Slashdot Mirror
Sony Admits PSP Update is Genuine
sammykrupa writes "According to a story at The Register, Sony has confirmed that the PlayStation Portable (PSP) updater that leaked onto the web this past weekend is genuine. However, it publicly warned owners of the handheld console not to run the software as it will cause the PSP hardware to stop operating. The updater was "configured" to install a bunch of stuff including a text-to-speech utility, a calculator, web browser, email application and, weirdly, a word processor and spreadsheet tool. If you've already installed this thing and know have a broken PSP, you can send the malfunctioning PSP back to Sony for a repair but the company will charge you for the privilege."
That breaks your PSP, then charges you to fix your PSP after you use it. An ingenious way to reduce the money they are losing on each PSP sale!
I feel the PSP owners' pain :)
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
Was Sony bought by Microsoft or Something?
why do i get the feeling that somehow, some jerk out there is gonna find some way to blame his stupidity on sony, and successfully sue them for not making good enough software, thereby forcing him to download rogue software from the Interweb and install it... yes, its a conspiracy, and Sony is out to get ya!
Enjoy an e-piphany
xBoxes outselling PS2s
You really think there are more XBoxes in the world then PS2s. And yes the Xbox 2 will be out before the PS3, because MS is rushing it out the door to be first. I think it shows that the original XBox (maybe the whole line but time will tell that) lacks longevity, if a console can't keep selling games for 5 years why would anyone want to develop for it, hell why would anyone want to buy it.
Walkman 80's tech (it's a tape player)
iPod new century tech (hard drive based mp3 player)
You should be comparing iPod to mini-disc player (ok your point still works but jeez comparing and iPod to a walkman is just stupid).
And if Sony is making their money off of Vaios, I think they are sunk.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
They DID NOT realease it. Someone stole it and that IS NOT Sony's responsibility.
first of all, it's XBOX (or perhaps, if you like, xbox), not xBox -- what did you smoke too much nVidia or ATi crack or something?
//end grammar nazi rant
Ok, now as far as XBOX's outselling PS2's, it's probably because everybody already has a PS2 already. I dont have specific numbers but I think the PS2 has sold some 7 million consoles worldwide, the XBOX has sold a little over 1 million (this is from memory and is probably outdated/wrong information, please correct me if I'm wrong). Also the last figures I had seen, in Japan the XBOX was being outsold by the Wonderswan Crystal -- a dead system. Plus the fact that Microsoft has lost billions of dollars on the XBOX isn't too healthy either.
As far as XBOX 2 and PS3 are concerned they haven't even been officially announced, let alone given set release dates (which by all means could slip -- look at Longhorn), how can you say that XBOX 2 will be out before the PS3? All indications would point to that, but it isn't certain.
Don't worry. Microsoft will roll out a handheld later this year that has a 600 MHz processor, 128 MB RAM, and all sorts of other shit that they claim will make it excellent for gaming and business.
Then they will go the way of Tapwave, which did the exact same thing a couple of years ago with Palm OS and attracted no interest.
For more information, click here.
Wasn't the dreamcast launched a full year before the ps2 (september 1999 vs. october 2000) and didn't they get crushed?
Being first to market isn't always good
He was comparing the iPod to the Sony Network Walkman, which plays music files off an internal hard disk. The Network Walkman has failed to grab any market- or mindshare from the iPod in North America.
For more information, click here.
Walkman 80's tech (it's a tape player)... You should be comparing iPod to mini-disc player
In the UK at least Sony markets portable CD, MiniDisc, Flash and Hard Disk players as Walkman, it's there name for all portable music devices. So he was probably comparing iPod with Sony's more modern offerings under the brand. I'm not sure if you can even get cassette based ones anymore.
I'm not sure if the iPod is outselling the entire Walkman range, but I think it outsells the flash and hard disk models (and everyone else's too, probably), mostly because of Sony's stupid decision not to support MP3s, only ATRAC in the early models.
10 PRINT "LOOK AROUND YOU ";
20 GOTO 10
I wonder if anyone else sees a paralell between the Xbox and the Dreamcast. A small amount of really good games, great hackability, never quite lived up to their potential...?
-- I have fans? Wow.
first of all, it's XBOX (or perhaps, if you like, xbox), not xBox -- what did you smoke too much nVidia or ATi crack or something?
