Sony Boss Discusses PSP Homebrew

Phil Harrison on his speach over at DICE 07

via gamespot

Today, Sony Worldwide Studios president Phil Harrison sat in front of this high-powered crowd for an "informal" question-and-answer session with Newsweek games correspondent N'Gai Croal. GameSpot is on the scene with live updates of what the affable executive has to say.

Heres the PSP Bits

10:54: Sony will be adding deeper online functionality for the PSP later this year.

11:05: The next question talks about XNA (without directly mentioning it) and how it puts some of the power of making games into the hands of average users. Is Sony considering a response? Phil says that Sony started that with the Net Yaroze on the PS, continued it with Linux on the PS2, and is now continuing it with Linux on the PS3. Sony will continue to support that kind of homebrew and organized development initiatives.

The follow-up asks the obvious question about the PSP's place in all this. Phil claims that the PSP isn't well suited for homebrew. Croal name drops Dark_Alex, the hacker that's been busting open the PSP's firmware lately and opening it up for homebrew. Harrison has a sort of cryptic response about future announcements.

So the PSP isnt well suited for Homebrew eh, so the hundreds and hundreds of Homebrew Games, Demos, Emulators and Applications arent suited for the PSP??

Nice to see that Dark ALex and our Homebrew scene got mentioned to the Sony Boss, pity he thinks that the PSP isnt well suited :P

DIGG THIS ARTICLE

that is crazy. psp is the best for homebrew. seriously who can whip out their portable console and listen to music, go on the net and play super mario world 3 on any other piece of electronic device?

Hmmm...now this is quite interesting to hear....

Lmao!

Is the Sony boss serious?

The main reason i play my psp is because of homebrew. If there was no homebrew you would find my psp old and dusty being relatively untouched.

I beg to differ with Heads at sony saying that, "the playstation portable is not well suited for homebrew".

Who are they kidding, the psp shows time and time again that homebrew development on the system is very good. Its one of the best homrbrew scenes out there.

Sony is in denial because they can't do what the homebrew scene can........

dude. the psp is the most suited piece of hardware for homebrew. i swear sony is retarded

Honestly, who cares what they think. We have the device, and we can do what we want to it.

If Sony thinks that it's not well suited, good. That just means they think we're too small potatos to go after.

As long as they continue to think the PSP is not well suited, we probably won't see any further effort on Sony's part to secure the PSP further from homebrew.

They would sell so many PSPs if they just accepted homebrew. Other than pirating actual PSP games (and PS1 games) I don't see why Sony oppose it so much. One of the major reasons I got a PSP was for homebrew. Llittle did I know about security and firmware... it came with 2.01 and it wasn't until the 2.80 ebootloader I could get any form of basic homebrew for it and exactly one year after I got my PSP that I could downgrade it to 1.5 and back up to custom firmware.

homebrew is the real reason I bought the psp and I screwed that one by updating my firmware! crap! when the psp is dead with new games and new firmware, maybe dark alex can make an offical fw release so i won't worry about bricking my psp. by the way does anyone know what file type psx games are on the play station store?

Of course the PSP isn't suited for homebrew! It's just like cars aren't suited to drive! :rolleyes: :p

lmao to above comment.

I bought my psp for homebrew as well. I personally hope sony doesn't accept homebrew because then it might turn out like xbox 360, sure it has xna, but I dont like any homebrew they have for it, if the psp turns out like that someone's getting shot.

I bought a GP2X a device aimed at homebrew to play homebrew - its on a shelf dusty.
I bought my PSP originally to play PSP games, it loaded up full with... well you know - and in my pocket :P

what the hell:mad: is sony boss talkin about of course the top execs just sit in the offfice they dont actually make the console but just collect the money,but i bet if u ask the creator of the psp he'll probably say yes it is good for homebrew but lets take a stroll down emulator lane shall we....

snes
sega genesis
master system
nes
cps2- capcom excellent emulator
neo geo
psone
turbo grafix
atari
colecovision
mame

did i miss any im sure i did because the psp is loaded with emulator quality-good job on the specs sony without your expertise homebrew would not be possible:D

Shhh! Don't tell the Sony boss! If doesn't know, don't tell him!

