console. A virtual console type thing on the PSP where you can buy and play retro games would have made me jump for joy when the PSP first came out.

But again, I say its too late for something like that. For what they would likely charge per game it wouldn't work. Unless the games were like $0.99 USD. But if games were $2.99-$9.99 I could find a lot of the original cartridges on eBay for that price. I'd rather spend money on official PSP games.

With that said I have to disagree with people saying that pretty much all PSP games suck. For any given region there are now about 300-400 titles to choose from. Plenty from each genre of gaming. Sure there is a lot of junk and even some shovelware. But even for a picky gamer there are dozens of titles worth buying a PSP for.

True, in that regard Sony is too late (in terms of bringing retro games to the console). We can play all the retro games to our heart's content, for free. Even the PS1 emulator was a sort of failure to swoon Homebrew users away from CFW, since now we can also add games that Sony doesn't sell in the store.

And Sony would need some form of keeping the Homebrew locked down (so we don't use it for anything illegal). However, I have read a Sony spokesperson talking about possibly using the PS3 to make Homebrew for the PSP; whether this will ever come to light I have no idea, but in the same article it stated that Terrasoft (makers of YDL) was contracted to make a Developer Environment special for the Cell and for the PS3 (probably used within Linux).

So who really knows what Sony's plans are. Frankly, I feel they'd be stupid not to take the idea from the Homebrew scene and go that route. Although the potential is there for Sony I don't see there being any way of them creating a situation where they can both earn money and deliver on the Homebrew scene.

I don't know, maybe when/if they release that PS3 Developer Environment they'll make the money on the sale of the software used to make homebrew. They could also sell a "license" to use homebrew on all their platforms (for those that simply want to use it, not contribute). How that will sell, I have no idea. But if Sony made a point to give us all the homebrew we have already (ie that it would still work) and give us new features of updated PSP firmwares, and simply charged us 10 dollars for a permanent Homebrew-Use License... I just may pay for it.

Don't get me wrong, free homebrew is great. But some days I just sit there and wonder, if having to wait around for CFW and miss out on new games or features is really worth it.

In retrospect, however, if not for the Homebrew scene, I think I would have sold or traded in my PSP long ago. Although there are great games out NOW, back in the early days, there just wasn't really anything that piqued my interest.

[Ultima Chocochu]

Haha, some are funny, some I would actually pick...The only real reason though is you get what Sony offers, and more.

[hodey]

If this is a true survey, and I have my doubts, all it means is 3rd party software will soon plummet, and Sony will not support the unit on it's own (like Nintendo does for it's hardware). So we will wind up with no official software, and we'll have a verry cool gp2x. Long Live Homebrew!

[psp411]

the only reason why i hack my psps are for homebrew... i rarely play any commercial games...thus, the reason why i sold almost all 10 of mine....and the only thing i do on it is surf tha internet and psptube (and sometimes snes9x) :D :cool:

[dangee]

Originally, I bought a PSP as a 5-star console upgrade for my
well used GBA.

It was obvious that the firmware was designed to allow a possible
development of the console into a PDA type device, and the
hardware was more than capable to support that, but uncertain
when/if Sony would implement any of the functions/features involved.

That's why hacking & homebrew became an attractive option for me,
As a programmer, an API to the SDK sealed the deal.

[BloodLust8]

Wow!
That was some special questions in there, I guess we shouldn't laugh at the retarded.