;-)
How come Microsoft use Xbox as the 'spelling' on their website then?
10 PRINT "LOOK AROUND YOU ";
20 GOTO 10
Being first to market for a company on the edge isn't always good.
Microsoft isn't Sega.
I would blame clippy "auto-correcting" it all the time. That or the XBox was designed by the VB guys that don't like camelCase.
In Republican America phones tap you.
Possible sales figures.
PS 2 - 59,990,000
XBOX - 9,400,000
I still believe that the XBOX is the superior platform. Stronger set of features, better options all around, but projected sales figures show that hype and spin won out in the end.
Who is going to send a PSP back to Sony? That person should just write a letter to the FBI saying "I am a software pirate". I would just sell the parts on Ebay if I ruined my PSP on pirated software. Better to cut my loses than get my PSP returned personally by the police.
I think the PS2 has sold some 7 million consoles worldwide
Slightly more. 80 million as of Dec 2004.
I beg to differ. They attracted a great amount of interest (at least from me) just no principal ($).
SYS 64738 NO CARRIER
Xboxes outselling PS2s
You really think there are more XBoxes in the world then PS2s.
He was refering to month to month sales for the past few months. In other words, he was saying that the Xbox is currently outselling the PS2. In the November / December Christmas season, the Xbox sold about 1.5 million units, compared to 1.3 million PS2s [this may be do to shortages of the new mini PStwo, but it is still fact]. The PS2 still has a much larger installed base, though [well over 60% of all current-gen consoles]
The unofficial
It's reasonable to say that xBox systems outsold PS2 systems in the last quarter, but that's hardware sales. You know, where both companies lose money. MS loses more money per unit than Sony, although I lack the actual figures to determine who that puts ahead.
That said, try comparing Q4-2004 software sales. I suspect that, with both GTA: San Andreas and Metal Gear Solid 3 on its side, the PS2 pulls out a heavy lead over the xBox's Halo 2. All of which has null/void to do with the Playstation Portable.
Happiness is relative, Based upon the way we live.
A search for the "Sony PSP" on amazon.com reveals the Nintendo DS and even the 1GB iPod Shuffle just released by Apple.
No expectant release date in the US? Or can I simply not find it at all on Amazon's website?
Informatus Technologicus
I'm not even a fan of Sony, but you need some correction.
xBoxes outselling PS2s
Yes... because everyone who wanted a PS2 has one. They had that extra year, remember? What's the total install base for each system? Oh, yeah:
Sony, 74 million.
Microsoft, 17.5 million (15 as of July, estimated 5 in next year)
xBox 2 outbefore PS3
As above, it's useful if the games are there, and if they're compelling. They need a "killer app" for Xbox 2... the only game to get for the first year on the Xbox was Halo, and there's talk of a "Halo 2.5" for the Xbox 2. Depending on how you want to spin it, it's either desperation for a real hit, or a clever way to get people to migrate.
iPod KILLING the Walkman
Ayup. Most of that has been due to the MP3 restriction on previous Sony devices, brought on by the "content" division of Sony.
PSP getting barely any positive press compared to excellent reviews of the Nintendo DS.
Hate to say this, but that's because it's barely out. Is it even available stateside yet? Once it comes out, provided the games are there, I think it'll sell a lot. IF they do things right, it could be a winner - an MP3 player, a Video player, and a videogame console. A nice hat trick.
Unless Sony has some newer tricks, it might falter a bit. But between the PS2, the PSP, and the other divisions, they still have some life left.
"Sometimes a woman is a kind of religion, she can save your soul & set you free from all your sins" - Bad Examples
XBoxes outselling PS2s? Hmmm, it couldn't be because the PS2 installed base is so large that there aren't many more people to sell to.
XBox 2 before PS3? Clearly the PS3 is doomed, just like the Sega Dreamcast doomed the PS2.
The iPod is killing the Walkman? A clear sign of doom. Hey, I heard that the iPod is also killing 8-tracks! The end of the world is nigh!
And of course, the PSP's failure is the key. Sure, Sony has managed to exist all of these years without a portable system, yet suddenly it's absolutely critical and proof that they're doomed.
We'll see where we are in a year or two, but I'm confident that Sony will be alive and well. Sony will remain profitable. In a worst realistic case scenario Sony might fall to second place in total installed base, but even then it would be a close race.
