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p2pnet.net News View:- In the battle between Sony and the hackers, Sony is losing big time, says Del in AfterDawn.
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Sony bracing for a wave of PSP piracy
By Del - AfterDawn
The top of the Most Wanted gadget list is exactly where Sony wants its Playstation Portable (PSP) console to be, but as with any gaming console, there’s always the fear that piracy might hit. And it usually does. Now Sony is beginning to realise that this time it’s no different, despite their best efforts to keep piracy at bay. Sony PSP games use Sony’s proprietary Universal Media Disc (UMD) format, which gave Sony hope that copying games was impossible.
However, we reported when PSP Firmware v1.50 was cracked and anybody who knew how was able to use an exploit to run homebrew files on the PSP (which Sony likes to refer to as "unauthorised programs"). Since then, emulators for other consoles have appeared for the PSP but Sony accepted it (but highly opposed the PSPs use to run unauthorised games) and stuck to the belief that Sony PSP games were still safe.
PSP games spread across net… A loader on the horizon?
Paradox, a well known group on the Internet, was first to publicly release several PSP games on the net, which then had no way of being played. However, now it appears that a working game loader is just days away from public release which means users with large capacity memory sticks may be able to play their PSP games from them.
However, it’s important to point out that v1.51 firmware has not been cracked, and for some time at least it will only be possible with v1.50 firmware. Sony has warned PSP users off the exploits saying it’s possible to damage the console and void warranty. These claims were founded with the first exploit for v1.50 firmware which required two memory sticks and swap which, if done incorrectly, could have led to damage.
However, with the release of KXploit 1.50, it became safer to take advantage of the discovered loophole in 1.50 firmware, as it did not require the use of two memory sticks. It’s also reportedly a very easy method. There is, of course, one thing that Sony plans to do to battle the problems with past firmware: and that is to make sure PSP users have no choice but to update their firmware as time goes on.
Firmware checks on PSP games
Coded Arms, set to be one of the most popular games for PSP users to date, has a built-in mechanism that will check the firmware of the PSP and literally refuse to load if the firmware is too old, which is a good way Sony has thought up to ensure that PSP users will keep their firmware up to date.
It’s a good idea, but far from flawless and it seems possible these "firmware checks" could be defeated the same way early PS2 users made backups of DVD games to CDs and booted them - finding and altering DVD media checks. The same thing could possibly be done with PSP games to remove firmware checks and more than likely will be done by "warez" groups who will spread the games around. But even if this is impossible, there’s still one more option.
PSP Modchips?
Yes. You’d better believe the prospect of PSP mods is very real. In fact, one British man already claims he has a useful chip for PSP users an is in legal trouble with Sony. And now he’s made a chip which can be used to rollback PSP firmware to older versions (like 1.50) that can be exploited. While this would still have problems playing firmware check protected games, it would give users the option to rollback afterwards if they needed to update in order to play a game.
In conclusion
In the battle between Sony and the hackers, Sony is losing big time. It is now possible using existing tools to rip entire games to memory stick using the PSP and with a loader reportedly on its way, piracy of PSP games is inevitable.
However, this also provides the ability to sort of "backup" your existing Sony PSP games in case your originals get damaged.
The amount of developments in the "PSP Scene" is phenomenal and I think Sony wasn’t expecting so much so soon.
Literally every day, something new is released, discovered or announced and it appears things will continue to go that way for some time. A new spark of filesharing of PSP games has also begun, with several large torrent sites and P2P networks making it possible to obtain and share the games.
(Thanks, Del)
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July 8th, 2005 at 3:25 am
I know next to nothing about the newer game consoles. If I understand the article right, they require you to update the firmware in order for it to continue to be of use to you. Does anyone really want such a setup? I assume this means you have to have an internet connection to do so, otherwise some other method has to be used to do the data transfer.
If it is the internet that is used, this means if you don’t have internet the game box won’t continue to work. Your money paid for it but at some point if you don’t update the game player, your money is wasted. Consumerism to the max in the name of profit. Well, Sony can keep their little protection scheme as what you are paying for isn’t yours after you get it home. That’s an expensive rent cost. The machine to play the games, I am guessing the games run around 50 bucks each. One is never enough, for sure. Nope, sold on the idea I don’t want one, can’t use one, and am not going to rent one by purchase.
