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Reader Comments (11)

Posted: Feb 8th 2007 2:17PM MikeyA said

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As I have said, I believe this pissing contest is bad for 'mainstream' gamers who want simply to buy and play good games. PSP firmware is patched and cracked so often I can't imagine that bean-counters at publisher are ignoring it.

Posted: Feb 8th 2007 2:40PM (Unverified) said

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Tee Hee

Posted: Feb 8th 2007 2:46PM (Unverified) said

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Cheers for the homebrew comunity :)

Posted: Feb 8th 2007 3:01PM (Unverified) said

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It doesnt seem like it is a major problem or else Sony would be taking more precautions against it. If it were more prevalent in the world than I believe that Sony would take action, but right now, not that many people really use homebrew.

Posted: Feb 8th 2007 3:18PM (Unverified) said

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"As I have said, I believe this pissing contest is bad for 'mainstream' gamers who want simply to buy and play good games. PSP firmware is patched and cracked so often I can't imagine that bean-counters at publisher are ignoring it."

If you're implying that because hackers decrypt the firmware updates so often that it's leading to a complete turn off for the casual gamer... well then that's the most ridiculous thing I've heard today...

The decryption in no way affects the gamer that just wants to buy games and play them on his or her PSP.. actually, the only people that it affects are the hackers, modders, or people who enjoy using homebrew.

The only way that it could affect the casual gamer is if they wanted to run homebrew, and by that point they would no longer be a casual gamer.

Posted: Feb 8th 2007 3:29PM MikeyA said

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Re #5 "If you're implying that because hackers decrypt the firmware updates so often that it's leading to a complete turn off for the casual gamer... well then that's the most ridiculous thing I've heard today..."

If that was what I was saying it would be ridiculous ... but think about this:
- Sony previously added *real* features to the firmware frequently. For a very long time now the patches have been about security plugging in direct response to firmware cracking.
- The PSP is viewed in many different ways, none particularly positive, by the general public. One of those has become a 'hacker machine for geeks', as well as a safe haven for porn and piracy.
- Neither of those things play well to getting the good word about the PSP into the general public.
- Publishers accept that some piracy will happen, but the rampant piracy allowed through firmware exploits has to be troubling to them.
- The 'hardcore geek' image caters well to the single male 16-34 demographic ... but that is pretty much all that the PSP has to begin with. Success means breaking out of that - and being seen as a haven of piracy and porn doesn't help. Getting a better base of games does, but that runs into the problem I mentioned before.

Of course I don't think there is direct causality, but the linkage there is troubling.

Posted: Feb 8th 2007 3:35PM (Unverified) said

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Why can't Sony prevent this from happening? Is it impossible or do they want this to happen for every firmware.

Posted: Feb 8th 2007 6:22PM Andrew Yoon said

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A word to the wise: Any comments on ISOs will lead you to a ban.

Posted: Feb 8th 2007 6:37PM Charles J Barry said

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Here is the thing with piracy in any industry, the company has to publicly oppose it and make at least a some effort to stop it, but at the same time they realize internally, at some level, that without it their sales wouldn't be where they are.

Sure there are people that will pirate everything and never spend a dime past the initial investment of console and accessories, but then there will be the people that use open firmwares and ISOs to preview games before they buy them. Nobody wants to spend $30, $40, $50 on a game and then hate it.

I know lots of people like this in every industry. You can't trust the mainstream to get a good feel for a game, movie, comic, CD, etc. Even most of the "indie" media is in someone's pocket. The only prople you can really trust for an unbiased opinion is yourself.

I have heaps of comics, music, movies, and games. And I doubt I'd have half of what I do if I wasn't able to preview it in some way first. I see what others call piracy as another form of marketing. If your product is as solid as it should be, then people should be willing to pay for it even when they can get it for free.

Posted: Feb 8th 2007 9:04PM (Unverified) said

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The exact same decrypter was used on 3.11 as 3.10. No change whatsoever. And all that changed to decrypt 3.10 was a simple hex key change from 3.03. Do you all honestly think $ony is actually trying here?

Posted: Apr 2nd 2007 6:41PM (Unverified) said

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well I want to have a open edition so I can play homebrew, nothing else I don't want to lie cheat or steal! $ony would let homebrew work if peole STOPPED piracy, and if people want to Demo why dont they only rip the first level of the game or something?

Johnny Boy

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