Search 2010 Gen Con events
sarcasm:
/sarcasm
Oh yes young man you will definetily be heavily flammed Here In SLASHDOT for talking trash about Sony and/or MS and defending nintendo! Oh boy you are in trouble!
XBOX outselling PS2 . I wish that was true, the xbox salesmarks are not even close to those of the ps2 by several millions. The xbox is STILL number 3 in sales in Japan.
xbox2 most probably will be announced/ released at the same time that the ps3, (along with nintendo's "big surprise" tm. ) besides getting to the market first means crap, no actual advantage comes from it.(actually it means its technology will get older first)
Ipod killing the walkman? what planet are you from ? cheap $20-$40 mp3 players are beating walkmans not freaking $300 iPods!
Er... mr. genius there are no "reviews" about the PSP because it hasnt been released yet. (it would be a different history if you look for JAPANESE reviews) and I dont want to rain in your parade, the DS itself may have had some good reviews but the games definetily did not, check gamerankings.com the DS sales last christmas werent that "spectacular" either (the gba did pretty well though)
And by the way, forget "flame away" finish your post with:
GO ahead MOD my day!
Go ahead MOD my day!
More opinions here
XBOX - 9,400,000
You are aware that you are citing stats that are about 18 months old, right?
After 3 days without programming, life becomes meaningless
- The Tao of Programming
I think that the Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast, 3DO, and Jaguar have all shown fairly solidly that being the first to market is not the way to win the market in the video games industry. In fact, it would appear that it's a pretty well-established way to not win the market.
If you read (not even the article) the headline. It clearly reads "leaked" in other words "warez'ed" in other words "pirated" in other words "It could have been a damn virus destroying the entire PSP but these people were stupid enough to put it in!" Im surprised sony is actually helping those guys who obviously used pirated software in their machine.
I mean, if you illegally download longhorn (or whatever is called) and it destroys your machine (which is pretty probable) can you go to MS and tell them to fix it?! I dont think so! Can you go to ID and complaint about your leaked Doom3 beta not working? Sure! rigth before being taken to jail that is!
Sony fixing the problem its a good point for them. NOT bad. Im glad they are charging these silly pirates to do it.
Im modding the article as -1 Flamebait and Troll.
Go ahead MOD my day!
Go ahead MOD my day!
More opinions here
Precisely what the HELL was the guy(s) who modded this one up on, anyway?
.
Precisely for the same reason you were modded off topic my friend.
I wonder if theres a store selling fanboy pesticide open at this hour? we could certainly use some here.
I certainly hope Nintendo wont ever die... if that happens we would have half of our posters commiting senpukku
go ahead MOD my day!
Go ahead MOD my day!
More opinions here
Not quite. The Wonderswan Crystal wasn't outselling the ol' Box, the XBox was only doubling the sales of the WSC. Which, all tolled amounted to about 36K.
Netjak.com independent reviews of domestic & import video ga
"PSP getting barely any positive press compared to excellent reviews of the Nintendo DS."
;)
The first three points were reasonable, but I've observed tons of positive reviews for both portables. Also, Sony's a big company. Don't expect them to be gone tommorow
"When the atomic bomb goes off there's devastation...but when the atomic bong goes off there's celebraaaaation!"
The Xbox is not outselling the PS2. It's outselling it RIGHT NOW because virtually everybody already has a PS2 who wants one. This late in the game, if you don't have one, you don't want or can't afford one, or something is stopping you from buying one somehow.
The Xbox, on the other hand, didn't sell all that well ever, especially compared to the PS2. Lots of people don't have them, and are still buying them.
You're also forgetting the fact that Sony is an IMMENSE corporation. All the products you've mentioned could fail horribly (too late for the PS2 to fail, but plenty of time for the PSP and even more for the PS3), and Sony's not going anywhere.
Dammit! It's NOT Xbox it was supposed to be xBoX but then they changed it to XboX for that nifty "2 capital X factor" but then marketing said that "X" shouldn't be overemphasised as while Gen X might like it Gen Y might not, in which case it was briefly called the XboY or the YboX, the first smacked of Nintendo and the second sounded like too many extra chromosomes - SO it was switched to xBOx until someone noticed that it made the console look like it might smell bad - finally it was changed to a non-ASCII symbol and referred to as "the console formally known as Xbox(XboX, xBOx, XBOX, YboX, XboY).
