Answers don't come easy

[robotdevil]

I recently emailed SCEA to get a better understanding of their position on homebrew software. I just get tired of all the speculation and wanted some real answers. Well, looks like I won't get them anytime soon. Here's SCEA's response to my first email:

Thank you for writing us.

Sony Computer Entertainment America, Inc. (SCEA) does not recommend downloading any unauthorized
software (i.e. games, movies, etc.) for your PSP(TM) portable entertainment system from the
Internet; these software downloads have not been officially tested nor approved by SCEA and may
cause damage to your PSP system.

Any damage caused to your PSP system due to your use of unauthorized software downloads will void
your Limited Sony Warranty for the PSP system. The only approved network updates can be found at
PlayStation.com.

Please visit the link below to download and install available system updates for the PSP(TM)
portable entertainment system.

http://www.us.playstation.com/psp.as...softwareupdate

If you have further questions regarding this message, please refer to your email case
number:*******.

Paul A.
Multimedia CSR
Sony Computer Entertainment America
Consumer Services Department

Sounds like someone just copied and pasted the answer from the website. So I sent a second inquiry (this one somewhat less pleasant than the first). Here is the response:

Thank you for writing us.

As much as we would like to address all of your questions, there are certain topics that are simply
out of the scope of this department within Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA). You have
reached the Consumer Services Department within SCEA, and we handle all general inquiries for our
PlayStation(R) family of products, warranty and repair information, installation and
troubleshooting, general corporate business inquiries, PlayStation(R) Underground(TM) Club
Membership inquiries, and third party software referrals, just to name a few.

Very specific questions on any particular product (e.g., manufacturing process), programming details
of software or hardware, 'reasons or beliefs' on why a product did or did not include certain
features, personal opinions, and personal contact information for developers, publishers, and other
company employees, are some of the topics that cannot be addressed. Also, there are certain topics
that we may not be able to address due to the fact that they are confidential and proprietary to
SCEA.

Additionally, due to the complex nature of this industry and its products, certain information is
just not easily available. You may be able to do some thorough research on your own at the local
library, internet search engines, and at academic institutions.

If you have further questions regarding this message, please refer to your email case
number:*******

Joseph
Multimedia CSR
Sony Computer Entertainment America
Consumer Services Department

Again, no response. I doubt very much that the answer is a proprietary secret, and the original message asked them to forward the inquiry on until it could be answered. I have blanked out the case number, but the rest of the email is unaltered. I don't know if anyone else has tried this, but if you have any more information I would appreciate it.

Note to webmasters:
If this thread does not belong here please move it to where it does belong.

[stotheamuel]

you're kidding... that sounds like a personal response they typed up typed up after actualy reading your email

[Kaiser]

you're kidding... that sounds like a personal response they typed up typed up after actualy reading your email

They both sound like copy and pasted messages to me.

[b8a]

Bravo for actually trying! It's really tiring reading all of these people's posts making blanket statements that have little to no basis in fact, so it's refreshing when someone makes an actual attempt to get to the bottom of an issue.

But, you shouldn't be surprised that you're not going to get a straight answer from Sony. Do you realize how large that company is? I wish I could find the quote, but not too long ago I read a reputable article that interviewed the head of SCE (the arm of Sony responsible for the PSP), and said that if it were solely up to him, security on the PSP would be a lot more lax. Unfortunately, it's not up to him. All of the other branches of Sony, from their consumer electronics division to their music division, and even their movies division, have a say in how the PSP is governed. And since they all have different interests that they're trying to promote/protect, it's no wonder that the PSP has become the crippled disaster that it is. It would be like having 1000 simultaneous distinct personalities. You'd NEVER get anywhere because all of those personalities would never agree on anything. I think this is what we're seeing with the PSP, and is evidenced by your correspondance with Sony. Chances are they can't give you a straight answer, because they're still trying to figure out what their united, official stance is.

I think that the gaming arm of Sony is supportive of homebrew, and even if you can't find an official statement to that effect, I think you can find ample evidence to support this. Not only did they bring us the NetYarouze project on the PlayStation, but also released a PS2 linux development kit. Additionally, they constantly sponsor contests for fledgling programmers. The technology behind game development is rapidly changing, and if people can't program for their systems, then people won't be able to take advantage of the newest technologies, so it deffinately makes sense that they would support that effort to learn how to do so. It's in <i>their</i> best interest. Besides, homebrew games can't compete with the multi-million dollar budgets of official productions, so as long as that's all people are doing with that homebrew capability, they have absolutely nothing to worry about.

But, the other side of the coin is that once you know how to harness the sheer power of the machine, you can start to bypass Sony's other interests, and that's when you get the rest of the company putting pressure on the gaming division to lock it down, leading to an oppressive environment for homebrew.

