No more PSP homebrew talk on Sony's forums

by Justin McElroy { Sep 6th 2007 at 7:25PM }

With the release of the delicious new PSPs, some of you may be lured in by the slim form factor and the lighter weight. But there are others among you who may have had the deal sweetened by the lure of a much ... darker desire: That seductive, underground siren known in hushed whispers as "homebrew." Though it's supposed to be hush hush, discussion about it has previously been fairly active on Sony's own forums. (We know, we were as surprised as you.)

Now, apparently, the gravy train has ended, with Sony banning mentions of the illicit activity on the forums, writing, "Homebrew applications void the warranty of the PSP®(PlayStation®Portable) system, and an official area to discuss such activities cannot be provided by SCEA." (By the way, primo community relations, guys. Did you hire Major Nelson?) Our friends at PSP Fanboy think Sony's trying to keep the new wave of PSP owners from hearing about homebrew, while we think they're just trying to make it seem all dirty and wrong again. What do you think?

[Via PSPF]

Tags: homebrew, psp, psplite, sony

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

blooh @ Sep 6th 2007 7:29PM

i call shenanigans

required @ Sep 6th 2007 8:47PM

I call celebrations

hvnlysoldr @ Sep 6th 2007 8:49PM

I'll go get my broom.

Mr Khan @ Sep 6th 2007 7:30PM

No, no, let them struggle

Its fun to watch the big console companies get their asses kicked by a bunch of Script Kiddies

Leo @ Sep 6th 2007 8:15PM

^_^

required @ Sep 6th 2007 8:49PM

asses kicked? maybe in your deranged dreams, but not in the real world.

Crono @ Sep 7th 2007 9:08AM

The only good reason to own a PSP is for what the homebrew community has done for it. If that community didn't exist, there would be half the number of sales of the platform.

If sony were smart, they'd get their heads out of their own asses and open the platform. I know I'd buy another one if that happened. Until then, I'll watch its market share diminish from its already diminutive 30% down to obscurity.

Sorry "required", thats just the way it is.

rockintom @ Sep 7th 2007 10:19AM

Crono:

Uh, no, there are actually a lot of good PSP games, if you'd actually take a look. And why do you think you know more about marketing a system than Sony? Did you ever think about how they take a loss on every PSP sold, and thus rely on licensing on games sold to make their money? And you do know that running homebrew on a PSP is often just a coverup for pirating UMDs, yes?

So why don't you get *your* head out of your ass and realize that just because *you* would like something doesn't mean it makes sense.

sheppy @ Sep 6th 2007 7:33PM

The fact that they tolerated it to this point is suprising to me. Just as I'm sure Nintendo bans ROM talk on their forums, Sony is in their right here. Plus there is the very valid fact that, when searching for PSP torrents, you find a hell of a lot more piracy than homebrew. While I support what the homebrew community accomplishes, there is still the fact that their efforts are piggybacked by thieves.

Fernando Rocker @ Sep 6th 2007 7:37PM

Whats up sheppy? where are you been?

sheppy @ Sep 6th 2007 7:39PM

Busy busy busy. First, we're finalizing a massive project at work (we essentially built an entire country for a flight sim...). Second, my work in creating my own game is getting more and more hectic. And third, I've been hammering away on my entry for UGAC III at CGtalk. I've officially gone through 8 revisions.....

Fernando Rocker @ Sep 6th 2007 7:41PM

Hey... maybe we can give ideas for a game... that will be awesome.

sheppy @ Sep 6th 2007 7:44PM

Thanks but I have no shortage of ideas for games. This one we are working on right now is fairly simple but it's only the first in a trilogy. The hardest work has been pounding out our own engine and reverse engineering Maya files to find out how to make the engine read Maya files rather than dealing with writing our own proprietory format. But that's programming and I'm not a code monkey. I'm just the lead design and artist... so any info beyond that in the coding aspect, I can't help you.

colin @ Sep 6th 2007 8:44PM

Demonik?

TRUTH @ Sep 6th 2007 7:37PM

Damn that was the ONLY good thing the psp had going for it...

fischju @ Sep 6th 2007 7:39PM

That's nothing compared to all the 9 year olds asking about R4s and free games on the Nintendo forums

richie579 @ Sep 6th 2007 7:40PM

I agree that Sony's in the right here...I just found it surprising that they allowed it in the first place, I mean there were full threads dedicated to every hacked firmware update with links to all the software needed...yet on the ps3 forums you can't even mention other platforms.....hell, the xbox scene forums don't even allow links to homebrew...

sheppy @ Sep 6th 2007 7:40PM

Oh, you mean aside from all those games, then yeah, I agree.

Crono @ Sep 7th 2007 9:12AM

What games? Monster Hunter Freedom 2? No thanks, I'm not into collecting and training digital dogs for sport fighting.

And yes, the reply system is half broken. You have to click twice if you've recently replied to a comment, or if you arrive at the comments by a means other than clicking the "comments" button on the main page.

sheppy @ Sep 6th 2007 7:41PM

DAMN! reply system is sometimes tricksy.

James @ Sep 6th 2007 7:47PM

I was considering getting a PSP slim and ripping all my PS1 games. Bought myself FF7 and 8 over the summer only to have my PS1 break on me. I'd rather play these on a portable but it just sounds like it'd be too messy.

I'm never going to play a PSP game and I don't think my actions are illegal, cept for that warranty breaking nonsense.

Oh. And Cave Story.

Any chance of Sony just saying ¨screw it¨ and loosening the restrictions on the damn thing?