Splunge!
Sometimes my arms bend back.
True genius is grasping a situation like a peice of fruit, and peircing it just right so that it drains dry.
Huh?
Last time I heard it, PlayStation sales (most game licensing profts) are about 50%-60% of Sony's bottom line.
It's the PS2 that's keeping them afloat.
Political correctness is the newest form of slavery.
I looked at the Japanese pages where they had pictures of the update program.
I couldn't believe that it asked you to agree with the licence before it did the update!
READY.
PRINT ""+-0
Sony loaded it to their ftp download servers, most likely for testing purposes.
Some enterprising individuals figured out how the PSP locates these updates, and were able to use that information to locate this file.
They then downloaded this file and proceeded to experiment.
There were two primary classes of these individuals:
a. Schmucks who thought they were cool for getting in on some cool new app early and immediately installed it.
b. More intelligent folx who realized what they had, understood the risks involved, and accepted the fact in advance that they might royally screw their PSP. These people, those who installed it, were more interested in learning all of the ins and outs of that file.
Now, I happen to know 2 people of the latter kind who destroyed their PSP. They didn't complain or whine, but they were quite depressed with the result. They did no warezing nor would they, as the concept of warezing is rather obscene to them.
They DID check around to see if Sony would do something, since well, Sony has to have a way to handle bad firmware updates when real ones get released anyway. There was no expectation that Sony WOULD do something, but hey, one has to try, right ?
But to say the software was stolen is a bit incorrect. It was placed up on accessible servers for distribution onto the internet, and was accessible without any special security to prevent the downloads. It was merely not visible nor readily available to anyone who would expect any official release - only people determined to look for unofficial releases could find it.
Having said that, I say clearly my strong belief that Sony is not culpable in this regard. The only people capable of finding it were the two I described above, and neither had any right to expect any better result than what had happened. The responsibility for their actions are their own, not Sony's.
Indeed, it is quite kind of Sony to offer to repair these units. Given that this is a service Sony needs to offer anyhow for when REAL updates come out, Sony gets some early practice at repair.
I praise Sony, for releasing a fantastic product (it really is) and for being willing to fix a problem that was not their fault (albeit, for a fee, which should not begrudged to them).
But you forgot...
in 2003 PS2 outsell xbox
in 2002 PS2 outsell xbox
in 2001 PS2 outsell xbox
in 2000 PS2 outsell xbox
Sony-haters need to know when the war is over. It doesn't matter if Xbox reign supreme now, it's too late. The focus is already in the next generation.
False, it was placed on a server that PSP is NOT programmed to access. YOU have to program YOUR DNS to point to the other server. PSP does NOT access the site on its own, YOU force it to by spoof attacking it. It's not Sony's fault YOU pointed YOUR DNS at the wrong site.
TechniMyoko-san,
I think you misunderstood much of what I said.
I said that it required special effort to find this update. I also said it was the responsibility of the person who downloaded it. I did not blame Sony. I said very clearly, it is not Sony's fault. In fact, I said very nice things about Sony, and I blamed the people who downloaded it.
If you read my message, I say the same thing that you say, but with less technical detail, and less emotion.
an MP3 player, a Video player, and a videogame console. A nice hat trick.
Since you must put the videos and MP3s on a MemoryStick first, I'm not sure the hat trick will be so nice. I got a Clie recently, and so far I've gone through 2 MSs that will read just fine in the Clie, but won't read at all in Windows, whether by PCMCIA drive, or Clie->cradle->USB connection. The only way I can get it to work is cradling it, then loading up fdisk on the drive so Linux knows that it has a partition on it.
Not to mention the fact that there are MagicGate and non-MagicGate sticks, which may or may not be able to be used with certain MemoryStick drives. It just seems to me that those things are too much trouble to begin with to make many PSP users worry about getting it to work.
It's like sex, except I'm having it!
The Genesis did pretty well, it led the 16-bit generation by a fair margin until, if I remember correctly (and I may very well not) about two years into the SNES' release, and it was still competitive for a while after. It was the last recorded incidence of two consoles sharing the market without one shutting the other out, more or less.
Remember, the proper way to spell Xbox is "XBOX." Always to remember to spell Xbox like "XBOX." Never spell Xbox like this: "Xbox."
