Sony rolled out a new firmware update for the PS Portal this week which didn’t come with any detailed patch notes. Users on Reddit claim the firmware has improved the performance of the device and especially, the bitrate but I beg to differ. It looks the same to me. However, one thing Sony did fix was the PSP exploit which could essentially see users running PSP games on the device.
The exploit was showcased last month when an employee at Google by the username of Nguyen claimed to have hacked the PS Portal to run PSP Games using the open-source emulator PPSSPP. The exploit wasn’t made public and only announced on Twitter.
Now, however, the exploit has been patched in the latest firmware because the creator “responsibly reported” it to Sony. Even though the exploit process wasn’t made public, the latest firmware 2.0.6 has removed all chances of users doing it themselves.
The user who found the exploit announced that he took it upon himself to report the problem to Sony as a “bug” and the company issued the firmware to patch it out. Of course, this has led to some rather nasty discourse from fans. Many of them referring his actions to “the kid who reminds the teacher homework was due”.
He claims that even if he didn’t report the exploit to Sony, the company would have patched it out anyway. In a more recent post, he now seemingly regrets the report saying that users should not purchase or update their PS Portal device until he can figure out if the new firmware can be bypassed. It might be a bit too late for that.
Of course, the discourse doesn’t come from the lack of PSP emulation on the PS Portal. There are many devices on the market that can do this. Fans are more upset that a loophole, which could lead to other homebrew apps and exploits, has now been patched. It could have been the start of opening up the PS Portal to greater things. Perhaps a higher bitrate and better quality stream? Now, those dreams have been squashed.
Source: X
