Game consoles just cannot avoid the fate of being hacked to run unlicensed or unauthorized programs on it. We have heard mod PS, PS2, Xbox, etc etc. Now Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) is experiencing the same fate.

Gaming enthusiasts have figured out how to run unauthorized programs and games on PSP according to Yahoo! News, on Wednesday, June 15, 2005. So far, Sony had tried to keep its PSP on a tight leash, installing controls so it couldn’t run programs and games not vetted and licensed by the company. Unfortunately, someone has successfully broken it.

Quoted:
Sony’s restrictions were defeated by a program disseminated on the Internet this week. It requires two memory cards, which are switched while the PSP is working.

The exploit may not be practical or safe, but it definitely represents a challenge to Sony’s policy of tight control and opens the possibility that PSP games could be pirated sooner or later.

The hack works on PSPs with version 1.5 of the “firmware,” the equivalent of a computer’s operating system. Version 1.5 is the original firmware version for U.S. PSPs, but Sony in May released version 1.51 for users to download. The hack does not work on the updated firmware.