Always, always, spell Xbox correctly.
----
In other words, I'll decide for myself how to capitalize some lame corporation's product, their marketing and trademark departments be damned.
and I dont want to rain in your parade, the DS itself may have had some good reviews but the games definetily did not, check gamerankings.com the DS sales last christmas werent that "spectacular" either (the gba did pretty well though)
The DS did pretty well actually, it just didn't match the GBA's perennial great sales.
As for whether the games were good or not, I'll decide for myself -- sites like gamerankings, which function as aggregators of scores from other review places, are thus notoriously succeptable to the failings of those sources, such as grade inflation to receive first look at a title and groupthink. Much has already been said around these parts of the foibles of game magazine reviews.
That said, Mario 64 DS got 88%, which is not bad.
Turbo-Grafx 16 came out a long time before the Genesis, and was an 8-bit system. Only the graphics hardware was 16-bit.
Genesis ... SNES'... It was the last recorded incidence of two consoles sharing the market without one shutting the other out, more or less.
The last recorded incidence? What about, for example, now? Or do you not think that XBox, PS2 and Gamecube are sharing the market?
Not to mention the N64 and original playstation in the last generation (though I guess you would say PS shut nintendo out there).
Unless you actually meant first recorded incidence, in which case you might have a valid point (but even then you've got to deal with Atari vs. Intellivision in the early days of consoles - see this site fora quick summary of most of the early console wars).
I would argue that Sony's offer of repair services would be generous only if it was for free. With a fee, it's merely fair; the leak itself was mostly Sony's fault, so offering repairs to people who screwed up their PSPs with this patch would only be expected.
Rob (One would hope that Sony puts at least some of that money towards getting better security)
I do disagree the leak is mostly Sony's fault. The file was only able to be located by people who explicitly searched in non-standard locations as a result of examining how the PSP performs its updates. These people looked specifically for files that would be considered "unreleased".
:) But anyone else is simply out of their element and still must take responsibility for their action.
Leaked or not, the file was obviously pre-release and of unknown quality/status. As a firmware update, this is especially dangerous. People who understand the nature of firmware updates in general excercise extreme caution (as the two I mentioned who destroyed their PSPs anyway in the name of science
Full disclaimer: I am one of those who ended up with a "brick". I took this action knowing full well in advance I could end up with a brick. I do not hold Sony in any way responsible for my brick. Neither was I expecting the software to do as advertised or anything at all other than wanting to observe how the PSP dealt with the file.
Still there is no way that the Xbox sold 50 million units in 18 months; I would be surprised if it went past 20 million (total) in 18 months. Sony has probably sold a bit more because of the slimmer version of the PS2.
I'm f#$king magic!
The last recorded incidence? What about, for example, now? Or do you not think that XBox, PS2 and Gamecube are sharing the market?
The sheer difference of scale here, with Sony so dominating the console video game landscape, that's what I'm referring to as a shut-out. It's just not competitive.
ah, ok. *Appologizes and runs off*
I do disagree the leak is mostly Sony's fault. The file was only able to be located by people who explicitly searched in non-standard locations as a result of examining how the PSP performs its updates. These people looked specifically for files that would be considered "unreleased".
And how hard would it have been for Sony to put these files in a place that's not accessible to the PSP, or to the general public for that matter?
Rob
Very easy, considering that the place there were, was *not* accessible to the PSP's *or* the general public.
In order to access the file, one had to sniff a normal http transaction between the PSP and the servers to find what types of files it looked for. Then one had to modify strings to suggest obvious alternate servers and paths, using a normal web browser to download the files.
These files then could be later transferred to the PSP by two methods: using your PC to spoof a Sony server to the PSP, *or* simply copy the file to the memory card in a specific directory.
As I said, one had to work very hard to get these files. They were available, but *not* easily accessible (as in hidden out of sight, but not secured) to normal people.
the XbOx (xbOX,xBOx,etc.) is a better system because the ps2 was out a year, year and a half before the xbox was released... which is eons in console terms... therefore better hardware. If I was Microsoft I would be wary of rushing a next generation console, and risk being trumped by the competitions better hardware. Sony already has the software support, if they had better hardware than the competition, it would not be a good thing for Microsoft.
"I'm in it to win it, and no limit is my home." - Snoop Dog c/o PvP Online (July 12th, 2006)