Be Excellent To Each Other

So, you’ve got your PS Vita (whether it’s today via an over eager online retailer, or tomorrow from the high street) and you’re busily unwrapping the box and sticking it on charge. Well, before you dive in – stop – and read this, because it’s important.

Basically, the Vita will want to connect to your wireless Wi-Fi router when you first boot it up, and it’ll want to look for Firmware updates at the same time as trying to get you to sign into your PSN account. But it can’t, and gets stuck in a frustrating loop.

It’s odd, but here’s what happens: if you try to use an existing PSN (or SEN, as it’s now known) account you’ll be told that the Vita will need to do a firmware update (the latest system software isn’t on the Vita yet) but will then take you back to the account screen. Ad infinitum.

Still won't be long before its running homebrew so Sony need to make money whilst they can!

1) Can you play Dungeon Master?
2) Can you play Chaos Strikes Back?
3) If yes to the above, can you hack mine please?

1) Can you play Dungeon Master?
2) Can you play Chaos Strikes Back?
3) If yes to the above, can you hack mine please?

What sort of PSP is it?

Ask an Ashens

Sony's never-ending battle to control the content that runs on its hardware has moved to a new front on the Vita, with the company taking down downloadable versions of two PSP titles in response to reports that they include programming holes that allow the Vita to run unsigned, homebrew code.

On March 1, the hackers at Wololo.net first publicly announced that their homebrew Vita Half Byte Loader (VHBL) worked by exploiting a vulnerability in a downloadable copy of the PSP title Motorstorm: Arctic Edge, releasing a video of Doom being loaded onto the system by way of proof. Sony responded quickly, removing Motorstorm from the PlayStation Store just before VHBL was officially released the next day.

Users that had previously downloaded Motorstorm could still use the exploit, though, and the hackers claim they went to great pains to ensure that a few thousand people in and around the hacking community were able to download the game before the details of the hack were made public. Previous purchasers are no longer able to redownload the game from the PlayStation Store, however, potentially leaving some innocent bystanders without access to legally purchased titles if they delete their existing copy (Sony did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter).

Fast forward to Sunday, when the Wololo hackers teased that they had found another exploit in Japanese and European PlayStation Store download Everybody's Tennis that could, in the hackers' tongue-in-cheek words, be "extremely dangerous for [Sony's] business," by letting people play titles "such as 20 year-old 8-bit games and 154 different versions of Pong." Following form, Sony once again removed the game from the PSN store just before the hackers publicly released the new exploit yesterday.

Wololo claims its VHBL hack is useful only for running homebrew software and not for playing pirated PSP or Vita games. Still, Sony has taken a zero-tolerance approach to players running unauthorized code on its systems in the past, usually responding to breaches by releasing re-secured firmware updates, which hackers subsequently re-hacked.

Now, Sony instead seems to be using its control of PSP game downloads on the Vita to try to cut off the supply of exploitable games as quickly as possible, opening up a new front in the war for control of the Vita hardware. They might have an uphill battle on their hands, though, as Wololo's hackers claimed to "collectively have access to about 5 to 10 user mode game exploits in psp games" earlier this month, and have created a so-called "exploit factory" to easily port VHBL as new exploits are found. We could be entering a new era in the Sony hacking wars, where exploits are first released quietly before being publicly deployed as tactical weapons that whittle down the number of downloadable PSP titles available from the PlayStation Store.

Sony Killing PSP Games To Prevent Vita Piracy?

Over the past few weeks, hackers from Wololo.net claimed to have exploited code found in two downloadable PSP games to essentially crack the PlayStation Vita wide open, allowing for the playing of pirated/homebrew games on the system.

Those two games were Everybody’s Tennis and MotorStorm: Arctic Edge, the latter of which was shown off with a hacker playing the PC version of Doom on Sony’s new handheld. The Wololo hackers claim the exploits would only be able to run homebrew games and not pirated PSP or Vita titles, but it appears the platform holder isn’t taking any chances.

