Impervious to custom firmware hackers, there's less reason to buy a PSP-3000 than ever
Despite Sony's missteps, the Sony PSP is a great system, but in sheer spite of Sony's missteps, hackers are the ones who have made the PSP a great system. Although not as many as there should be for a system of the PSP's maturity, there's some excellent games available, but where the PSP shines is as portable emulation and homebrew device, and for that, Sony has less part than ever, consistently fighting against the same hackers and programmers who — if embraced — might have given Sony the leg up over the Nintendo DS.
So no shocks here: the recent release of the PSP-3000, aka the PSP Brite, is looking pretty hacker proof, with all its previous kernel holes patched up, preventing the installation of custom firmware and unsigned code. In particular, famous PSP hacker Dark Alex — who usually can turn around a new custom firmware within hours of an official Sony release — has made no progress worming his way into the PSP-Brite.
And that's ignoring the awful interlacing issue. There's still plenty of reason to buy a PSP, but not a PSP-3000. If you're looking to buy one and get the most out of your system, the PSP Slim or the PSP Phat is the way to go.
PSP is impervious to hackers [PSP Fanboy]
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I fail to see how embracing hackers would have helped Sony make money with the PSP. Selling more systems doesn't help if they aren't selling software to go with it. The problem with the PSP is that it approaches handheld gaming like a home console; it's all about horsepower and experiences that don't translate well to sporadic gaming. UMD is a great example of this, optical media is great for a console where you have mains power and ostensibly unlimited time but in a handheld the load times and battery drain are a deal breaker.
Agies, it would have helped if they make money on the devices - which seems like a wise course to follow in business.
Homebrew is frankly the main selling point of the PSP. If you don't have the ability to play games without the UMD or having the use of homebrew the PSP becomes a sub par console.
I'm sure that by the end of the year this thing will be cracked so while they might save a few bucks in the short term, in the long term this will just be another sony PR failure.
@2 Most video game hardware manufacturers sell their hardware at a loss with the hopes of making it up through sales of software and licensing. Nintendo is a notable exception.
@#4 You might be able to argue that about consoles (360, PS3 vs Wii), but portables is a different story. Nintendo has had that pegged from the get-go. And when you have the highest hardware sales, consistently, I'd say you are not the exception, but the authotity.
Agies, that's not really true for "most" any more. I know Nintendo doesn't sell at a loss, Microsoft isn't as of about a year ago, and if Sony is it's their own damn fault.
My point, though, wasn't to compare it to consoles, it was to compare it to that rare breed known as "successful businesses."
Any word on the new Nintendo DS? Is that one going to recognize and block out R4s?
The lack of a Slot-2 in exchange for a camera no better than the one on my cell phone, though, kind of turns me off.