Whatta racket they got going here. The game player makers are purposely disabling the capabilities of the machine in order to hobble it, expecting you to pay the cost of making the machine, expecting you to refill the firmware for it to continue to work, (my guess is they expect you to purchase both internet and games) and it isn’t yours. Yeah, right. I don’t want one!
July 8th, 2005 at 6:18 am
I’m sick of this assault on game console hackers. Mod chips wouldn’t be necessary if they wouldn’t put regional restrictions, licensed-only software usability, and similar lockouts into the systems. As game consoles become more and more powerful, someone’s going to port Linux to it and want to turn their PSP into a PDA, for example. If you buy a $200 portable computer system, why should you tolerate being forced to run a very limited set of programs on it?
July 8th, 2005 at 10:32 am
To all you hackers out there. Keep the fight a live and the good work up. We don’t want to be pushed around by companies like this. Once bought the product is ours to do with what we want.
July 8th, 2005 at 11:35 am
The suggestion you make in the last paragraph [”The game makers are purposely disabling the capabilities of the machine in order to hobble it, expecting you to pay the cost of making the machine, expecting you to refill the firmware for it to continue to work, (my guess is they expect you to purchase both internet and games) and it isn’t yours. Yeah, right. I don’t want one!] has a hauntingly familiar sound to it.
Oh, I know!!! MICROSOFT!!!!
MS’s cronies have learned their lessons well at Daddy Gates’ knee.
I am holding on to a fragile dream that someday soon governments will file anti-trust suits AND that other barristers will attack the way these leeches do business — they put the word “BUY” in large letters and urge you to “OWN THIS NOW!”
One cannot find more blatant cases of false advertising. You cannot BUY software, anymore (be it games or applications), nor can you OWN any of the stuff you “buy”.
This should be such a cut-and-dried case, I am surprised some enterprising young lawyer hasn’t decided to seek his fortune by soliciting consumer participants to join in a class action to seek monetary relief from these frauds!
July 11th, 2005 at 1:43 am
I love my PSP. I paid out my nose for it. I also paid a small fortune for my PS2 ($250) which I had expected to take full advantage of the Harddrive capabilities and other features wich were possible but left me hanging. What was the usb port for again? How about the firewire port? ($20 Firewire cord) It seems to me it also came with a limitted life span.(3 yrs) Every one I know who had puchased a PS2 had it Die on them after 3 yrs of use. I also spent a lot of money on a Memory Stick($150). My PSP ($300) should have came with a micro drive instead of a slot for a MS. I hate the idea that they spent so much energy and time to ensure that I can only purchase there proprietary UMD in which games were stored on. (All Games purchased $1200. PS2 games now useless $1000) As far as I’m concerned Sony has enough of my money. I don’t think I’ll be buying anything from Sony again till they become more user friendly and less greedy. I’m putting my foot down.
As far as I’m concerned they’re getting what they deserve.
July 11th, 2005 at 2:03 pm
I absolutely agree! I’m against piracy (because of the developers /artists and very creative people that have worked so hard on some of the content) but I’m for creativity without limitations - Nokia allows people to download their SDK’s for free, Microsoft (and I’m not saying they’re perfect - never did bring the XBOX to SA) gives away their .NET compilers and documentation for free (only pay for the IDE and extras) - so why can’t Sony do the same - even sell a set of development tools geared for the hobbyist developers?
Well I have a PSP - not for the games but more for the ability to run my own (and other peoples) applications. Look at how quickly they’ve figured out how to create applications WITHOUT Sony’s help - this obviously means that some very clever and dedicated people out there that will stop at nothing to get exactly what they want - which is what we want - we the people!
Hope that wasn’t too corny!
September 2nd, 2005 at 7:35 pm
“I don’t think I’ll be buying anything from Sony again till they become more user friendly and less greedy” that’s kind of selfish and mean to say, if Sony makes a console to play games with, and add’s a function to use firmwire and surf the net, i think you should respect that.. i personally think that the menu and stuff in psp is very user friendly (easy to use)
Allthough, the console has too much machine power to be wasting on only games that costs so much, i prefer to hack it.
I am a hacker myself, and i’m running PSP with windows XP and all the warez that you can imagine.
September 20th, 2005 at 6:19 am
Yeah sure you are running Windows XP on your PSP…YOU DICKHEAD!