It could be that this is the real reason for Sony's trouble as of late, maybe the Boss realy doesn't have a clue.

heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by CPU_Smarts

Of course the PSP isn't suited for homebrew! It's just like cars aren't suited to drive! :rolleyes: :p

---

Hahaha!:rofl: :rofl:
Indeed.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by CPU_Smarts

Of course the PSP isn't suited for homebrew! It's just like cars aren't suited to drive!

---

psp-homebrew = peas-pod
:thumbup:

Without homebrew I would have gave my psp to my brother already.

Sony exec is just doing his job. They HAVE to officially go after homebrew because by supporting it, companies like Nintendo or Sega could legally go after them for helping make the piracy of their games possible. Just the way it is.

Sony Boss eh.

PSP was built for PSP games which all suck, so we all have to resort to homebrew to keep our investments safe..

Gimme a break SCE.

LOL! sony, sony, sony.............................OWNED!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!

Not well suited? I must vomit thusly!
Man, what a craphead. They make an AMAZING system with AMAZING capabilities but treat it like crap, trying to limit it to playing movies that must be bought individually for the system, and crappy official games.

Yeah. of course sony isn't going to condone homebrew.
In sonys opinion their system was made specifically for intent to be used with sonys commercial media.

Im certain they view homebrew as a pesky nuisancee that cuts into their commercial profits.
To those people that would expect sony to warm up to the idea of homebrew. You have to give some thought to sonys stance on this. No matter how many achievements we accomplish no matter how many hurdles we overcome, no matter how proud we are, sony locks their consoles for a reason. They simply do not support what we do.
To expect sony to warm up to our scene is little more then wishful thinking. And besides. As much as it would please some of us to have sonys support. We don't really need their approval to succeed in our scene, nor their permissions. Sony will just have to make due understanding. that we aren't all mindless commercial puppets looking for an official sony seal quality on each and every application we play on the consoles we paid good money for. End of story.

man the psp is one of the most hackable machines in the world.

yaa wtf was he smokin when he said psp aint suited for home brew once again wtf he must of been smokin some good dope(where can i get some o that sh!t eh...j/k) but come on the psp is friggin amazing for playing user made games apps and emus i mean look at it we have a fully functional ps1, gba, nes, snes cps2, sega and countless other emus that are amazing for consoules on the go and than we have Lua and C++ yet another great thing which has givin us cfw games and apps the sony is to stupid to make, oh man this guy is wak in my opinion no wonder sony is running its self into the ground. forget C+D, DAX, fanjita, and others as sony's eneymies. sony is there own worst enemy. once again WHAT THE F*CK!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dthboi

that is crazy. psp is the best for homebrew. seriously who can whip out their portable console and listen to music, go on the net and play super mario world 3 on any other piece of electronic device?

---

most cell phones

Perfect example:

POPS PSX Emulator.

Sony sure as hell didn't have it ready to go for the PSP's launch. I doubt it got much serious thought when the PSP was being designed.

It might even be safe to say that SONY was at first OK with homebrew seeing how their first firmware versions allowed for unsigned code and didn't even have the security protection in place.

I think SONY saw how popular homebrew was, especially with emulation and THEN decided to release a PS1 Emulator. I'm honestly surprised that SONY has not tried to get licensing rights for other retro platforms similar to the Nintendo Wii's virtual console. But maybe that will come in the future with the PS3.

I don't know of any other handheld multimedia device that is better for homebrew. The PSP just happens to the the perfect machine for homebrew at the moment. And what makes PSP homebrew so special and impressive is that it is all unofficial. Its amazing the talent that has been shown in creating magnificent homebrew apps & emulators. And we cannot forget the best homebrew accomplishment of all.... 3.xx OE custom firmware from Dark_AleX.

I would like to see older emulators get updated and continued. Emulators like NesterJ, DGEN, HuE, etc. have not seen updates in many months. I especially hope for a Turbo Grafx 16 (PC Engine) emulator. I know we already have a couple but I don't think they have high compatibility.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DragonPimpsta

most cell phones

---

You can't honestly think that cell phones can compete with what the PSP can do.