Kaemon @ Sep 6th 2007 8:34PM

Haha, if you got a Slim, you wouldn't be able to play your own PS1 games, you would have to, With a PS3, buy them over again, and those games aren't even on the PSN. If you wanna do that you're better off getting a original.

sheppy @ Sep 6th 2007 8:47PM

Umm, they've already dumped the firmware from the PSP-2000.... I give it a week.

ShaggyB @ Sep 6th 2007 7:48PM

let me try that again due to spelling
Wait... Wait... Wait.... You mean you could, before today, talk about Hacking the PSP on the official Sony forums??!?!?!?
Thats not right at all. Why that kind of thing would get your account banned from nintendos forums and over at Microsoft.... well lets just say your 360 would mysteriously get the Red Rings for speaking of such a thing....
[c:\RRoD.exe
input target: Hax0r2l33t
-=press spacebar to continue=-]
LOL whos honestly posting this kind of stuff on the official

Bobby @ Sep 6th 2007 7:51PM

Damn, I'm surprised they even let it go on for so long. I was always shocked to see COUNTLESS number of firmware, ISO, etc discussions right on Sony's own forums, wow.

About time Sony, what the HELL took you so long!?

Oh and I like homebrew, ISOs and piracy. : P

Ratchet the Lombax @ Sep 6th 2007 8:07PM

Oh no whatever will I do? Maybe just go to one of the other dozen of so sites that allow this kind of thing. Heck I never went to the playstation forums anyway since I wouldn't think of going to a "official" company forum to look for hacks/homebrew info.

PhydeWice @ Sep 6th 2007 8:09PM

There are many legal uses for homebrew, such as playing backups of stuff you already own, so the original won't get wrecked. But if you screw up the hack, that's your problem. Sony is probably tired of people complaing about how they bricked their PSPs, so my guess is they're stopping discussion of homebrew because of that.

Jonah Falcon @ Sep 6th 2007 8:15PM

I love homebrew, I hate piracy.

Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ Sep 7th 2007 5:21AM

Last I heard (disclaimer: DS owner) most simple interesting games on PSP were homebrew.

Having a portable system with game prices starting at 45+€ does sound to me quite suicidal. (That and fact that PSP had no Tetris were to me deciding factors in favor of DS.)

Thus homebrew - which often costs nothing - does sound bad to Sony, which charges premium for games.

konajinx @ Sep 6th 2007 8:16PM

Wow, Sony shut down talk on one of their own products? Amazing...you can't talk about anything over there without being threatened of a lock. It's the weirdest damn message board I've ever seen. The constant warnings and locks of any mention of other consoles on there is ridiculous. You get the feeling there that if you don't buy into Sony's vanity 100% then you're most unwelcome.

The majority of the users there are completely nuts, anyway, with constant shouts of people being trolls when they don't have high message counts and legitimately come in to ask questions regarding problems with their systems. it's really weird. Basically it's just an LOL dumping ground for people who use "there" and "your" incorrectly 100% of the time.

gamernewz.net @ Sep 6th 2007 8:30PM

Homebrew is the ONLY reason I'd buy a PSP.

James @ Sep 6th 2007 8:49PM

Same here. Thing is, the PSP could do homebrew oh-so well. The potential is huge.

I'd actually pay more for a PSP without a UMD drive and they just let you loose on the thing!

required @ Sep 6th 2007 8:55PM

homebrew is daft and the term itself void

hvnlysoldr @ Sep 6th 2007 8:52PM

I'm tired of using my trademark. At first I thought I'd start a meme on it but I haven't made any media for it and it's just spamming.

ThornedVenom @ Sep 7th 2007 12:05AM

Don't stop! You make Joystiq a fun place. =(

hvnlysoldr @ Sep 7th 2007 12:57AM

Very well. Pirates wore eye patches for night vision. I haven't used that in my last 30 or more comments.

LAZoftheTamarinds @ Sep 6th 2007 9:16PM

Didn't just awhile ago Sony said that they were gonna try and reach out to the homebrew community and make deal? and now THIS! Bummer.

Lucky @ Sep 6th 2007 9:20PM

Home brew and hacks are the only resone I WANT a PSP. (Don't got one yet.) Every one I know hacks there PSP's, get home brews, ect. I realy do think it's one of the only things moveing PSP's off the shelf right now.

>___>

Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ Sep 7th 2007 5:15AM

[ To me personally homebrew makes little sense. ]

Yet, if people want to screw up their systems - why not?

If somebody had totaled PSP (along with warranty) chances big s/he would buy another one. What I think for hardware company ......

Oh, sh*t. Sorry. I forgot that Sony isn't hardware company anymore nor does money on sales of hardware anymore.

Crono @ Sep 7th 2007 9:14AM

yeah, I'm suprised it was tolerated at all. But then again, homebrew and hacking is the only thing keeping the PSP afloat in the sea of DS awesomeness.

megaStryke @ Sep 7th 2007 9:45AM

Sony bans homebrew and hacking talk on their forums and Nintendo bans distribution of Friend Codes on their forums.

They simply don't want to be liable for consumer fuck-ups, and there WILL be fuck-ups.

Nate @ Sep 7th 2007 5:52PM

Sony's real gay for this one...

PPSTOD @ Sep 18th 2007 7:19AM

I'm really pleased with Sony restricting Homebrew threads on their official forums. There are plenty un-official forums for discussing homebrew and ISO's.

The non-homebrew market is massive compared to the minority who prefer custom firmware, so I am pleased we can now go to a forum and not have to read about all the psp-bricks out there.

I also won't have to suffer being criticised by other psp-users, who seem to look down on those of us prefer to keep our firmware up-to-date.