Hot Shots Tennis and MotorStorm: Arctic Edge 'Suspended' from PlayStation Network Because of Hacking Issues

"It was as if, like, maybe a hundred or so Hot Shots Tennis fans cried out and were suddenly silenced."

simply wonderful.

I'll post a bit more information here what actually happened so people are a bit better informed. Specifically, a blog issued a series of instructions on how to release half byte loader on the the Playstation Vita, so if you were following the blog and acted quickly, you could download the game (in my case, Motorstorm Arctic Edge) which would run a save game exploit that let you boot into the Half byte OS, the same that works on a PSP Go. This does not allow for loading of Iso's, but it does allow you to run a gameboy emulator, for instance, which is a great retro experience on that OLED screen. The exploit can no longer be used obviously (unless you already have the appropriate digital versions on your machine already), and people are furious because they bought the game, only to have it pulled out of their downloads list before they got a chance to get it, I believe that is a first, but could be wrong

I love that the mere fact that I was amused thinking of the possibility of some Hot Shots Golf fan being totally destroyed by it not being on the PSN store and making a hyberbolic crack about it has somehow been twisted into me defending Sony for fucking the consumer and devolved into people mocking the shape of my head.

Never change, Giant Bomb community. Never, ever change.

@Scrumdidlyumptious said:

It's only Half-Byte Loader. Sony is overreacting a bit. It's understandable, but HBL is harmless and probably won't open the Vita up that much.

Yeah, maybe an overreaction, but let's face it, the kid who got bullied in school is probably going to be a bit cautious when out in the world. Sony got FUCKED by piracy on the PSP, and the PSN outage last year probably didn't do anything to help their paranoia levels.

@MmaFanQc said:

@TruthTellah:

BTW, nothing bad has happened yet. Preventative measures = good thing.

Pretty much. As Ben Franklin said, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Considering there wasn't enough cure for the PSP, they're going to be heaping prevention on the Vita.

Dammit... Sony's quite reasonable to do this - you have to be fast and absolute in snuffing out exploits or your system may be cracked wide open. The hackers are reasonable to look for exploits - the system's capable of a lot, and it's awesome to unlock that. But consumers get caught in the middle and it often leads to everyone putting up with fewer features...

It's only Half-Byte Loader. Sony is overreacting a bit. It's understandable, but HBL is harmless and probably won't open the Vita up that much.

If only you could turn snark into a consumable object and sell it, Alex Navarro.
 
Because I would buy it. I would buy it so hard. You see this medal!? I did this for you.

I bought a racing game once. I say bought. It came with my Xbox. I even tried it. Don't get the allure of driving round and round. It's only slightly more entertaining than watching someone else racing. Strap some guns on though....man Rollcage is great.

@MmaFanQc: heh. You misunderstand. We're in agreement. My comment was a joke. "Oh no, the Vita is going to be just like the PSP, extremely successful". The point is mocking the idea of declaring doom and gloom for it by comparing it to the PSP, as the PSP actually did amazingly well.

Arctic Edge is actually pretty good. But yeah, despite the PSP being the Iphone of hacks, it really lost Sony a lot of money. Hopefully it won't happen again.

I know you say "as of today", and that may be true of Hot Shots Tennis, but Motorstorm: Arctic Edge was pulled a while ago. I learned of it when Motorstorm RC came out and I got an itch to play Arctic Edge again. It's gone from the store, from my Download History, from any place I could possibly download it. Very pissed.

Alex is about as funny as rug burn.

I think my point was taken too literally, I was using hypothetical situations, I know steam couldn't literally go bankrupt tomorrow, but thanks for spending the time clearing that up.

The point I was trying to make was that the problem with digital downloads are that they are controlled by the provider for all access not by the people who buy them.

It may be a small fanbase for both games but this is a shocking precedent. And the height of anti-consumerism. Alex normally I like you but your attitude here is sad and unprofessional. Sony took games off the store without any warning and you have no option to re-download them and there is no ETA for when paying customers will be given the right to download content that they have already purchased again. One would wonder if they would have pulled a game like God of War: Chains of Olympus at the peak of its popularity if some exploit was found for it that enabled homebrew.