"Harrison has a sort of cryptic response about future announcements."

Hmm this was slightly concerning, hope its not in the form of C&D's!

I'm kinda concerned with all the publicity fixed on Dark_Alex

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Veskgar

I especially hope for a Turbo Grafx 16 (PC Engine) emulator. I know we already have a couple but I don't think they have high compatibility.

---

Dude, you been under a rock, or what? :D

e[mulator] runs every game gear, nes, neo-geo, game boy and TG16 game I have ever thrown at it. I've never had any compatibility problems.

Also, back on topic, who cares what the sony boss thinks? He's probably some fat-arse greaser just getting fatter and richer every day.

Just because Sony says they don't support homebrew, I don't believe that they are doing much to stop it. I think they leave holes in the firmware so people will find them, and try to exploit them, and in the process, brick a few more psp to put more money in the fat-arse's pocket.

The PSP is easiest homebrew console on the market and requires nothing more than a memory stick and usb cable. How is it not suited for homebrew?

Because its not officially sanctioned homebrew?

Just give it up Sony, you have lost; it would be better for you all to just embrace homebrew on the PSP. Give us what we want while at the same time locking down the pirates.

I'd be willing to forego using my own UMD dumps if Sony would give us official homebrew capability.

I bought a PSP hoping for an advanced piece of handheld gaming hardware. After a few months all I was using it for was videos and mp3s. After I found homebrew, all I did was learn how to put more homebrew on my PSP and explore emulators I've never tried. If I didn't find homebrew, I would have sold my PSP a long time ago. I seriously think I've used homebrew at least 4 times as much as the commercial games or what the PSP was designed for.

If not for homebrew, I would have sold my psp, just like everyone else I know who had a psp did. Seems to me the psp isn't suited for Sony's management, so I'm thankful to the people who did rise to the challenge and made it the best handheld ever.

hey, some one get me his address at work. i'm going to drop off a firmware "enhanced" psp. i sort of feel bad the guy has been missing so much. [:

seriously. i'm not kidding. someone needs to show this man what their dream can do and then find out why they are sitting on it.

I would like to know what that cryptic response was.
Hopefully they will realise the potential that the great psp homebrew coders have opened up.
Seriously, other than tekken I mainly use my psp for homebrew.
Most of the commercial games suck and really drain the battery by using the umd.
If it wasn't for Dark Alex I'd still be using 1.5,it's nice to be able to have homebrew and the newer firmware features.

omg does he know what he is talking about the psp homebrew scene is massive and the amount of homebrew that is available shows how well suited the platform is.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by F9zDark

Give us what we want while at the same time locking down the pirates.

---

See, that's the problem. They can't do that. If you open up the console for homebrew, you also open it up for pirating. I think that's what he means by the fact that the PSP is unsuited for homebrew.

With the PS3, they give what is basically a runtime environment for your homebrew (as I understand it), in the form of PS3 Linux. It only gives you limited control over the console and doesn't allow you to circumvent their various copy protection controls.

The Net Yaroze was even worse. My friend had one because he actually wanted to become a games developer. It was locked down to such an extent as to make it mostly useless. He spent a bunch of time developing a game but I couldn't see it because he'd lost one of the fifteen pieces of copy-protection crap that went with it.

You couldn't do that on a PSP. It doesn't have the necessary bits to run Linux effectively, so they can't provide a safe runtime environment for homebrew. The only way is to open the console up, which also leads to ISO loaders. Can't have the one without the other.

I just use the PSP as directed. I only watch UMD movies and play UMD games. I only play MP3's I purchased online. And I install firmware updates like a religous man.

I am a total slave :(

I believe that this "boss" has never even played the PSP. Why do I say this? Because if he did we would have a better variety of games ( actually good games ), a better online content system ( Maybe ) and yes, probably some form of homebrew enabled. Here is an idea for Sony; Before putting someone in power like that, make sure he is not completely fu**ing retarded!

There's no use getting worked up over this. It's never going to change until a completely new handheld is made that can run linux or something like it.