PSP 2.60 firmware cracked

PSP Updates reports that wily cracksmith "Fanjita" has worked out how to break through the latest PSP firmware, version 2.60, and managed to get a copy of Tetris running in spite of Sony's added security measures.

The breakthrough is likely to be followed by more thorough cracks, which could potentially unlock the system to the same kind of versatility available to cracked 1.50-firmware PSPs.

The revelation (full details and files for which can be located on the PSP Updates website) comes just days after the same chap managed to break through the previous firmware, 2.50.

Both versions were thought fairly secure, after Sony closed holes that allowed inventive crackers to run their own programs on PSP hardware with version 2.00 software and even revert it to the much more malleable 1.50, which runs virtually anything thrown at it.

Then again, 2.00 was also supposed to be secure. As was 1.50. Indeed, Sony's been engaged in a bit of a running battle with software crackers eager to use the portable to power console emulators and homemade software applications - Sony's argument being that the potential for software piracy is too big to allow this sort of thing to go unchecked.

Indeed, full PSP games are widely available through newsgroups and "warez" sites, and can be loaded onto sizeable Memory Stick Duos - like the 1GB versions Sony's been promoting heavily in the UK recently. Ironically though, quite a few PSP owners have argued that all they're doing is transferring their own, legally owned PSP games to Memory Stick to take advantage of greatly reduced load times.

As is tradition, Sony can be expected to react by releasing new firmware for the PSP in the near future.