Sony Must Embrace PSP Hackers

[wraggster]

Source - Insert25

The same way Apple made sure to let anyone who owns an MP3 play it on their iPod, Sony must embrace the fact that people will download movies and television shows from their P2P software and will want to watch it on their PSP. Without doing so will only push to further increase the marketshare of Apple’s latest iPod with video and god forbid Apple come out with a portable media player with a bigger screen.

In their article, Attack of the Playstation Hackers, BusinessWeek writes about a man who was able to put his hundreds of movies and TV shows he his 1GB memory cards. That’s cool and all, but still way too complicated. Not to worry though because hackers will find a way and create programs that will make the device even more easy to use and useful in the future and you know this won’t sit well with Sony who will probably think of ways they can shutdown hackers because the free stuff they do doesn’t help out their profits.

A month later, it followed with similar upgrades for U.S. users. Sony officials won’t say whether they are considering suing hackers. “We cannot guarantee PSP hardware that has been modified,” says SCEI spokeswoman Nanako Kato.

If profits are made from games and videos sold, why not let the device prosper amongst the hacker community so it becomes even more enticing to the mainstream community. Isn’t it better to have people buying 1M PSPs because they think they can do cool stuff with it and buy games and movies, instead of 1,000 people buying them because they know they can just play games and watch movies with it?

Would the first Playstation been as successful without the ability to add a modchip and therefore play burnt games? How about the XBOX? We all know Linux wouldn’t even be close to where it is without the ability for people to dig in and hack it to death so why aren’t larger companies pushing aside their old mentalities and embracing the hackers?

David Prochnow, a technology writer, says the PSP had all the potential of a powerful multimedia device but was “crippled” by its software. Using a soldering iron and a screwdriver, he tore open his PSP — and now it prints photographs, shares music with other portable players, and runs all types of converted video files. “Any, and every, PSP owner can become a hacker,” says Prochnow, whose book, PSP Hacks, Mods and Expansions, goes on sale in December.

To me that is so cool and if I didn’t have a PSP already, reading that would definitely entice me further to get one. Instead I get to read this paragraph next:

Sony says it can stay ahead of the hackers. With recent updates, the PSP can now play a variety of music formats and podcasts, as well as digital video clips downloaded form the Net. In October, Sony added its newest option — a LocationFree program that lets users stream videos to the PSP by tapping into a PC or DVD player at home over Wi-Fi or broadband connections.

You can stay ahead of 1000s of hackers just like Microsoft can keep their Operating Systems secure. If anything use the hacker community as a radar for what might be popular and then develop programs and functionality around that. Make it official and you have just added a couple more customers. Doesn’t it make sense?

[ExxonValdeez]

Exactly. Sums up what most of us homebrewers have been thinking, but haven't said.

[zackforbing]

but for every person who wants to use it legitimately, there are five who want to find the latest warez to run pirated games.

[Cap'n 1time]

but for every person who wants to use it legitimately, there are five who want to find the latest warez to run pirated games.

yes, this forum is for the most part loaded with people that "get it" sadly thats not the way the rest of the world thinks....

[jimjamjahaa]

isnt this what we've all been saying since the begining?

[Jman0708]

guys uthink sony compine is dum godam man they make psps for people to buy them to download homebrew and emulators they can make bullions if they let us play homebrew on all versions

[Virtualtaco]

Videogame system sales 101:

Sell expensive hardware below cost, lose some money, break even and profit off the software. When you have all out homebrew, just because someone buys a PSP doesn't mean they will buy software as well (i.e. me). Something for people to do on their PSP without handing Sony a buck is something Sony does not want to be done with their product. What they did do, which is pretty genius, is start the PSP running unsigned code when they had the security available (1.0). Then all the homebrew crowd buys one too, and then they beef up security. I believe the term is, getting played.

Also, staying ahead of "hackers" really means coming out with useful software for the psp before hombrew developers while updating security. The Microsoft comparison is a terrible one. Sorry guys, but swing and a miss.

-Taco

[montezuma]

Taco is absolutely right. Sony's only problem presently is that they aren't putting out games worth upgrading for (with the exception of GTA LCS.) If they can step up their quality, I would say that they are being very smart. But as it is, the benefits of homebrew outweigh the benefits of upgrading, so we're at an impasse of sorts. I just hope Sony doesn't bog down the OS with so much security that it negatively affects performance (ahem anything Microsoft).

We'll see what happens when Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core comes out.

[crazy_biker420]

sony...... YOU ****ED ME!!!

[Kaiser]

Well lets I'll just say what I think. Most people don't give a $#@! about all the dumb things Sony is trying to implement into the PSP. The people want emulation and something we can fiddle with. Open source platforms are wicked, the people behind the GP2X were genius.


..and on another note if no one could download music for free I don't think Ipods would have sold even a tenth of what they did. Its much more profitable if Sony would just open the PSP up a little to us. The majority of PSP owners (casual folk) would still buy the official mediocre games (madden and the like) and everyone is happy.