Tretton: PSP homebrew is incredibly creative and we'd like to get into it

Sony's Jack Tretton has praised the homebrew PSP scene by commenting that some of the stuff produced via the scene is incredibly creative and admitted Sony would like to 'tap' into the are a bit more.

quote:

"I think that is something that is in the works," he said. "We certainly see some of the stuff that has been done via homebrew, and it's incredibly creative. And I think we'd like to try and tap into that a little bit more."

Dave added to Jack's comments by saying that moving to forward with homebrew software has one main hurdle to cross -- figuring out how to support the new content without putting the PSP at risk.

[BlackIceJoe]

Now this is great news. If Sony was to allow Homebrew on the PSP and not try and fight it. I could see this as a big plus for Sony. Plus if they could bring out some thing like on the Xbox 360 with XNA. That would be great. Plus if it could also work with the PS3 that would also be an added bonus. I for one think it would be great to play games other people made and not having to worry about my system getting bricked.

[THE_JUDGE]

that but homebew will never fully be possible on the PSP due to the legal issues that it causes. Most people mod their PSP's so they can play on Ninetendo games or other things that are copywritten. Sony would run the risk of getting sued if they allow that to go on. I would like to do the same thing but I don't think it will happen.

[kewlkat007]

They have been battling and trying to stay ahead of Hackers/Homebrew with firmwares galore but could they be throwing in the Towel?

Hey linux and open source was built on people like these, I don't see the harm besides software piracy..

[LeShin]

If Sony does this it would be pretty cool, though of course if they don't it's no big deal......as the average everyday Joe knows nothing about Custom Firmwares or homebrew and probably wouldn't want to risk bricking their PSP trying it.
I actually have a custom firmware on my PSP but not for UMD iso's as that to me is being cheap & stupid. I use it to customise my XMB (which looks quite snazzy atm:)) and to run old school emulators.
If they can find a sure fire method to stop the UMD piracy thats running rampant at the moment, i'm all for it.

[Zhuk]

actions speak louder than words tretton all sony has done has fight the homebrew community from day 1 I mean how many times have you rejoiced at hearing about the latest firmware being cracked/exploited and then see Sony release a new version of the firmware with 'security enhancements'. I love my PSP but they've really treated the homebrew community with nothing but contempt which is sad because I think its one of the strengths the system has over the DS

[LeShin]

But like I said above, homebrew has also invited piracy. Now if you had a handheld and it was competing against another brand which was already doing very well, wouldn't you want people to buy software for your hanheld rather than to pirate them? The DS doesn't have a hombrew community and I don't think Nintendo has ANY intention of opening their handheld up. Can you blame them?

The number of UMD games you can get from bittorrents is crazy.

[Zhuk]

All gaming platforms have problems with piracy its just a fact of the industry imo they shouldnt have to fight it at the cost of the homebrew community. With the DS you can just as easily go buy a flashcart and play 'backups' as you can on the PSP.

[LeShin]

The thing is, just because it's supposedly "easy" to play DS back-ups, doesn't meant Sony should let it slide. Perfect example why such measures have to be taken? Kotaku recently asked Epic why they have decided to bring UT3 to consoles. Their answer? Because they recognised that piracy is rampant on the PC scene and they were loosing out on some revenue because of this and so decided to release it on more platforms to recoup some profit.

Piracy is hell for developers. If their game gets played for free on a system, in turn costing them profit, do you really think they'll waste money bringing it out on a console which is easily hacked, or do you think they would go for a handheld which is already doing well and back-ups are not readily availiable on the net?

To me, the thing about homebrew games is that I've only come across 2 games that I think is worth all the fuss about homebrew (I bought the 1.50 PSP when it came out, so i've been in the hombrew scene for awhile) and thats No Gravity and Beats Of Rage. Everything else seems to be tetris clones or sudoku clones or VERY primitive sidescrollers.

Some homebrew applications on the other hand are quite good, but like I said, all I use my custom firmware for is for customisation and emulators.

[Darkiewonder]

Is that it? A group of devs from the PSP Department will support the casual Homebrewers? Just saying.

As long they support things like new games [The ones small developers or casuals make] that is something I would like to see as well. It would be like XNA for 360 but for PSP.

[Armyless]

I consider this a summit in a long-standing cold-war between creative homebrew crews and Sony engineering genius. Thank you Sony!

[Mr_Kuwabara]

That these hackers really have talent and creativity.

They should hire them lol.

[djt23]

yess yess we are going to get some Homebrew games. i just hope we dont pay money for these games. i wonder if they will allow mod

[PS360WII]

Wow that's rather two faced of them. Like all have been saying Sony has been fighting homebrew on the PSP forever and didn't want anything to do with it. It's great news but give me a break on that statement he needed to say we are tired of trying to stop the homebrew bastards so we finally give up. Then I'd be a little more happy about it. Oh and to answer 4.1 the DS does have a homebrew community but for the majority of DS owners we like to buy the games that come out for it.