Sony has now pulled both games from the PlayStation Store, and pulled them good: even if you’ve legitimately purchased the games previously, they’re now no longer available for download.

It may all be for naught though, as the hackers claim that tools for making the most of the exploit are already done, and in the hands of thousands of users.

I assume that Sony will be working on fixing the exploits in the games and then reinstating them in their store? If so, as long as they don't take too long over it, it doesn't seem they're being too evil on this occasion.

As always in these situations, people seem to be blaming the wrong target.

As always in these situations, people seem to be blaming the wrong target.

One other thing to consider is who is actually going to code the fixes for these titles - are the original developers going to have to go back into the code and produce an update to block this , and if so what about the developers who no-longer exist ?

I understand that Sony are, once again, probably not handling this the best way they can, but every time this happens people always seem to forget that the people who actually caused the issue are the hackers.

I doubt the potential future sales of Everybody's Tennis are sufficient for the developers to spend much time fixing the bug. It's quite possibly the financially smart thing for them to just drop it. Although having a game that allows a a hack to go through would have probably boosted their sales if it had been allowed.

Pulling the game from sale is one thing - stopping people who have already paid for it downloading it is again is something else.

Remember its also taking the game away from everyone who has already bought it.

Well, it's not really. It's stopping you re-downloading it if you delete it. And presumably for a limited period of time. That's a world of difference away from taking it off you.

You think it's good business to throw paying customers under the bus to attack the hackers? I don't. I think a company should do everything it can to disrupt the hackers without inconveniencing the paying customers, and I think the experience of the paying customers should always be the highest priority.

Don't disagree with any of that. Doesn't change the point, though.

It actually does, depending on what you think 'the point' is. The people to blame for the Vita being hacked are the hackers. Directly and indisputably. But the people to blame for the games actually being removed are Sony. No one else made the decision and no one else implemented it. Indeed no one else could. There are arguments to be made for whether that's a reasonable reaction under the circumstances or not, but the blame for actually taking the games down has to lie with Sony because Sony are the ones who weighed up the consequences, decided it was a reasonable course of action and went ahead with it.

A third PSP game has been removed from the PlayStation Store after it emerged that the title was being used to allow homebrew gaming on Vita.

Prior to its removal Super Collapse was being used by hackers to access and run homebrew software Vita Half-Byte loader which, amongst other things, allows consumers to run Game Boy, NES, SNES, N64 and Mega Drive emulators.

Crucially, the hack did not allow users to play pirated Vita software.

The game will likely be reinstated to PSN once the hack has been removed and, more likely than not, a further Vita firmware update released that will close the loophole.

Last month Sony removed both Everybody’s Tennis and MotorStorm Arctic Edge from the PSN Store as they also allowed hackers to circumvent some of the Vita’s security measures.

I think I'll probably grab one when a game comes out that I want to play. Right now, there's nothing on there that I'd be bothered about playing.

That came out nine days ago! I didn't even know it existed. But yeah, I don't have £200 spare for food, let alone £200 to play a game.

Reports surface that hobbyist developer and reverse engineer Yifan Lu has discovered a Vita exploit that could make it possible to load homebrew software.

Sony has long faced a difficult fight in the battle against hackers of its hardware and products. The PlayStation Portable was repeatedly hacked, ultimately resulting in low sales of the device, according to Sony. And while it took longer for the PlayStation 3 to succumb, it too became the victim of hackers in 2011. Finally, the PlayStation Network was compromised in the same year, resulting in the loss of millions of people's personal information.
Hacked?

Hacked?

Now, it appears as though the same could be set to happen to the PlayStation Vita. Website CVG reports that coder and self-confessed re-engineer Yifan Lu has been developing a homebrew loader for Sony's latest handheld. According to Lu's blog, he has discovered an exploit for the PlayStation Vita and has used it as the basis for building what he calls the Usermode Vita Loader. This, claims Lu, makes it possible to create homebrew Vita software.

The PlayStation Portable was repeatedly hacked, ultimately resulting in low sales of the device, according to Sony.