@Brodehouse said:

@gladspooky

@BisonHero said:

@gladspooky said:

Not really sure why Alex is defending Sony's decision so staunchly. Like, the way the article's written, you can tell he thought, "Well, people might criticize Sony for removing these games, so I better nip that in the bud right there in the article so they can't complain about it."

How is he defending Sony's decision at all? I read it more as "Here's what Sony did, now allow me to mock the small fanbase of Hot Shots Tennis and MotorStorm."

"Well, people might criticize Sony for removing these games, so I better nip that in the bud right there in the article so they can't complain about it."

"I hope whatever I say in this stupid Hot Shots article about stupid Hot Shots makes some people on the internet mad. It's called Everybody's Golf in Europe. Is that like 'Everybody Is Golf'? I should post more articles with snarky headlines. My head is kind of shaped like a peanut, but that's okay. I should grow my hair long like Nic Cage in the 80s."

Or that. That's pretty good, too.

@BisonHero said:

@gladspooky said:

Not really sure why Alex is defending Sony's decision so staunchly. Like, the way the article's written, you can tell he thought, "Well, people might criticize Sony for removing these games, so I better nip that in the bud right there in the article so they can't complain about it."

How is he defending Sony's decision at all? I read it more as "Here's what Sony did, now allow me to mock the small fanbase of Hot Shots Tennis and MotorStorm."

"Well, people might criticize Sony for removing these games, so I better nip that in the bud right there in the article so they can't complain about it."

@BisonHero said:

@gladspooky said:

Not really sure why Alex is defending Sony's decision so staunchly. Like, the way the article's written, you can tell he thought, "Well, people might criticize Sony for removing these games, so I better nip that in the bud right there in the article so they can't complain about it."

How is he defending Sony's decision at all? I read it more as "Here's what Sony did, now allow me to mock the small fanbase of Hot Shots Tennis and MotorStorm."

"Well, people might criticize Sony for removing these games, so I better nip that in the bud right there in the article so they can't complain about it."

@kerikxi You say piracy has no impact on hardware sales? Piracy = Less software development = Less hardware sales. I don't disagree that piracy has obstructed psp software sales in the west. i disagree with the summation that the psp has bombed and or is dead. I wouldn't call dominating a major world market a "fall".

@gladspooky said:

Not really sure why Alex is defending Sony's decision so staunchly. Like, the way the article's written, you can tell he thought, "Well, people might criticize Sony for removing these games, so I better nip that in the bud right there in the article so they can't complain about it."

How is he defending Sony's decision at all? I read it more as "Here's what Sony did, now allow me to mock the small fanbase of Hot Shots Tennis and MotorStorm."

Hey, fuck you too, Mr. Navarro.

Not really sure why Alex is defending Sony's decision so staunchly. Like, the way the article's written, you can tell he thought, "Well, people might criticize Sony for removing these games, so I better nip that in the bud right there in the article so they can't complain about it."

Also I like how he makes a crack about how few Hot Shots Golf fans there are and then goes on to blame homebrew enthusiasts of leading to the downfall of the PSP, as if there are thousands and thousands of homebrew enthusiasts out there and not just twelve guys porting the same four emulators to everything. And if there were more homebrew enthusiasts than Hot Shot Golf fans, Sony would be making one of those cheap Korean emulation machines instead of pouring millions of dollars into a dead market. But they aren't.

I find this article to be a paradigm of understated humour.

It's so good to have Alex and his 400% "sarcastic ass" style of writing here on Giantbomb! I will miss him on Screened, but the guy is always welcome here ;)

@Phyrlord said:

"Steam could go bankrupt tomorrow if they so chose and peoples $$$ worth of games are dust in the wind. I'm sure people have entire game collections of 100+ games that could be gone tomorrow if the company so chose."

I uhm, I don't think that's quite how Bankruptcy works. You kinda have to be massively in-debt to declare it. And Valve is one of the most profitable and self-sufficent companies in history.

lol, subtitle

Silly hackers ruining things for everyone as usual.

