Sony Taking Down PSP Titles In Response To Vita Hackers [Slashdot]

[DP ServBot]

Carlos Rodriguez writes "The hacker community has found a way to make the Vita run unsigned code by exploiting weaknesses in PSP games available for download in the PSN store. In response, Sony has made the affected games unavailable for download for all platforms — PSP and Vita both — even if you had already paid for it and hadn't had the chance to download it yet. In the case of 'Everybody's Tennis', the game was removed from the PSN worldwide after the modder community bragged about the game being exploitable but before any exploit was released for it. Is Sony being too overzealous in its fight against piracy?"

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[Berserker]

The problem as I see it isn't that they're blocking these games from future purchase, but that they're blocking those who legitimately purchased these games from downloading them. To me it illustrates a lack of respect for the players, and the developers, and I hope they produce either a game or a refund in pretty short order.

[DOAsaturn]

The problem as I see it isn't that they're blocking these games from future purchase, but that they're blocking those who legitimately purchased these games from downloading them. To me it illustrates a lack of respect for the players, and the developers, and I hope they produce either a game or a refund in pretty short order.

I agree with this statement - if Sony takes action like this, then they should do all they can to satisfy the honest customers as well...

I don't understand these hacking communities, all they do is make it more difficult for the people who make an honest living and purchase things like any other reasonable person. I get the idea of "sticking it to" the big corporations, but there are many ways to do that in a civil manner. Thing is - they will always exist. Is it worth trying to fend them off endlessly or just let them do what they please...

[j_factor]

What Sony needs to do is hire a few people who are experts at that sort of thing, and check every release for possible exploits before they put it out there. Shouldn't be that hard.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Sony is always in a damned if they do/damned if they don't situation when matters like these crop up.

Inaction on their part seems to be as equally criticized as swift action.

While I completely agree that blocking the re-download of purchased content is a negative and should be avoided wherever possible, do we know for certain that Sony will refuse to produce a credit or refund on this game(s) if pressed through the appropriate channels?

All in all if it's for the purpose of discouraging hacking/exploits, it seems like a necessary evil, we know Sony has pledged to be vigilant against people attempting to exploit their network security in any way, so this shouldn't be a huge surprise.

Also, since there are hundreds of PSP games that are not available on the Vita anyway, pulling a few titles from the limited library doesn't seem like a huge deal. Yes, it's a deal, it's something, and it's not great for those who REALLY LOVE deleting and re-downloading "Everybody's Tennis" on their Vita, but, not the end of the world.

[j_factor]

Sony is always in a damned if they do/damned if they don't situation when matters like these crop up.

Inaction on their part seems to be as equally criticized as swift action.

They should have been more proactive. Sony is one of the largest entertainment companies in the world, and they can't screen their products for potential exploits before putting them out? What do these hackers know that Sony can't pay someone to know? You'd think Sony would have learned, after what happened with the PSP, and again with the PSN hacking incident last year, to cover their asses.

All in all if it's for the purpose of discouraging hacking/exploits, it seems like a necessary evil, we know Sony has pledged to be vigilant against people attempting to exploit their network security in any way, so this shouldn't be a huge surprise.

They've already broken that pledge.

[WCP]

I don't understand these hacking communities, all they do is make it more difficult for the people who make an honest living and purchase things like any other reasonable person. I get the idea of "sticking it to" the big corporations, but there are many ways to do that in a civil manner. Thing is - they will always exist. Is it worth trying to fend them off endlessly or just let them do what they please...

Normally, I'd agree with this, but if the hackers are just making it so that you can play PSP games on the Vita for free, then I'm not sure if I'm that strongly against it, because Sony should have figured out a legit way for people to send in their physical UMD's for an online code for the download. Or at the very least, a 75 percent off coupon for buying the download of the game they already own the physical copy to. Some of the most hardcore PSP supporters have HUGE libraries of physical UMD games, and if those people want to play those games on Vita, they have to double dip, which is kinda messed up.

Yeah, yeah... I know that there is no unwritten law that states that we have the God given right to play media that we purchased for a previous console, on the new console, but Sony started this shit with PS2 and the initial batches of PS3's. (backwards compat)

[kedawa]

Hopefully, this leads to a more complete hack that doesn't just run in PSP mode.
Being able to run whatever you want on the hardware you own is not a bad thing.

[kupomogli]

The problem as I see it isn't that they're blocking these games from future purchase, but that they're blocking those who legitimately purchased these games from downloading them. To me it illustrates a lack of respect for the players, and the developers, and I hope they produce either a game or a refund in pretty short order.

When they removed Motorstorm Arctic Edge, they refunded everyone who purchased the game for the amount they purchased it. The same will probably be done of any other title.

Hopefully, this leads to a more complete hack that doesn't just run in PSP mode.
Being able to run whatever you want on the hardware you own is not a bad thing.

But you know that's not going to happen. Once the Vita is hacked, it won't just stop at homebrew. People will find a way to play Vita games and while there are some people who will continue purchasing their games, a lot will just steal them. Nintendo has one good thing going for them and that's that the 3DS is owned mostly by kids or people who don't really look up gaming news all the time and purchase what they see at the store. A lot of these same people probably own a DS or 3DS, but it's not going to put as much of a dent in the market when there are other people that don't know will still buy.