Item — HN Reader

> I had only like one game which I never really played but instead I spent hours writing mini games and setting up communication between the PSP and a PC, using it as remote control and whatnot.

And that's exactly why manufacturers go to such lengths to prevent people from hacking on their consoles. With the way they are priced, and depending on when you bought that PSP, it may have cost Sony money if you didn't buy any games for it.

2 comments

What length exactly? Both Sony and MS released, at some point, SDKs that could use a retail unit for development [1,2,3,4] so I am not sure this is exactly why.

1.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Mobile

2.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_for_PlayStation_2

3.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OtherOS

4.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_XNA

And don't forget the Net Yaroze[0]! Sony was embracing tinkerers all the way back in 1997

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_Yaroze

I did not include Yaroze since it required a special PSX.

> And that's exactly why manufacturers go to such lengths to prevent people from hacking on their consoles. With the way they are priced, and depending on when you bought that PSP, it may have cost Sony money if you didn't buy any games for it.

There is this revolutionary business idea of selling stuff at profit. Cross subsidizing always bites you in the ass. Loss leaders too.