Hope Artic Edge returns soon, I want to buy it on my Vita for no other reason than I love me some Motorstorm and never had a PSP. They need to patch that up and get it back on the store.

@hughesman: Piracy has no impact on hardware sales, if anything it would encourage them. That's also not where the profit is made. Software sales is the actual issue.

Why do people miss the fact that all those exploits work in PSP mode? Vita is still safe you guys.

@TruthTellah:

how about at least waiting a full year after its release before speculating like a bunch of clueless childs?

BTW, nothing bad has happened yet. Preventative measures = good thing.

the 3ds can play NDS .roms..... OMG ITS SOOOOO DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMD!!!! (....)

@Alex Actually, Everybody's Tennis is a translation of the Japanese name of the game, "Minna no Tennis."

@TruthTellah said:

So sad... the Vita is doomed to the same pitiful state as the PSP... only selling millions upon millions of units and basically ruling an entire country's videogame market for years... sad...

I don't know, the PSP's fate would suck for the Vita. Let's not forget that piracy killed that system dead outside Japan.

So sad... the Vita is doomed to the same pitiful state as the PSP... only selling millions upon millions of units and basically ruling an entire country's videogame market for years... sad...

@hughesman said:

"After all, homebrew downloaders lent a good bit toward the eventual downfall of the PSP"..... I have never really understood this general attitude towards the psp. Hasn't the psp sold more than 70 million units? Thats a good 15 or so million more than the 360 or ps3 has sold so far right? And last i heard, the psp was outselling most other platforms in japan, including the vita.

PSP game sales dropped off a cliff outside of Japan a few years ago.

"After all, homebrew downloaders lent a good bit toward the eventual downfall of the PSP"..... I have never really understood this general attitude towards the psp. Hasn't the psp sold more than 70 million units? Thats a good 15 or so million more than the 360 or ps3 has sold so far right? And last i heard, the psp was outselling most other platforms in japan, including the vita.

@pw2566ch said:

@buzz_killington said:

So Vita's doomed to the same fate as PSP then, if they found an exploit this early on...

They found exploits even before the Vita was released in the US. So, yes. I would have to agree with you.

There have been no Vita exploits found yet. Just PSP exploits that work on Vita. It's the same as 3DS, where DS hacks still work on the DS emulator.

This is a good, sound take on this piece of news and is dressed up nicely with your usual flair, Alex. Thanks for posting, duder.

The exploits found only affect the PSP Emulation and don't access the Vita Kernel at all. System itself still isn't hacked, all you can run are old PSP homebrew apps.

I love you Alex.

Damn it! hmm... i wonder if those cannibal, meth bikers i hung out with during the psn outage are still around.

@Phyrlord said:

@grbear

Steam could go bankrupt tomorrow if they so chose and peoples $$$ worth of games are dust in the wind. I'm sure people have entire game collections of 100+ games that could be gone tomorrow if the company so chose.

That's not entirely true about Steam. Yes, they could decide to close shop tomorrow. However, I'm sure they're a good enough company that they will allow people a timetable to download all of their games before they shut it down. I have a 1TB hard drive set aside for that just in case. Like hell I'm going to lose out on my almost 300 Steam games.

What about when they find an exploit in a major release game?

@buzz_killington said:

So Vita's doomed to the same fate as PSP then, if they found an exploit this early on...

They found exploits even before the Vita was released in the US. So, yes. I would have to agree with you.

Cynicism so thick you could cut it with a knife. Nice job, Alex.

Oh Mr. Navarro, you so crazy!

@grbear

Yes, unfortunately one of the trade offs that digital downloads has is that once a company doesn't host the content, say good bye to it. It's a underlying realization that seems to be blurred by the Internets growing sense of entitlement.

Steam could go bankrupt tomorrow if they so chose and peoples $$$ worth of games are dust in the wind. I'm sure people have entire game collections of 100+ games that could be gone tomorrow if the company so chose.

Have I mentioned how much I love you before Alex? Not even my deeply ingrained Sony fanboy-ness can stop me enjoying this read :)

Oh god that last bit about the Triad and meth heads was brilliant.