Sony has removed PSP title Everybody's Tennis from the PlayStation Store
after hackers discovered it contained an exploit that allowed them to
run PSP homebrew applications on a PlayStation Vita. It follows the
removal of MotorStorm: Arctic Edge which was taken down shortly after
the new handheld was launched. We can confirm both games have indeed
disappeared from our download list on not only PlayStation Vita, but
also PSP Go as well, despite having been there for re-downloading last
time we looked. It is a shame as both are rather good.
Above: Everybody's Tennis and MotorStorm Arctic Edge - both gone from Vita's store
Let's
be clear that the exploit does not allow hackers to run pirated Vita
games, or even pirated PSP games, for that matter. All it does is allow
savvy programmers to access the PSP emulation program in the Vita and
use it to run their own unsigned software - namely all the homebrew
people made for PSP a few years back. So you could, for instance, play a
SNES emulator or a home-made PDA application.
That in itself
wouldn't be so bad for Sony (though still illegal). It does, after all,
simply allow users to create programs for a computer device that they
have bought, although the end user license agreement with Sony expressly
forbids it. But, more importantly, it is the first step towards
cracking the Vita and running 'backups' of full-blown retail games
without paying for them, so it's little wonder Sony is clamping down as
soon as anything like this arises. The PS3 took years to crack, but it
happened eventually.
Hopefully the two PSP games will be patched
and restored to the PS Store, although we wouldn't bet on it. In the
mean-time, if you have PSP games that you haven't re-downloaded, perhaps
best to get them on your memory card now in case this happens to more
titles. Or in case Sony patches out the PSP emulation altogether as it
did with PS3's Other OS. Don't say it'll never happen...
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