(Sorry, I know this is more speculation and you're pursuing official answers. Let me know if they're unwelcome, and I'll edit out my comments)

[quzar]

Um... what did you expect? you e-mailed their customer support. I have emailed companies before (sega, hitatchi and rensas) looking for information about the dreamcast and have found them to be very helpful as long as you contact the proper department. Even when not being helpful they will usually at least say 'we just can't tell you' or something. Also, without your side of the emails it's quite hard to gague how appropriate their responses were. For all we know you wrote them saying "WHY wontz u lEt m3 play emurators!!/?" and athough I'm being extreme, I'm sure they do get a copious amount of emails nearly identical to the situation I have laid out to which they must take the time to send the same copy+pasted thing.

http://www.mameworld.net/gurudumps/lamer.html at least you didn't get real personalized responses like some of these. (not to say that your email was necessarily belligerant or anything, just implying that even asking the right questions but of the wrong people is in itself futile)

[robotdevil]

b8a, that's not entirely speculation, more of an educated guess, and I think that's the best we can do at this point. Thank you for it.

quzar, 2 good points, I didn't expect much from emailing their customer support, but I couldn't find any other email addresses for SCE/SCEA. Also, good point on me not posting my end, I was just trying to keep the size down for the first post. But here's my emails:

Consumer Email: [email protected]
Model Number: PSP-1001
Serial Number:
Message from Consumer:
I had a question regarding "homebrew" software on the PSP, I'm sure you probably hear this often but
here goes, why (aside from the software piracy) do you frown upon "homebrew"? Forgive me if this
sounds pushy, tone is very difficult to convey in text, I'm not questioning your decision to stop
it, I'm merely trying to understand it. I am at present heading an effort to create a completey
non-commercial venture porting a game to your wonderful little system and am looking for ways to
have this software be completly legit. Therefore, I would like to understand your decision a little
better. All I have to go on now is useless speculation on different forums, it does not appear that
anyone has asked your reasoning on this, or if they have they've never recieved an answer. I hope
that this request is not dismissed before being considered, and that it is even an answerable
question. I will tell you that it's more than just curiosity that prompts me to ask, I hope that by
understanding your position on this subject I will be able to address all of your concerns with my
project and have a very slim chance of being able to run it straight from the Sony menu (without any
tricks or hacks). If you want any information about my project please contact me. As I stated
before, this is STRICTLY a non-commercial venture and will be offered as a free download as soon as
it's stable.
Thank you for your consideration, I look forward to your answer.

Got pretty much what I expected in response to that. On to email 2:

That is all well and good but it does not answer my question. At this point I am not worried about
voiding the warranty of my PSP system, it's from the original release and it's warranty has expired.
If you are unable to answer my question, please forward it to the people who can. As I stated
before, I don't disagree with your position on unauthorized software, I'm merely trying to
understand it more. If the unauthorized software voids the PSP warranty and that is the only reason
then you would just put a warning out. There are no such warnings (other than those by the software
creators) and documentation from Sony or SCEA on this subject is limited at best. I do thank you
for the time you took to copy and paste a section of your web page, but I would appreciate an actual
answer to this inquiry. Your lack of response will in no way influency my optinion of Sony
products, I will continue to love them personally and recommend them to my friends. It will,
however, influence how I feel about Sony as a company and their devotion to the consumers of their
products.



Again, I thank you for the time you took to respond, however I would like a more detailed
explanation. Please pass this message along to anyone that can answer it.



Thank you

Yes, the 2nd email is somewhat less friendly than the first, but still overall respectfull (I think). And I doubt very much that Sony would respond in the manner that Guru did to some of his questions. Not that all of them didn't deserve it, but I think he went a bit overboard on a few.

But, I digress, thanks to those that responded, and I hope my original emails help to put the SCEA responses in context.

[yaustar]

Do sony frown on homebrew though? Net Yarouze? YaBasic with PS2? They must have been around for a reason...

[NoQuarter]

I definitly think sony is playing both sides of the coin-on one hand the extra sales,void warrenties are one way to eek out more money, not to mention security and code improvement by having homebrew devs examine the device.

[Inu268]

LMAO i mailed them asking what was their problem with homebrew also....but i said that i had brought a psp back when it was released in japan so they just told me they only work with us psp and i should try to contact sony of japan or some bull$#@! like that....yeah i am pretty sure it was copy and paste msg to....

[Accordion]

the whole yabasic thing was more of a way that sony could make the PS2 a personal computer and therefore knock the price down, due to higher taxes on purely entertainment products
in japan however you could get linux dev kits that is more legit

i would we a little more happy if sony would allow user mode homebrew easy to boot, it cant load isos